Parents complain about Howe High School

INDIANAPOLIS, (WISH) - It's only been three weeks and the Indiana Department of Education says it's receiving complaints about Howe High School.

That’s one of the four Indianapolis Public Schools the state took over.

Parents are sounding off, too.

Wednesday parents said the complaints topping their list include lack of student discipline, shuffling schedules and not enough staff to meet the needs of special education students.

Walter Thompson and his sons said they don’t know what happening day to do is.

“My two boys have had eight or 10 schedules.

They don't know what class to go to,” Thompson said, “adding his oldest son has been forced to haul his books from class to class because he didn’t have a locker assignment.

“They say if you don't take your book bag to the locker they will suspend you.

He just got his locker yesterday.

Howe doesn't have the appropriate staff to meet the needs of special education students.

State Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett says that is just one of the complaints he and his team are addressing.

Bennett’s team meets every Friday with leaders from Charter Schools USA to problem solve.

“We will reach a point where we will all have to make a decision regarding performance. Our expectation and our belief is that performance will meet our expectations. If it doesn’t, we will be just as aggressive in making another recommendation to do something different as we were when we made the recommendation for the turnaround schools,” Bennett said.

The school's principal, Keith Burke, says some students haven't received their final class schedule because the school added honors courses to its curriculum.

“We wanted to challenge our students but we also didn’t want to throw them in over their heads,” Keith Burke said.

“We also wanted to ensure they were up to the level that they needed to be so they could succeed.”

Burke added ‘we are doing everything we can with our staffing for special education.

We don't have some vacancies that we are looking to fill.”