Gary Community Schools

House Bill 1136 won't get a hearing but portions of it could be incorporated into other legislation before the session ends.

Some say House Bill 1136 may be intended to start discussions about giving charter schools a share of local property tax dollars, which they do not receive now.

The Gary Community School Corporation is preparing to shift from state to local control July 1. The district is no longer financially “distressed”, but residents still will not be able to vote on their local school board for the foreseeable future.

Yvonne Stokes, the former Hamilton Southeastern Schools leader, will be Gary Community Schools first board-appointed superintendent since the state took control of the district in 2017.

A grant from the Department of Education will fund the City Connects program in Gary Community Schools for the next five years.

Indiana lawmakers are poised to extend state control of the Gary Community School district for four more years.

Gary schools were in financial free fall for years as dwindling enrollment led to declines in state and federal funding. But something remarkable is happening in Gary schools: The district was awarded nearly $68 million in federal aid.

The private manager of Gary Community Schools received initial approval Thursday for a new two-year contract, worth potentially $7.4 million in state funds, to continue turnaround efforts in the cash-strapped, academically struggling district.

The State Board of Education ended the takeover of Gary's Theodore Roosevelt College & Career Academy today without much discussion during its regular meeting. The intervention of the school was approved in 2011 due to years of chronic academic failure.

Parents and others angrily called out the State Board of Education at its meeting today in Gary. They say despite the states intervention in local schools students face unsafe buildings, leaky roofs and even lack toilet paper at one school.