Latest news with #AleesiaJohnson
Indianapolis Star
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
IPS seeks parent nominations for new facilities, transportation advisory alliance
IPS parents are asked to nominate members for the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance (ILEA), which will oversee changes to school buildings and transportation. IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson addressed what changes are likely to come due to the legislative session and its financial impact on the district, including a $14 million loss due to Senate Bill 1. Indianapolis Public Schools parents are being asked to send in their nominations for who they would like to serve on the new Indianapolis Local Education Alliance (ILEA), which will help design upcoming major changes to how the district uses its school buildings and transportation. The district is also asking parents to fill out a transportation survey that asks what matters most when considering how their child gets to school every day. IPS's Superintendent Aleesia Johnson sent out a video update to parents this week about the district's future and the outcomes of this year's legislative session on the district. This new alliance was created with the final version of House Bill 1515, which creates a nine-member group that could make consequential decisions on how the district uses its buildings and transportation. The group requires Johnson to nominate one parent who has a child in an IPS innovation network charter school and one parent who has a child in an IPS-directly managed school. The district is asking parents to fill out the online form by midnight on Sunday, May 11, 2025, to be considered. The other seven members of the group will include: Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, or a designee. Mayor Joe Hogsett, or a designee. Four members are appointed by Hogsett, one of whom must be a representative of business. One member appointed by the IPS School board president. The member appointed by the board president must live within the IPS district boundary. The district said that parents should expect to dedicate around five hours each month from June to December to work on the committee. The alliance is required to file its final report and recommendations by Dec. 31, 2025. The group has until July 1, 2025, to hold its first meeting. What work is the ILEA charged to do? The group will work to conduct a facility assessment on all the schools within IPS's boundaries, including traditional and charter campuses. It will then make recommendations regarding school facility 'structural changes,' as well as come up with a process of approving or denying future capital referendum requests. It will also create a template for revenue-sharing agreements between IPS and its charter school partners. The ILEA must also create methods on how the district can increase collaboration with governmental entities, community organizations or local nonprofits on how to transform school facilities into 'broader community assets for residents.' The group is meant to create a transportation implementation plan that would consider how to best serve all the district's students, in charter and district-run schools. To best understand parents' needs around transportation, the district is asking families to fill out an online 10-minute survey about transportation. However, during the legislature's last remaining hours of session, lawmakers added language to the bill that allows the ILEA to not be subject to Indiana's Open Door Law, which gives members of the public the right to attend meetings of governing bodies or public agencies. The bill's author, Rep. Bill Behning, R-Indianapolis, said that language was included at the request of Mayor Joe Hogsett, and that the group can decide for themselves if they want the meetings open to the public. The ILEA's final meeting, where the members will vote on a final proposal, is required to be a public meeting. The fallout of the 2025 session on IPS Johnson also admitted in her video update that this legislative session was an 'incredibly rocky and difficult' one, but thanked IPS parents and community members for coming out and speaking on behalf of the district. She said thanks to parents and community member testimony, two bills were ultimately stopped, one that would have converted all of IPS's schools into charter schools and another that would have taken away complete control over the district's facilities and transportation. However, the district must now deal with the ramifications of Senate Bill 1, which not only reduces the amount of property tax revenue IPS will see in the next three years, but also starting in 2028 will send more of the district's property tax dollars to charter schools. More on SB 1 impact: The Indiana House passed a complex property tax bill. Here are the biggest winners and losers 'So in other words, not only does this bill shrink the overall pie of funding by decreasing revenue, it then creates a win-lose framework that incentivizes intense competition among schools over an even smaller funding pie,' Johnson said in the video. Over the next three years, IPS is expected to lose out on around $14 million in property tax revenue due to SB 1. Johnson went on to say that despite these large, looming cuts to funding, the district will aim to minimize disruptions in students' learning and does not expect any immediate impacts to school operations for the 2025-26 school year. 'We will vigorously pursue savings and cost reduction opportunities, but we will do so while keeping stability for students and families at the forefront,' Johnson said. Johnson also announced that the district will be holding a series of town halls in the coming weeks to better explain to parents the upcoming impacts of this year's legislation. Dates for those town halls will be announced soon. Families can find both the parent nomination form and the transportation survey form at
Axios
22-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
IPS navigates budget uncertainty during enrollment window
Indianapolis Public Schools is facing millions in budget cuts and an uncertain future. Why it matters: Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said IPS is facing "a long-term challenge" from legislation passed this year that cuts property taxes and forces traditional school districts to share property tax dollars with charter schools. Analysis of earlier versions of the charter school-sharing language raised fears that IPS would face school closures and staff layoffs, but an IPS spokesperson told Axios the district is still working to understand the latest version that was signed into law last week by Gov. Mike Braun. State of play: The property tax reform in Senate Enrolled Act 1 will strip roughly $15 million from IPS over the next three years and more cuts could be coming. While schools get some funding from property taxes, the vast majority comes from the school funding formula in the state's two-year budget. The current version of the budget proposes annual 2% increases for K–12 schools, but lawmakers found out last week that they need to cut a staggering $2 billion from that spending plan. Between the lines: Statehouse leaders have said K–12 education will be the last place they look to make cuts, but schools are the single largest expense, making up nearly half of the state budget. Threat level: This is the first full year of Rebuilding Stronger, IPS' K–8 overhaul aimed at making school assignment and choice more equitable and high-quality academic programming more accessible. Cuts to funding could force IPS to scale back on planned expansions to academic paths, arts, music, team sports, foreign languages and facility improvements. While the work included in the 2023 capital projects referendum won't be impacted, smaller projects across the district could be cut. Zoom in: The uncertainty comes at a challenging time in the calendar: the middle of the enrollment process. While the most impactful parts of SEA 1 won't take effect for several years, families may start looking for school options with less uncertainty in their futures. "We know that we have many families looking forward to and making decisions for next school year," Johnson said in a message to families sent during the weekend. "Our schools have so many exciting opportunities, and we encourage you to explore those as you are making your decisions."
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
I joined the IPS board amid charter school fights. Here's how we move forward.
It is our role on the board of commissioners to serve as the governing system for providing a free, public education in grades K-12 for children within the boundaries of the Indianapolis Public School Corp. We newbies were sworn in Jan. 7, a day that will be forever etched in my mind. Not because it was a day of joy and excitement, but because it marked the day of division about school types, and a fight that pitted neighbor against neighbor. An argument that could even possibly cause the largest school district in Indiana to become insolvent. So, I quickly began researching history in hopes of coming up with a solution. Here's where I chose to start. In 2014, our district took a significant step by partnering with charters to protect our lowest-performing schools from state takeover. Charters became the gap filler for our most marginalized children. Each year since, the district earned revenue on the property tax dollars from this initiative. As partnerships expanded over time, we not only gained more high-quality collaborators, but also received more property tax revenue. Briggs: The IPS-charter school fight puts politics over children As we have educated fewer students, we invested in our charter partners through some sharing of property tax dollars, facilities and transportation resources. In 2023, we charged taxpayers for our Rebuilding Stronger plan to fix our city's oldest facilities (which also house some of our charter partners), offer families school zones and provide transportation for all students attending a school in our portfolio. Since IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson's appointment, we've seen an increase in high school graduation rates, unprecedented partnerships with local universities offering automatic admittance to any IPS graduate with a 3.0 GPA and strong community collaborations to support our students. I'm grateful for the work this administration has done to lead the charge for our students. I also recognize that we've yet to figure out an accessible and reliable school transportation system that works for all students within our boundaries. Currently, thousands of public school students lack access to transportation. Every child deserves to be safely transported to and from school — that is a foundational component of a public education. As a commissioner representing all students in our district, I believe to solve these concerns it is important to continue having key conversations with our state lawmakers on the following matters: Increase dollars in public education. The fight for public education is not against each other and which type of school we choose to send our children; the effort should be directed towards legislators, demanding more funding. Our state budget has a surplus of over a billion dollars. Yet, the message is there are not enough dollars to ensure all schools have the resources to educate all children. We can't simply rely on philanthropy — our state needs to invest in public education. Ensuring equity in our transportation services. I've spoken with families who struggle to get their kids to school on time. Some families aren't offered transportation because they live too close to the school, even though it's unsafe for them to walk to school due to high-traffic areas. I also know that some schools are spending over $200,000 of their education budget on transportation, funds that could be invested in teacher pay and curriculum. We need a system that gives everyone the option to receive reliable transportation to and from school. Decision-making remaining local. The district and board propose the establishment of a local advisory board, as outlined in statute, composed of appointed members representing the IPS school board, the charter sector, business and civic leaders, community organizations, families, and students. This advisory board should be responsible for collaboratively designing a coherent educational system that addresses the changes resulting from property tax adjustments. Key priorities must include developing a transportation system that promotes access and efficiency, as well as establishing a governance model that supports aligned decision-making. We grow a lot of things in Indiana and every child deserves to grow up great! Education is the only equalizer to achieve equity. Deandra Thompson is an at-large member of the IPS Board of Commissioners. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IPS, Indiana lawmakers need to talk. Let's move forward. | Opinion
Axios
12-02-2025
- Business
- Axios
Superintendent: IPS would close 20 schools, cut jobs
Indianapolis Public Schools is facing school closures and job cuts if state lawmakers pass proposals to cut property taxes and force revenue sharing with charter schools. Why it matters: The district would face $40 million in losses next year and $80 million by 2028, forcing IPS to close at least 20 schools and cut hundreds of jobs, if two bills passed by a Senate committee on Tuesday become law, superintendent Aleesia Johnson said. Zoom in: Senate Bill 1 would reform the state's property tax system, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from public school budgets statewide. Senate Bill 518 would require school districts to share revenue received from property tax referendums, measures approved by voters to raise taxes above statutory caps, with charter schools. What they're saying:"The dollars will continue to be more and more splintered until every school gets something but no school gets enough to actually provide a high quality service to students," Johnson said. State of play: Lawmakers have been pushing for referendum sharing between traditional public schools and public charter schools for several years. Districts have resisted over concerns about lost revenue and accountability for how those dollars get spent. Unlike traditional districts, charter schools don't have publicly elected boards that answer to voters who pass the referendums. Reality check: IPS agreed in 2021 to start sharing some referendum dollars with the two dozen charter schools it partners with through its innovation network. Those schools would be hurt as well and charter school partnerships may need to be reevaluated if the bills pass in the current form, Johnson said. By the numbers: Approximately 42,000 public school students live within the IPS attendance boundaries, per Johnson. Roughly 31,000 attend a school within the IPS network — either directly run by the district or one of its innovation network schools. Johnson said that 28,000 of those students are supported by referendum dollars — either through transportation services, buildings or technology. With the cuts to revenue from SB 1 and the sharing required by SB 518, "there simply would not be enough to go around," Johnson said. The other side: Charter school advocates say the disparity is unfair and all public schools should be treated and funded equally. "Families who choose charter schools still pay the same property taxes," said Kim Reier, vice president of strategy at the Indiana Charter Innovation Center. "Yet those dollars remain locked in the districts that they no longer attend." What's next: The bills head to the full Senate in the coming days for consideration where it's likely they will pass along party lines, as they did in committee. With a supermajority, Republican-backed initiatives don't need Democratic support.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Gutting our community': Lawmakers advance bill that could close 20 schools, IPS says
Indiana lawmakers advanced a property-tax sharing bill on Tuesday that Indianapolis Public Schools leaders say would require it to close 20 schools, cut funding and lay off staff. But charter schools that would benefit from the legislation say they just want the students who attend their schools to get an equitable piece of the pie in terms of the millions of dollars in property tax revenue that are going to traditional public schools. Senate Bill 518, which would require all traditional public-school districts, including IPS, to share property tax revenue with certain charter schools in their attendance boundaries, passed out of the Indiana Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee on Tuesday along party lines, with all Democrats on the committee voting against the bill. The bill will now move to the Senate floor for consideration. The proposal was part of a flurry of legislation filed by lawmakers this legislative session that would impact IPS, as Republican leadership and some Democrats sought to encourage the district to share more resources with charter schools. The messy debate even spilled over into the Indianapolis City County Council, where a member was ejected from the Democratic caucus over the disagreement. IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said the changes being proposed under Senate Bill 518 and other bills would amount to "gutting our community" by causing a $40 million impact to the district as soon as 2026. That could grow to an $80 million impact by 2028. She said property tax cuts under discussion in Senate Bill 1 would also impact IPS. "This bill would guarantee the closure of at least 20 schools and the elimination of hundreds of jobs in our district," Johnson said. "This bill asks a taxpayer to support a seemingly ever-growing number of schools with no expectation of what they can expect in return." But proponents of SB 518, including charter schools, say it's designed to address a fundamental unfairness in the existing school funding model. They say parents' property tax dollars should follow the child when they choose to attend charter schools instead of traditional districts. "It is simply unacceptable to me that a student who chooses a different public school than the one to which they are geographically assigned should receive thousands less in educational funding annually," said Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger. "I think it's time that a parent who chooses to send their child to a public charter school has their tax dollars following their child and educating their child." More: The bill to dissolve IPS might not move. Are lawmakers using it as a bargaining chip? The bill would impact a variety of school districts beyond IPS and Indianapolis, including the traditional districts in Gary, Anderson, Muncie, South Bend, Hammond, East Chicago, Fort Wayne, Elkhart and Lafayette. The statewide fiscal impact of the bill as approved in committee on Tuesday is currently unclear. The original fiscal analysis prepared for the bill said it would have shifted at least $124 million to charter schools and $435 million to other public schools. However, lawmakers removed a requirement for traditional public-school districts to share property taxes with each other, so the fiscal impact is likely to be different now. In addition, the revenue-sharing rules do not apply to districts where less than 100 students who have legal settlement are choosing to attend charter schools. That limits the scope of the bill and likely removes many rural school districts that don't have charter schools in their footprint. Districts who say they would be hurt by the bill need to "right-size their school corporation for the number of students they are educating," Rogers said. At least 20 people testified on Tuesday about how the bill would directly impact IPS, which collected about $90 million in property taxes overall in 2023. IPS already has to share some of its property-tax revenue with charter schools, but it's currently limited to new revenue. Chelsea Thompson, principal of IPS' William Penn Middle School, said the bill would harm the 6,000 students in work-based learning programs. Thompson called it a "catastrophic budget cut." "Crippling this district cripples the city and cripples your state," Thompson said. "People are in our corner." Several IPS parents said the district is embarking on needed change and reform through its Rebuilding Stronger plan, which has already resulted in closures and reorganization. However, the bill also applies to several other districts throughout Indianapolis and statewide. "We're talking about our entire state," said Speedway resident Megan Bickle. "If charter schools need more money, they need to take that question to the voters and ask it themselves." Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, said other districts than IPS would "absolutely" be impacted, including Washington, Pike, Lawrence and Wayne townships. "Every school is set to lose money under this very low threshold because it is unfairly targeting only one direction of transfers and not the other direction," Qaddoura said. He said, for instance, that while about 300 Washington Township students left the district for charters, about 500 students "transferred the other direction." The bill doesn't account for that, he said. Meanwhile, charter leaders in several areas of the state testified in support, including Jean Hitchcock, executive director of Signature School charter in Evansville. Hitchcock said the school performs wells even though it gets about $2,000 less per student on average than other public schools. "Our teachers are paid less, and we want to build a middle school, but can't because of funding issues," she said. The committee's discussion and testimony was contentious at times, as traditional public-school supporters and charter school advocates clashed. Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, said charter schools weren't as accountable to the public as traditional public schools. "This will be a precedent by which you're giving property taxes to schools with boards that are not elected," Qaddoura said. "So how do you expect not elected folks to manage taxpayer dollars and be held accountable to the same level as elected officials?" But Rogers said charters are held accountable by the authorizers that oversee them. "Very often, if they're not doing what they should, they will actually close that school," Rogers said. "How often do you see a traditional public school close?" Hillary Brown, a member of IPS' parent council, said the proposal "prioritizes politics over responsible funding." "Charter schools often lacked accountability, mismanage funds and leave families in crisis," Brown said. "Meanwhile, our public schools ... will face cuts, closures and layoffs." Charter school advocates pushed back against several claims made at the bill hearing, saying they thought too much focus was being put on school type as opposed to the choices of families. Kim Reier, vice president of strategy for the Indiana Charter School Alliance, said property taxes paid by parents are "locked in the districts that they no longer attend." "You heard claims that this bill would devastate districts or undermine Indianapolis voters who approved a $410 million IPS referendum, but the reality is that families choosing charter schools are seeing their tax dollars held hostage in a system they opted out of," Reier said. Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, said that IPS' property tax revenue has grown substantially over the last several years, but 60% of public-school students within the IPS boundary currently attend a charter school. "All of that money is locked in a school district that serves less than 40% of public-school students," Brown said. However, Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, said that much of the argument was unproductive and a "red herring," saying the real issue is that all public schools are underfunded and being pitted against each other. She called for a conversation about fair funding that doesn't destabilize Indianapolis. "What this bill did was pit neighbor against neighbor," Hunley said. "We are not operating from a place of scarcity. We do not need to pit our community against one another in order to save pennies at the state level. ... What we need to do is zoom out." IndyStar reporter Brittany Carloni contributed to this story. Contact senior government accountability reporter Hayleigh Colombo at hcolombo@ This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana bill to share school property taxes with charters moves ahead
