The Indiana Distressed Unit Appeal Board, which oversees Gary Community School Corp., and the firm managing the schools discussed busing issues in the district, the goals the district has set for itself and a transition from DUAB operation to local control during DUAB's first meeting of the year Thursday in Indianapolis.
DUAB and MGT Consulting have been operating Gary's public schools since 2017, when the state took control from the local board because of fiscal issues.
Transportation
Tracy Coleman, who attended virtually, asked district officials to address busing in the district.
"As a resident of Gary, I'm very concerned with the number of buses that are unable to pick up our children," the local attorney said.
She noted that under DUAB's control, GCSC consolidated into one high school, West Side Leadership Academy, meaning that many students are now too far away to walk to school. Because of its decision to do this, DUAB has a "moral obligation" to make sure students can get to school.
Coleman also suggested that the Indiana Department of Education should do an audit to determine how many Gary children are missing school because they cannot get a ride. She also suggested that the Gary Career Center should offer programs to teach driver's ed, specifically to teach students to be bus drivers to fill the void.
GCSC manager Paige McNulty discussed this later in the meeting.
"It is unacceptable, the services we have been receiving through our current vendor with our busing services," she said, referring to the district's transportation vendor, Illinois Central. "We have been in constant communication about the need to have better services."
McNulty said the district is working on a plan to move in a different direction and has hired independent contractors to assist in the meantime.
Instructional goals
DUAB also heard from Kimberly Bradley, chief academic officer for GCSC, about how the district is doing on instructional and administrative goals it set for itself.
In the second quarter of this academic year, the district met four of five goals, Bradley reported.
Firstly, an average of 75% of students passed their English language arts lesson and 88% passed their math lesson goals as part of their individualized pathways. These figures are based on students' performance on the annual iReady assessments, Bradley said. The district's goal was 70%.
Additionally, principals at each school completed an average of at least three classroom walk-throughs each day. Some of these came in the form of teacher evaluations, Bradley said. By doing so, they completed their goal on principal classroom walk-throughs.
All schools met their goals on professional learning community implementation, which, Bradley explained, is where principals, instructional coaches and teachers come together to look at their data and make instructional decisions based on that data. By doing this once a week, every school completed this goal. Bradley said many schools actually completed more than one of these meetings per week.
Lastly, 85% of schools met their "positive behavior intervention and supports" goals, which refer to decreasing the number of and addressing behavior issues in schools.
However, the district did not reach its attendance goals. Bradley said schools in the district had an average attendance of 81%, which is up from 80% the previous quarter and 65% last school year but short of the district's goal of 85%.
"We are working diligently to bring up attendance," Bradley said. "We are improving, but we have not yet met our goal of 85%."
Bradley said the district's busing issues play a part in it not reaching its attendance goals.
Potential return to local control
State Sen. Eddie Melton, who represents Gary, asked DUAB and MGT Consulting officials if they were preparing materials to assist in a transition from state operation to local control, to which they said they are.
There are two proposals in the Indiana Legislature to revert control of GCSC from DUAB to a local board. The first, which is outlined in two identical bills — House Bill 1491 and Senate Bill 436 — would create a locally elected, nonpartisan, seven-member board to govern Gary schools; the other, Senate Bill 327, would establish a seven-member Gary school board, five members of whom would be appointed. Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner. Melton, who is also a Democratic candidate for Gary mayor, is the author of SB436.
Melton also asked whether the district had any reserve funding. Nicole Wolverton, chief financial officer for the district, said it does not, but she would like to start a rainy-day fund. However, she cannot until the Legislature updates regulations on how the district can save money while under state control.
Overall, the district's financial picture is looking much rosier. In 2017, when state takeover began, GCSC overspent its annual revenue by $21.5 million and accrued more than $104 million in debt. For 2023, the district approved an $82.8 million budget that spends less money than the district expects to take in, pays down $15 million in long-term debt and begins the process of building up positive fund balances.
Melton said he wants to ensure that as the Legislature debates whether to return local control to Gary schools, the district is in a good enough financial position to not warrant any undue regulation from opponents.
"I just want to make sure, post-transition, that there is a realistic expectation going forward," Melton said, "that there is no mandate that can't be met."
Later in the meeting, Melton encouraged members of DUAB to look at his bill and throw their support behind it. He called the idea of an appointed board "totally unacceptable."
"I'm hopeful, that by you being hands-on in this process from the beginning, you'll be able to articulate what you've heard and seen from your time in this community," he said.
Melton said he's sure the state doesn't want to continue operating Gary schools and that there is a way forward that pleases all parties.
"This can be very collaborative or this can be very confrontational as we've seen in this past," he said. "Let's not just sit back and let the Legislature play with us."
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