Aisha Vinson’s ninth-grade daughter has only ever attended Thea Bowman Leadership Academy, a K-12 school in Gary. The experience there hasn’t been perfect. But Vinson said the school’s staff knows her daughter well.
Vinson, who has a disability that affects her mobility, also likes that the school is nearby and easy for her to get to, and she appreciates how educators there have accommodated her through the years.
Changing schools would be a major adjustment for Vinson and her daughter, she said, and likely for other families in the community, too.
“If they close Thea Bowman, where are all these kids going to go?” Vinson said.
Her daughter is one of more than 800 students who would have to find a new school if the charter school shutters.
The school’s future is in limbo after its charter was revoked at the end of last year. While Thea Bowman’s leaders have made it clear they intend to keep the school open and have applied for a new authorizer, it’s not certain if they’ll receive one.
Thea Bowman administrators did not respond to interview requests or questions from Capital B Gary about efforts to find another authorizer, which must be obtained to keep operating for next school year.
Many of the parents, grandparents, alums, and students Capital B Gary spoke with were confused about the school’s status or hadn’t heard about the revocation and potential closure at all.
Education One, a charter authorizer housed within Trine University in Angola, Indiana, voted to revoke Thea Bowman’s charter on Dec. 13. The next day, Education One’s executive director, Lindsay Omlor, addressed a letter to Thea Bowman families affirming the decision and citing “historical deficiencies” in both the school’s academic and organizational performance as the reasons behind the revocation. It also said June 30 would be the school’s final day open.
“While we never set out to close a school, it is our obligation to students, families, and taxpayers, to ensure our schools are upholding their duty to provide high-quality educational options for kids and communities across the state,” the letter read.
This prompted Thea Bowman to file a restraining order against Education One to prohibit them from contacting the school’s staff and families, which was ultimately granted. A PTA meeting for Dec. 19 was canceled soon after.
Thea Bowman’s leadership described Education One’s revocation as “shocking, unexpected, and abrupt” in an email to faculty and families. They promised to continue operations as normal and even published a Facebook post beckoning families to enroll their children.
But that hasn’t been enough to quell the chatter among folks in Gary left wondering about the school’s fate and wrestling with the disruption students would face from a closure.
Mounting challenges at Thea Bowman
To some, the issues at Thea Bowman were years in the making.
Enrollment at the school has declined 42.6% in the past decade, according to an analysis of Indiana Department of Education data.
In 2016, the school’s charter was revoked from its previous authorizer, Ball State University, over financial and governance issues.
Alum TyJera Robinson said that’s when “it all started falling downhill.” Robinson remembers the school cycling through multiple principals in a few years and feeling like a lot of teachers were unqualified. When Ball State revoked the school’s charter in 2016, the head of the university’s office of charter schools said a state visit found one-third of Thea Bowman’s teachers were unlicensed.
Vinson has observed a dip in quality that, according to her, began when students returned to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave. This coincides with a nosedive in the school’s graduation rate, which fell from 79.8% in 2020 to 65.8% in 2021.
Soon, Vinson said she began getting into dust-ups with a teacher over the instruction her daughter was receiving. Even more, a lack of supplies at the school left her daughter without a necessary book for a class, according to Vinson.
But while she believes the school needs better communication and organization, she doesn’t want to see it go.
Currently, Thea Bowman is seeking a new charter authorizer in Calumet College of St. Joseph, located in Whiting, Indiana. Calumet College’s charter school board will decide whether to approve or deny the request at a public meeting scheduled in late January.
Brian Lowry, a spokesperson for the college, said Thea Bowman submitted its application for authorization in November — a month before its charter was revoked. This desire to switch authorizers is what school leadership said lies at the root of Education One’s revocation vote in December.
Expansion plans for the school were reportedly in the works and set to break ground this month. Vinson wished leadership at Thea Bowman informed parents about the decision to apply for a new authorizer because now she’s unsure how the project will be affected.
“We’re thinking we’re getting ready to get an expansion and then turn around, we might not even have a school at the end of the school year,” she said.
For students like Robinson’s sister, who is a junior at Thea Bowman, a closure would mean having to start somewhere new in their final year of high school. He said his sister is fighting for the top spot in her class, and going to another school could affect her standing.
The news about Bowman comes as the city’s only public middle schools, Bailly STEM Academy and Gary Middle School for the Visual and Performing Arts, are also under consideration for closure this year.
“Gary is literally running out of places for these kids to go,” Robinson said.
Calumet College’s board will review Thea Bowman’s application and decide whether to authorize the school at its Jan. 29 meeting, which is open to the public.