Roosevelt High School in Gary
SBOE votes to return Roosevelt to Gary school district
Contributed By:The 411 News
Decision came as no surprise, intervention has not worked
Gary's Theodore Roosevelt College and Career Academy and 3 Indianapolis schools will return to control by their local school districts, the Indiana State Board of Education Board determined at their monthly meeting Wednesday in Indianapolis.
In separate votes, members voted 10-0 to end state intervention at Roosevelt and return the school to the Gary Community School Corporation.
The Board voted 6-2 to return control of Emma Donnan, Emmerich Manual, and Thomas Carr Howe to Indianapolis Public Schools.
The Roosevelt decision came as no surprise. EdisonLearning, the state's operating partner at Roosevelt since the state takeover in 2011, was not able to increase student achievement.
Additional problems with Roosevelt's physical plant played a part in the school's declining student population.
To the extent that the building on west 25th Avenue closed in February 2019 due to flooding caused by the heating system's pipes that froze, then burst. Since then, Roosevelt students have been housed at the Gary Career Center.
Foreshadowing the decision to end the intervention were a state board meeting in Gary in October and a state board public forum in Gary, in December.
SBOE member Tony Walker, representing the 1st Congressional District in northwest Indiana, said at the public forum, "I intend to at the January board meeting bring a motion to end the board's involvement." Walker said he couldn't change directions of other state agencies' authority in Gary schools, "like the Dept. of Education and the Distressed Unit Appeal Board, but I can with the SBOE's involvement in Roosevelt."
The DUAB meets Thursday with the Gary school district and its emergency manager. According to the DUAB press release, the GCSC emergency management team will also provide an update and recommendation on the Roosevelt school building.
Story Posted:01/15/2020
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