8 Struggling Indiana Schools Receive Improvement Grants

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Department of Education says eight struggling schools across the state will receive more than $8 million in improvement grants to help turn around student performance.

The grants are going to elementary and middle schools in Evansville, Gary, Indianapolis, Jeffersonville, Kokomo, and Warsaw and range in size from $650,000 to $1.4 million.

At Indianapolis Public Schools, the new charter school Phalen Academy At 103 will receive $1.1 million. The former Francis Scott Key Elementary School 103 on the far eastside is now operated by Phalen Leadership Academies under a 2014 law that lets IPS hire an independent management team to run a school without the constraints of the district’s teacher union contract.

The school has been rated an F on the state's accountability system during the past four years. 

Indiana schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz said in a statement that the grants are funded by the federal government and will be awarded over the next five years.

Ritz says the schools were chosen because they have shown dedication to improving and have promised to follow one of six federally approved plans to do so.

The grants go to:

• Lakeview Middle School, Warsaw Community Schools, $723,100
• Parkview Middle School, Greater Clark Comm. School Corp., $1,210,769
• Bridgepoint Elementary, Greater Clark Comm. School Corp., $650,765
• Francis Scott Key School, Indianapolis Public Schools, $1,106,006.95
• Hosford Park Elementary, Lake Ridge School Corp., $1,039,166.90
• Bon Air Elementary, Kokomo Community School Corp., $893,583
• Lincoln School, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., $1,437,329.11
• Washington Middle School, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., $1,295,340.16

WFYI reporter Eric Weddle contributed to this report.