At the end of this school year, Northwest Indiana schools on their fifth year of academic probation may face state takeover if the schools don't make gains on standardized test scores.
The Indiana State Board of Education is beginning to detail what a state takeover will look like. The options range from the state appointing a manager for the school to the school merging with a higher performing school. The schools could close, or the Indiana Department of Education could make more recommendations for improving the school.
Northwest Indiana has five schools that stand to be impacted if improvements aren't made: Gary's Roosevelt Career and Technical Academy, Hammond and Morton high schools, Calumet High School and East Chicago Central. Lake Station's Central Elementary also is on its fifth year of probation, but the Lake Station Community School Corp. is closing the school at the end of the year.
A school under a state-appointed manager would essentially act as a charter school. The school corporation would no longer receive funding for students who attend the school. Instead, those funds would stay at the school with the state-appointed manager.
As for teachers, those who decide to work at the school would no longer have a union contract with the corporation.
However, a union contract does more than cover just teachers, Gary Teachers Union President Carlos Tolliver said. Gary's collective bargaining agreement extends to building conditions and teacher-to-student ratio, Tolliver said. The former Roosevelt teacher sees a lack of a plan for the high school. He's concerned students and teachers aren't in an environment where they can meet expectations set for them.
"There is a real concern on our part if they really want to see Roosevelt succeed or if they want it to be failed so they can remove what they envision as the burden of a collective bargaining agreement," Tolliver said.
Gary Community School Corp. has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the state to improve student achievement at Roosevelt. Under the agreement, at least 38 percent of students need to pass the English/language arts portion of the state test and 31 percent need to pass the math portion. Superintendent Myrtle Campbell said the district is working to ensure a state manager isn't required to takeover the school.
"We are working toward assuring that we make these gains so that doesn't happen with Roosevelt," Campbell said.
The state Board of Education held a public hearing on the proposed intervention process Friday in Indianapolis. A vote establishing state takeover procedures could come at the board's Dec. 1 meeting. The proposed plan before board members requires the state hold a public hearing in the corporation where the affected school is located. The state Education Department expects those hearings to take place next summer if a school is deemed eligible for takeover.
Indiana Urban Schools Association Executive Director Chuck Little attended Friday's hearing. Little's critical of a state-appointed manager who he says would work without boundaries or evaluation.
"The whole matter of local control is up for grabs," Little said.
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, in a released statement, likened the managers to consultants.
"The scare tactics employed in conversations regarding outside managers are simply a distraction and could not be more off-base," according to Bennett. "In fact, these managers could be considered no different than other consultants districts throughout the state already employ for various purposes ... Yet as an educator, I must say the continual calls for special interest groups to put adult comforts and desires over the needs of students attending failing schools are disheartening at best."