INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Every month, WISH-TV highlights a local school district with “The Morning Bell,” a conversation focused on new or exciting programs and accomplishments within Indiana schools.

This week, the Morning Bell’s focus is getting people ready to head back to school with interviews with superintendents in central Indiana.

On Monday, Indianapolis Public Schools superintendent Aleesia Johnson joined Daybreak to discuss the upcoming school year which begins on Thursday.

Rebuilding Stronger Plan 

The 2024-2025 school year will see the full implementation of the district’s Rebuilding Stronger Plan, which will provide much-needed improvements to IPS schools.

Johnson says the upcoming school year will be a “big year” for the plan.

“The work around Rebuilding Stronger started really in 2021 coming off of COVID and doing some dreaming with our community about what we wanted for the future of our schools,” Johnson said. “And now we will be at full implementation, meaning that some of our schools are changing their grade configurations.

“We’ll have stand-alone middle schools serving grades 6 – 8. Our elementary schools are pre-K – 5 or K – 5. And then we see a lot of replication of a lot of different instructional models from families to choose from. So we are increasing the number of International Baccalaureate schools, Montessori schools, STEM-focused schools, and then adding a second visual and performing arts school in the elementary grades as well as our exploratory schools. So, (there will be) a lot for families to choose.”

There have been improvements to more than 20 school buildings with help from the 2023 Capital Referendum, which voters approved last May. IPS broke ground on seven buildings last school year, and work is still underway. The district says the improvements will result in new classrooms, gymnasiums, cafeterias, playgrounds, athletic fields, and more. 

“TC (Thomas Carr) Howe and Broad Ripple previously had been closed and we are reopening those as the middle schools. We are really excited to be serving those particular communities,” Johnson said. “Both of them are opening up as international Baccalaureate middle schools. Arlington is transferring into a STEM middle school along with William Penn. Longfellow and Northwest are also going to be opening as middle schools. So we’re just excited for families across our district to have the ability to choose what’s the right fit for their child and their family.”

Dress Code

This school year brings a new less formal dress code for students that now allows for jeans, fewer restrictions on style and color of both shirts and pants, and other more casual options. 

• The full dress code details can be found here.

Safety Task Force

There will be two new task forces at IPS this year, one focused on student safety and one on schools’ emotional health and culture. IPS announced the task forces in the wake of a lawsuit alleging that a former teacher encouraged the physical assault of a School 87 student last year.

“This past spring, our school board decided that they wanted to ensure we were really taking a look at the mental well-being and mental health of our schools. The students that are in our schools, we know our community has faced a lot of trauma from gun violence that has not been something that IP S has been immune to,” she said. “We are part of this community as well. We want to make sure our schools are safe places for our students and for our staff to be. And so they’re going to take the lead in just ensuring we’re doing everything we need to be doing to create the right conditions for our kids to be safe and learning,” Johnson said.

Students and staff numbers

There are more than 30,000 students in IPS this year and the district says applications through Enroll Indy are up 24% over last year.

IPS has an 89% staff retention rate, which is a significant jump from a few years ago. According to IPS leaders, 34 schools staffed at 85% or higher, 349 new hire employees were processed for this school year and there are 177 new teachers hired/onboarded for New Teacher Induction.

Johnson’s advice to students

“Make sure you’re going to bed getting your body ready to adjust. And then I just say to get involved. We know our students who are engaged in either arts or athletics, they’re coming to school more often. They have higher GPAs, and less discipline incidents. So important to be at school every day. But then get involved and be connected with your school community,” Johnson said.