Statement from Charter Schools USA on IPS recommendation to not review Emma
Donnan Elemeneryary School innovation contract:
We were shocked and dismayed by the disingenuous actions taken today by IPS to attempt to
hurt the students and staff at Emma Donnan. Today, after coming to the school under false
pretenses, they announced this extreme decision and promised to work with us to prepare
messaging to staff and parents. They also claimed that they would not share this publicly until
after the board meeting, however, they immediately sent messages to staff and news media as
soon as they stepped out the door. While we have been working hard to bring Emma Donnan
students to a place where they can be successful, it appears that IPS has been planning to
disrupt this success all along. IPS clearly has decided that parents do not deserve high quality
educational options while their own schools are in decline. It’s no wonder they want to bring
back high performing students and they are willing to disrupt students’ and teachers’ lives for
political gain. How incredibly sad for our community. IPS has voiced concerns about local
control without recognizing that local parents making a choice for their child’s education is the
ultimate local control. Parents, students and our teachers need not fear the future though
because we have already applied for Emma Donnan to become a charter school which will be
governed by ReThink Forward – Indiana and managed by Noble Education Initiative. These
actions do not deter us from our mission. We have a proven track record showing tremendous
improvement at all three schools over which we have managed and will continue to do so. We
continue to engender more and more student success at Emma Donnan, evidenced at a
minimum by our state assessment results which continue to annually exceed the IPS
performance as a whole and dramatically more when doing an apples to apples comparison
between Free and/or Reduced Lunch students only. IPS is seeking to disrupt this success
because it is a threat to their future since their educational approach is less successful; they
care about student enrollments and we care about student success and honoring parental
choice. We have a long-term commitment to service families, staff, teachers and community
partners for many years. We are confident that the State Board of Education will recognize the
work we’ve done and will deny IPS’s attempt to take back a school over which their proven track
record was chronic failure for seven years prior to when CSUSA and NEI became involved.
Colleen Reynolds, APR
Edge Communications of Southwest Florida