INDIANAPOLIS — Big changes are ahead for Indianapolis Public Schools, involving everything from where your kids are going to school to how they get there.
The doors on five IPS buildings will be closed to students starting next year, but that doesn't mean they'll sit empty. The district will still own the buildings and already has plans for how many will be used.
Francis W. Parker School 56 could eventually be the site of a facility for pre-K students. Susan R. Leach School 68 will be used as a centralized warehouse, with shipping, receiving and distribution services for IPS. The Floro Torrence and George Buck schools are set to be leased by the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. And Paul I. Miller School 114 will be the new home of the district's maintenance division and an adult education center.
The district says keeping these buildings open would have stretched already-thin resources. The choice to close them was based on capacity and enrollment, facility quality, cost to repair and demographic projections.
IPS is also looking at a new way to pick up kids where they are the only IPS student in their area.
"If you're the only child in your neighborhood with no other bus route between your home and the school, it doesn't make sense to send a yellow bus all the way to your house for you to ride alone in a yellow bus all the way to school," said IPS CEO William Murphy.
The district would contract with a fleet of privately owned SUVs and drivers to get kids to and from school.
"It would be the same person every day so that person can develop a relationship and rapport with the family," Murphy said.
The move is all part of the district's move to optimize transportation of students. They're down to 227 routes from 410 and say they could potentially cut a few more when the district goes to its Four Zone Plan in the 2024-25 school year. They want to make sure every bus is being used as fully as possible.