Indy approves Purdue Polytech charter school

Joseph Paul | Journal & Courier

Purdue Polytechnic Institute's plan to start a charter school in downtown Indianapolis has taken a major step forward.

The Indianapolis Charter School Board on Thursday awarded a charter to the Purdue Polytechnic Indianapolis High School, which will offer graduates a STEM-based education and direct admission to Purdue University.

With approval, Purdue can move forward with choosing a leader, location and curriculum for students at the high school, which is slated to open in fall 2017, said Gary Bertoline, dean of Purdue Polytech.

"We could have gone ahead with it," he said, "but having the charter in hand means a lot more."

Purdue began its search for the school's top spot in October and has interviewed eight potential candidates, said Brook Huntington, assistant dean of K-12 outreach for Purdue Polytech. The institute plans to announce the final candidate in January, she said.

"These are very entrepreneurial, big-picture thinkers that also have the capability of executing something so new and different," she said.

With Indy's blessing, Purdue also can seek more funding for the project, Bertoline said. The Walton Family Foundation — which funds charter schools in cities nationwide, including Indianapolis — requires that projects have acquired a charter before applying for grants, he said.

The Indianapolis Charter School Board, which has the authority to grant or deny charters within the city, aims to ensure that "all students in every neighborhood have access to a high-quality education," according to Indy's Office of Education Innovation website.

"The nature of the school itself is going to prepare the workforce that’s needed in central Indiana, whether the students go on to Purdue, or they stay in the community and start work after graduation, or go on to maybe a two-year degree," he said. "It is going to prepare graduates for work in the high-tech industry."

Katrina Owens, an Indianapolis mother of a seventh-grade student, attended Thursday's meeting to show support for the project. Her daughter tried neighborhood schools during elementary years but in sixth grade transferred to an all-girls charter school, where she's excelled, Owens said.

Her daughter, who has expressed interest in attending Purdue, will be a freshman when the polytechnic high school is scheduled to open, she said.

"I'm excited not just for my daughter but for every child. This whole concept is groundbreaking, it is cutting-edge, to bridge the gap from secondary education to post-secondary," said Owens, director of academic support for Ivy Tech Community College in central Indiana. "I truly believe this high school will expose those kids to something that was never available to me when I attended schools here."

To start up the school, USA Funds, a philanthropic organization focused on post-secondary education, provided a $500,000 grant, which is being administered by the economic development agency EmployIndy, according to a Purdue press release.