Indianapolis Public Schools Board of School Commissioners recently approved the plan to move the district to an all choice high school model under the district’s Reinventing IPS High Schools Plan. This plan resulted in closing Broad Ripple High School and John Marshall Middle School (previously a high school) and converting Arlington High School and Northwest…
Author: Educator Barnes
Indiana Educators Needed for ILEARN Development
Indiana Department of Education Office of Student Assessment needs Indiana educators to help with the beginning stages of development for the new ILEARN state assessment that will replace I-STEP. This is my 12th year as an educator and a top debate year in and year out is the state assessment. Why was that on the…
Leading During a Time of Uncertainty
Last month on August 23 at Ivy Tech Community College Culinary and Conference Center, Indianapolis Public Schools held their inaugural Teacher Leader Kick-off Dinner and I was one of the teacher leaders invited. I have felt the pressure that comes with being a teacher leader and the weight of this pressure has grown…
IPS Plans to Reinvent and Restaff Its High Schools
On Monday, September 18, in a 5-2 vote, the IPS Board of School Commissioners voted to close John Marshall Middle School and Broad Ripple High School and convert Arlington Community High School and Northwest Community High School into middle schools. The four remaining high schools: Arsenal Technical High School, Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School,…
IPS Board of School Commissioners Approves Plan to Close and Consolidate High Schools
The Indianapolis Public Schools Board of School Commissioners held a special meeting on Monday, September 18 at 6 p.m. at the John Morton-Finney Center for Educational Services to vote on the high school closure and consolidation plan. Although there was a small protest before the meeting, the plan presented by IPS district administration passed….
Principal of Arsenal Tech Removed
“Have you heard?” Quite a few conversations and text messages I received yesterday began with those three words. After six weeks into the school year, Julie Bakehorn is no longer the principal of Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis Public Schools. According to Chalkbeat Indiana, Ms. Bakehorn is now a, “principal on assignment.” Lloyd Bryant…
Is it DREAM deferred or a DREAM deterred?
You may say that I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will live as one “Imagine” John Lennon When I wrote “Defend DACA; don’t rip away the dream” I hoped President Trump would prove us wrong and choose not to rescind the Deferred Action…
Defend DACA; Don’t Rip Away the Dream
On August 28, 1963, 54 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. said during his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”…
Northwest High School Community Meeting: Why Do You Want to Bus Us Across Town?
Thursday, August 31 at 5:30 p.m., Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) held its last meeting at Northwest High School to hear feedback on their recommendations to close Broad Ripple and John Marshall at the end of the year and to convert Arlington High School and Northwest High School into middle schools next school year. Feedback was…
Arlington High School Community Meeting: When Will the Experiments Stop?
In July, Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) held meetings at Broad Ripple and John Marshall, schools recommended by the district to be closed at the end of this school year, to hear public comment about their recommendations. This month, the district scheduled two more meetings at Arlington High School and Northwest High Schools, schools the district…