Elkhart Community Schools are considering an agreement to let a charter school use the former Osolo Elementary building, one of four elementary buildings the district closed this fall because of declining enrollment. The district canceled a meeting set for Tuesday in order to first gather public input.
The cash-strapped district is considering an agreement with Premiere Arts Academy, a nonprofit Elkhart charter school. The former Osolo Elementary would operate as a sort of charter-public school hybrid, allowable under Indiana’s Innovation Network law. The General Assembly created the law in 2014 to help Indianapolis Public Schools as they were bleeding enrollment to charter schools.
Linda Fine is an Elkhart High School government teacher who had been urging people to attend the meeting before it was canceled. Fine says such agreements let the struggling public school system count the charter school students as their own for state funding purposes, but the system has no control over the school’s operations.
Fine says some of these agreements still require the district to maintain the building. It’s unclear in this case because the district has not made the agreement public.
“Premiere Arts has been working on this since March, and this is the first that Elkhart Community has said anything about it was a week ago when they said we’re going to have this special meeting," Fine said. "The only way that they’re going to get true public input is, when they schedule that public meeting, they post the agreement.”
Elkhart Schools haven’t set a new date for the meeting and Superintendent Michelle Riise declined WVPE’s interview request. Premiere Arts officials declined to comment until after the board votes.
The district did release a statement saying they’ll make the agreement public before the next meeting. It said, “The board canceled today's meeting specifically to allow time for a public work session, where the proposed details can be shared and discussed openly. We will be presenting that information so the community can review it and provide the input we are seeking before any formal action is taken.”
In full disclosure, Elkhart Community Schools holds the broadcast license for WVPE.
