INDIANAPOLIS — With schools still working to decide when students should be back in person, a new e-learning location is popping up.
"This is 'The Warehouse,'" said co-owner Jerry Ackerman. "It's an e-learning facility for students in grades five through 12."
Located on the city's northeast side at 7601 E. 88th Place, The Warehouse is a place where students can go to get their work done.
"The Warehouse is an atmosphere set for e-learning for students that are unable to be at home or don't want to be at home," said co-owner Shawn Moore. "It's an opportunity for kids to get their sanity back and come here for school."
Each student at The Warehouse has a private suite with a gaming chair, headphones, Wi-Fi and the ability to remote in to a larger screen.
"I've been in education for about 15 years," Moore said. "I've worked with youth students, and I've got a master's in education, so we're kind of on top of what the trend is."
Moore said they hold the students accountable to their schoolwork — taking the burden off of parents.
"We know that they're supposed to be on at certain times, and we have their schedules, so we're able to check-in and say, 'You've got an hour break, lunch time, go ahead on upstairs, have fun, plug in your headphones and watch a movie in our movie room'," Moore said. "It just gives them a chance to be a kid."
According to Ackerman, a lot of the students who come to The Warehouse are just happy to be out of the house.
"What we're hearing from families is that we have a lot of isolation with students," Ackerman said. "And so to provide an opportunity for them to be in a space where there's friends, there's another face to look at, where they can get up and move around and see another human, we thought those were some of the positives of having a facility where students could come again and reclaim some of that socialization."