INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - Several students said they saw it coming, said they knew Broad Ripple High School had a good chance of making the list. Even so, Shavonte Dodson said it was hard to hear his school would close after the next school year.
"I've been there since sixth grade, so Broad Ripple is home to me, so closing it is sad to me. I have a lot of memories, made some of my best friends here, met my girlfriend here," Dodson said.
Jessica Halsmer, who graduated from Broad Ripple High School in May, said, "my family all went here so I'm kind of sad."
But she said she wasn't surprised, but was angry. Halsmer said the district should have invested more in the school.
"Everything upset me here," she said. "Every year they made it worse, IPS did nothing to change it. They just closed it."
Pam Cossell's family owns Weaver's Nursery, which is on Broad Ripple Avenue across the street from the school.
She graduated from Broad Ripple High School in 1966, when David Letterman was there, one of the school's famous alumni. (Others include former Pacer George Hill, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and architect Michael Graves.)
Cossell recalled one encounter with Letterman in front of the school as she headed to the nursery.
"He asked where I was going, I said to my dad's store, because I gotta work and he said his dad had a flower shop, too, on Keystone," she said.
The school was full of students back then. Now, it's less than a third full.
"I'm very sad, but I just hope they don't put apartments in there," she said.
Adrian Brown was walking by the school when he was told it was closing.
"That's devastating," he said.
While Brown didn't go to school there, he's lived near Broad Ripple High School for 30 years, close enough to hear the football games.
"Just hearing all those young people having a good time, families getting together...Broad Ripple in its own crazy way is about family and with the high school leaving, it's something to cry about," he said.
Melissa Hopson also lives close by.
"I'm really surprised. It's a huge school with a long history. I walk by it a lot and worry about what it will become," she said. "What do you do with the huge building and the track and the farmer's market (that's held on school property every Saturday from spring through the end of fall)? I don't know that many students, but I wonder what the area will be like without them."
Republican City-County Councilor Colleen Fanning represents Broad Ripple.
"It's a scary thing to lose a really big high school that's been around for so many years and that's one of the bedrocks of the community," she said. "It falls to us to be sure to redevelop it as net positive for the community...Obviously, putting in another educational institution is the lowest hanging fruit and probably best for the community, but there are lots of other possibilities."
Echoing that, Kent Springer, a board member and past president of the Broad Ripple Village Association said in a statement:
"While BRVA understands the IPS recommendation to close Broad Ripple High School, we believe that, as the district and its board evaluate options for re-use, it is essential that the facility continues to be used for educational purposes. It is imperative that the organization, and thereby the community, be able to shape the facility's re-use, which we strongly believe should remain scholastic and community-service-minded."
