Global Prep Academy will expand its middle school grades to a second site near Martindale-Brightwood with the $2.7 million purchase of a building directly off the Monon Trail.
The new building at 1002 E. 25th St. sits on a former industrial site and will be renovated to house up to 325 middle school students, according to Global Prep founder Mariama Shaheed.
The pre-K-8 charter school’s enrollment has more than tripled since launching as an autonomous Innovation Network school within Indianapolis Public Schools in 2016. The charter was tasked by the district with turning around the underperforming Riverside School 44 and started that year with 269 students. Today, it enrolls more than 800.
The second building, which Global Prep said will open in the fall, will free up space at School 44 roughly three miles away, where seventh and eighth grade students currently learn in a modular classroom outside the main building.
The expansion comes on the eve of what could be a transformation for IPS. State lawmakers are considering legislation that would force IPS to relinquish control of all its buildings to an independent authority, which could award space to deserving, high-performing charter and district schools.
But capacity has been a challenge at Global Prep for years, Shaheed said. Prior to deciding to open a second site near the Monon Trail, the school had planned to expand its program within Harshman Middle School as part of the district’s Rebuilding Stronger plan — but the district later abandoned this plan after pushback from the community there.
Shaheed attributes the enrollment growth in part to the school’s dual language model, as well as its support for all students, including those with disabilities.
“We’ve always had the approach that if you come to our doors, we’re going to serve you and serve you well,” Shaheed said.
Second site could help Global Prep’s founding mission
Shaheed said she was attracted to the site not only for its availability, but also because of her initial intent in founding Global Prep: to bring dual language education to more Black families.
The site is on the edge of Martindale-Brightwood, an area that has been home to working-class Black families and industrial companies, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.
The new location shares a transportation zone with the lower school in Riverside, remaining just on the edge of Zone 1. Families who live in Zone 1 and Zone 2, the northwestern and northern parts of the district, receive transportation to Global Prep.
Shaheed said the school is working with the district to get transportation to its second site, but added she hopes nearby students will also walk to school.
“We want kids to walk to school,” she said. “We want to be right there and serve that community.”
Since Global Prep transformed School 44 into a dual language program, its demographics have changed from majority Black to majority Hispanic.
Shaheed is working to increase the Black student population, with more intentional recruitment efforts at the kindergarten and pre-kindergarten level, she said.
New location for Global Prep has a railroad history
The middle school’s new location was once part of a railroad switching yard and a motor machinery warehouse, among other industrial uses, according to documents filed with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, or IDEM.
Given its past, it was classified as a brownfield — a federal and state classification given to sites that could have hazardous substances or contaminants.
But as long as the school adheres to a restrictive covenant placed on the land, it can have a “safe redevelopment of any kind,” officials with the Indiana Brownfield Program said in a statement.
That restriction requires the land owner to submit a soil management plan approved by IDEM before digging up soil. The soil management report commissioned by the school in 2025 and later approved by IDEM ultimately found that there were no hazardous concentrations of any contaminants in the soil, Indiana Brownfield Program officials said.
Shaheed said the school is also avoiding digging at the site altogether, instead working to renovate the existing building.
“We’ve done our due diligence in terms of bringing on the right people who know that work to make sure that as we move forward, we’re safe for kids,” she said.
This article was written by Chalkbeat Indiana reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey.