This brief is adapted from notes taken by Documenter Charlie Schmidt, who covered the December Indianapolis City-County Council Education Committee.📝 Read more about what happened.
Warren Township Superintendent Tim Hanson and Brandon Brown, The Mind Trust CEO, presented at the December meeting of the Indianapolis City-County Council Education Committee. They each shared wins and areas for growth around attendance, literacy and other programs.
Attendance
Hanson said Warren Township created a program that supports attendance. He said the district has a 90% attendance rate in the 2024-2025 school year. When the district began the program, the attendance rate was 75%.
“When you get 90% on a test score, that’s an A minus and you can go home and be proud of. 90% for attendance is not something you want to be proud of,” he said.
Hanson said the district has regular communication with families and family engagement liaisons at each school to identify what barriers keep students from coming to school.
He said some reasons students are absent include babysitting other siblings at home, transportation issues, a lack of consistent housing and school avoidance.
“So far this year, we’ve had 48,541 absences. That’s 39 million-ish minutes of lost instruction,” he said.
Literacy
Hanson said the student literacy rate is 81%, a three percent increase from the 2018-2019 school year. The township’s goal is an 85% literacy rate.
The Circle City Readers program is present in two Warren Township schools, one of which is Pleasant Run Elementary which has the third-highest reading growth increase in the state.
The Mind Trust
Brandon Brown, The Mind Trust CEO said the organization has three elements: exceptional school leaders, autonomy for school leaders and rigorous results.
He said the organization has supported the launch of 51 schools in Indy, along with supporting over 60 innovation and charter schools.
He said that The Mind Trust was asked to manage Indiana Learns, a program that supports Indiana students in reading and math. Brown said if a student isn’t proficient in math or reading state testing they can be eligible for a paid tutoring program.
“We’re two years into the implementation, and there have been over 20,000 Hoosier students that have taken advantage of the program,” Brown said. “The state has spent well over $20 million on it and we are excited to work with the Department of Education to advocate for new funding next legislative session.”
What’s next?
The next Indianapolis City-County Council Education meeting will happen in January 2025.
Want to help us cover future meetings?
Indy Documenters trains and pays neighbors to attend local, public government meetings and take notes or live tweet. We’re creating a new public record in Indianapolis, and we want you to be a part of it.
Questions? Email documenters@mirrorindy.org.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
