January 20, 2023, was the last day of operation for HIM by HER Collegiate School for the Arts. HIM by HER is an acronym for helping improve mankind by healing every race. HIM by HER public charter school opened its doors in 2020 in the Forest Manor building that was used as a hub for professional offices and professional development in IPS prior to moving back into a school building. During winter break, parents learned the school would be closing and parents and teachers had to scramble to find another school for second semester.
A letter from the school explained the closure was due to not having enough student enrollment to maintain the building’s lease. Recently co-founder Harry Dunn, who is a retired IMPD police detective, spoke to WTHR to share more details about the closing. In the interview, Dunn shared that all students and staff found a new school.
It took three times for the school to receive a charter. Ball State University granted the charter. In 2019, WFYI reported that “Bob Marra, Ball State’s executive director of the Office of Charter Schools, says school leaders still need to prove it can be sustainable. The foundation proposed opening with grades K-5 in the fall, but Marra said they’ve required it to scale back to K-2 classes the first year.” Even though there were sustainability issues, the charter was approved.
This situation made me ponder multiple perspectives.
Black Students Deserve More Than Dilapidated Buildings
I have been in the Forest Manor building a lot and rode by it a lot as a kid. My uncle, before he died, lived within walking distance from the building. When I served as a literacy coach in IPS our literacy coach professional development was held in that building. Some district-level employees were also housed there. The building was close enough to my parents’ house that when we had a 60 minute lunch during a PD, I would go to their house, eat, and return back to the building.
However, I did not like going into the building. The vibe inside was sadness. I have been in school buildings in almost every single school district in Indianapolis and some across this state and in other states, and some of the buildings in IPS are not buildings children should be going to school in. They are old and not updated. Our children deserve beautiful buildings.
We don’t want to talk about this, but desegregation busing destroyed some IPS neighborhoods. As children were bused out of IPS, including me, our neighborhoods fell apart. Now, my parents’ house and my mother-in-law’s house (which is around the corner) are considered to be located inside a food desert. A small part of me wanted the school to succeed for the sake of the neighborhood. Too many neighborhoods where mostly Black children live have closed schools, empty grocery stores, and abandoned buildings.
If we are going to convert a building back to a school, it should be reopened in great condition. This means renovations or leveling the building and building a new school structure. Students deserve a quality education as well as a quality school building.
Can We Get a Hug and Academics, Too?
I read several articles about this school closure. What actually bothered me the most was the parents’ commentary about the school. They essentially said the teachers loved their children, it was a great atmosphere, children could walk to school, and their children had friends. Don’t get me wrong. Every school should be like that. However, I did not come across one parent expressing anything about the academics.
We don’t want to have this conversation, but too many charter schools are just feel-good places where kids aren’t learning.
We Knew Failure Was Coming
The community should not have been surprised about the reason for the closure. All we had to do is look back into the past. In 2011, Arlington High School was taken over by the state after earning an F rating for six straight years. Tindley Schools charter network had a contract with the state to turn the school around. The school did not get turned around and the school became too expensive for Tindley to run. They requested to end the contract, and Arlington was returned to IPS.
How many times will this be the reason?
Let’s say I can afford to buy a mansion (I can’t, but if y’all want to pray about that, I’m not going to turn away a blessing). That house has bills that will be recurring. The bigger the house, the bigger the bills.
Most principals have no clue what it actually costs to keep the lights on. That’s somebody’s job at the district level. Then, a college or the mayor’s office brings on a charter school where people don’t understand that they are the district leader and the school leader and have to manage all of these roles. They don’t have the experience in all of these roles so they play it by ear and learn on the job. While they are learning on the job to manage the building, they might not have the bandwidth to ensure quality teaching and learning.
Then, the school building closes. Students might be forced back into the schools their families believed that failed them. No one wins. Not the community. Not the families. Not the students. Not the teachers. No one!
Until this is better understood, these schools will continue selling false hopes and dreams that dash away in less than a few years leaving students even more academically behind than when they entered the charter school that was supposed to save them.
An Addendum
This is a minor grievance, but please, please, please stop with the acronyms for these new schools! It’s giving … we spent more time on this fancy name than actually a school model that would succeed.