Many ask IPS board to save Broad Ripple High School
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis Public Schools had a community feedback forum Tuesday night at Broad Ripple High School.
It’s one of two schools recommended to close and put up for sale by the district.
A lot of people who attended the forum spoke with passion and emotions. They pleaded for board commissioners to save Broad Ripple High School.
The forum was one of four hearings scheduled before the big vote in September. More than a hundred people attended what IPS called a communtiy feedback forum at Broad Ripple high School.
The district is recommending to close and sell the school for a potential $6 million to $8 million.
“If you guys choose to close Broad Ripple, you guys are going to close down a tradition that a lot of kids has had here such as myself,” said one recent graduate from the high school.
Some of the people who spoke at the forum had to sign up before the deadline. The district reserved 90 minutes for public comment and had to make some exceptions.
“I no longer live in the IPS district but I defend IPS to the wall because of what it has meant to me. Five members of my family had graduated from this high school,” Norma Cox Dartis said.
IPS currently operates seven high schools. The recommendation calls to keep Arsenal Tech, Crispus Attucks, George Washington and Shortridge; convert Arlington and Northwest to middle schools; close and sell Broad Ripple and John Marshall High School, which was already set to become a middle school this fall.
“I stand before you to listen to your heart. Think about the people that you are moving from place to place. They’re not cattle they are children,” Sherry Crawford Curry said.
The district has seen a drop in enrollment over the years and believes the recommendations will help save money.
But the superintendent knows they will have a tough decision to make.
“While I respect, you know, preserving the legacy and history of our high school, I would also challenge the alumni to be thinking moreso about the students that are in our high schools today and the students that will be in our high schools tomorrow, and the tough decisions that need to be made to ensure they get the very best from us,” said Lewis Ferebee, who is the superintendent for IPS.
The next community feedback forum is scheduled for Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at John Marshall in the auditorium. The district is asking people who would like to speak to sign up beforehand. Click here to sign up to speak at Thursday’s hearing.
Other upcoming forums, also at 5:30 p.m. in the school auditoriums:
- Aug. 29 at Arlington High School.
- Aug. 31 at Northwest High School.
The board also has scheduled a special-called meeting on the high school closures for 6 p.m. Sept. 18. That meeting will be at the John Morton-Finney Center for Educational Service, 120 E. Walnut St.