Zoning fight over charter school sparks push for statewide law

A Republican lawmaker is seeking to block local zoning rules that could hinder new charter school openings after community pushback delayed an all-girls charter school in Indianapolis. 

House Bill 1515 would prohibit counties, cities and towns from regulating how a school district, charter school or nonpublic school uses its property.

The bill specifies that a charter school is allowed as a permitted use in all zoning districts and that its land use application should be processed as a first priority. These provisions would also apply to traditional public and accredited nonpublic schools.

The bill’s author Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) said the legislation aims to prevent municipalities from using zoning rules to keep charter schools out of their communities, like what was attempted in Marion County's Washington Township.

“They wouldn’t use zoning to keep a traditional public school out,” said Indiana’s House education chairman. “I just want to make sure they don’t use it to keep a charter school out.”

Behning, a fierce school choice advocate, said it’s up to parents to choose a school for their child. 

Statehouse Democrats say the legislation would remove local control over how land is used.

A year ago, officials and parents from the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township challenged a land use rezoning request for a new charter school – Girls in STEM Academy – within the district’s boundaries.

A fight over zoning

Typically, community support or opposition to charter schools — or questions about curriculum — are addressed before a charter authorizer grants approval to open.

Girls in STEM Academy had already been approved by Trine University’s charter authorizing office before Washington Township school officials were made aware. The school aims to narrow gender and racial gaps in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The chosen site — a former church campus at 5136 Michigan Road — required a zoning change, launching a “stressful” six-month process, said Tommy Reddicks, executive director of Paramount Schools of Excellence, which co-developed the school with Purdue Polytechnic High Schools and the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana.

Some residents and school district officials hoped to block the school through the county’s rezoning process. An attorney for Washington Township Schools argued against the change before the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission, citing local opposition, traffic concerns and claims that the school would not comply with the city-county’s comprehensive plan.
 

The Development Commission hearings also included discussions of student academic scores and other education issues not related to zoning rules. 

The Washington Township Parent Council Network opposed the school. In a statement at the height of the dispute last year, the group said they believed the Paramount school would take away resources from district schools.

“It became so contentious that it went on and on,” Reddicks said. “It was appealed. It went all the way to the city council.”

Ultimately, the City-County Council passed a resolution to rezone 10 acres along Michigan Road for the Girls IN STEM Academy but tensions between traditional public school and charter school advocates drew it out.

Local control

Statehouse Democrats oppose House Bill 1515's zoning measure, with many saying it limits voices and involvement in the process.

Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D-Indianapolis) said zoning debates are a local issue, not the concern of the legislature. 

“If a school is going to open by a highway, in the back of an alley, in a basement – these are zoning issues that should be regulated at the local level,” Qaddoura said. “By saying, ‘No, you cannot do that,’ then that means that we are risking students by being in schools that might not be zoned appropriately.”

Qaddoura represents parts of Washington Township. He called Behning’s position “extreme” because he used an “example in the state of Indiana, to change the law for the whole state.”

Reddicks said the bill is valid because zoning was used as a “harmful tool” in Paramount’s case. 

And the dispute drove a “wedge that hadn't really been leveraged a lot in the past, and it would set a really dangerous precedent to spend a lot of public dollars to arm up lawyers and rally community support and parent support against charter schools for zoning,” he said. 

Paramount, which operates the school, temporarily opened it within Hasten Hebrew Academy at 6602 Hoover Road.

About 55 students enrolled this year across kindergarten through sixth grade. Reddicks said they hope to have about 100 students in the fall. The school will serve students in grades K-8 and currently serves grades K-6. 

What happens next

House Bill 1515 also includes measures about school district police departments and the Choice Scholarship Program. It passed out of the Senate’s Education and Career Development Committee along party lines. 

Now, all of the state’s senators can weigh in on the Senate floor.

Rachel Fradette is WFYI's Statehouse education reporter. Contact Rachel at rfradette@wfyi.org.