INDIANAPOLIS — NOTE: The above video is from a previous report on the Ignite Achievement Academy charter school agreement.
Ignite Achievement Academy released a statement to 13News on Friday saying it wants to avoid litigation after the IPS board voted Thursday to not renew the charter school agreement, but at the same time filed notice that it intends to sue.
The statement goes on to read:
We can confirm that we have sent notice of claims to Indianapolis Public Schools and the Office of Education Innovation as part of the process of protecting our instruction and our students. We are considering and willing to move forward with all legal remedies available to us.
In 2017, Ignite Achievement Academy took over the failing Elder W. Diggs School. IPS said in that time, the charter school did make some progress, but not enough.
IPS points to dropping enrollment, low attendance numbers and not enough academic progress, as well as the failure to retain teachers.
"It was still performing, academically, in the bottom tier of our district schools overall,” said IPS Superintendent Dr. Aleesia Johnson.
Ignite's co-founder and Head of School Shy-Quon Ely said those failures are taken out of context, arguing the district didn’t give the charter enough time to turn things around.
"It tends to take anywhere from five to seven years to successfully (restart a school)," Ely said. “That's with normal conditions. OK, so we're in our fifth year of restarting the Diggs school. This is the third year of a pandemic. We've had two years of new state testing."
Ely said enrollment changes were expected. The school population is at risk, so it would obviously face additional troubles during a pandemic. As for retaining teachers, Ely argued that’s an issue for all schools right now.
Ely also blames IPS for not providing enough supports – especially in special education and transportation. He said the school did make some inroads, reporting it increased reading test scores by double digits and passed recent evaluations by the Office of Education Innovation Charters schools.
In the tort claim notice to IPS, the charter school makes the following claims:
IPS took deliberate and purposeful actions for the purpose of disrupting education at Ignite, poaching Ignite’s students and staff and to put Ignite in a bad light. IPS took these actions knowing that it would affect Ignite’s charter Ignite Achievement Academy, Inc. December 16, 2021 Page 2 of 2 with the OEI and acted in concert with OEI to prevent Ignite from receiving the due process it is entitled to by Indiana statute.
"I think it’s totally unfair"
Michelle Brown Johnson said she’s grateful her two sons have gone through Ignite Achievement Academy.
Her younger son, Colin, is still there and is on the honor roll.
“He loves the experience. He's learning so much. He's following through and achieving goals, learning how to do different things,” said Brown Johnson.
Particularly, she said, in math and entrepreneurship.
“I’ve had a very positive experience,” she said. “It was a great opportunity for (her sons) to see teachers the same ethnic background as them doing great things, especially men who put so much into them.”
Brown Johnson said she believes IPS should have given Ignite more time to turn things around and stepped up its support of the school.
“I think it was totally unfair,” she said. “I feel like they didn’t get a fair trial.”