Jahleil Thurton wants to be a neurosurgeon. Much of his family works in hospitals, and the 15-year-old said he’s driven by a desire to bring good news to loved ones.
“The brain — it can be scary,” Thurston said. “I want to be the one to tell someone’s family member that it will be OK.”
The Crispus Attucks freshman will be among the first students to learn from a new wing of the IPS high school. IU Health recently announced it will provide $25 million to help fund the school’s expansion.
The project will bring four new specialty classrooms and a regulation-size gymnasium to the northwest corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street and Oscar Robertson Boulevard.
The addition will not replace any part of the school, including its historic Crispus Attucks Museum. Instead, it will connect to the existing building at its current main entrance.
The project is part of IU Health’s plans for the Indy Health District, an initiative that seeks to improve health outcomes on the near north side.
IU Health is also a longtime partner of Crispus Attucks. The hospital system plays a key role in the school’s health fellowship program, which allows students to shadow doctors and nurses on the IU Health campus.
Principal Lauren Franklin says the Attucks project will expand on these experiences. For example, students will have access to more sinks and hospital beds to train on in their classes.
The proposed gymnasium will bring Attucks in line with other Indianapolis high schools. She says very few other high schools in the country have only one gymnasium.
“It’s just a matter of equity for our students,” Franklin said.
Construction to begin in late May
Officials will share more about the expansion plans in a community meeting at 6 p.m. May 13.
A groundbreaking for the project will be held later this month with completion expected by winter 2028.
Classes will continue as usual throughout construction. Franklin said the school’s main entrance will move to the back of the school temporarily.
Any parking spaces lost at the front of the building will be made up for in a new lot behind the school.
For perspective, Franklin said the new addition will be built on the footprint of the old Booker T. Washington School 17 — a junior high school demolished decades ago.
IPS officials estimate the total campus expansion will cost $44 million. A district spokesperson said bonds will be used to pay for the project in addition to IU Health’s contribution.
Seeking to secure Attucks’ legacy
Some see the investment as a way to secure the future of one of the city’s most historic schools.
Attucks opened in 1927 as Indianapolis’ only all-Black high school. It has a storied athletic legacy, with four boys’ state basketball championships wins and notable alumni, such as NBA legend Oscar Robertson.
Frank Andrews Sr. attended Attucks the first year the school integrated. The class of 1974 alum said he almost didn’t believe it when he heard about plans to expand the school.
“We’ve always had this fear that they want to shut the school down,” Andrews said.
It’s not an unfounded concern. The school’s expansion comes just as the newly formed Indianapolis Public Education Corp. gets to work. One of the group’s tasks will be to create a plan for closing schools in a system that’s widely known to have more space than its needs for the number of students enrolled.
IPS officials said in a provided statement that the corporation will not have an effect on the Attucks project. That’s because construction is expected to wrap up before IPEC takes over management of Indianapolis school facilities — another of its major responsibilities.
That’s good news for alumni like Andrews.
“I’d just like to see it continue to thrive,” he said. “I would like to see that it will continue to be the pillar it always has been in our community.”
Creating new spaces
Jasmine Terrell also wondered whether the school would stay open. The 2016 graduate said news of the expansion quieted some of those fears.
She was a basketball manager when she was in school and returned to Attucks in 2017 to watch the team’s successful state tournament run. The school’s current and only gymnasium was packed.
“It did make it feel like a large crowd,” Terrell said. “You just felt so proud to be a part of that.”
Franklin said scheduling practices for different teams, such as boys and girls basketball and volleyball, for the single gym has been a challenge.
Freshman Mariah Hayes plays for the girls’ basketball team, and was also recently accepted into Attucks’ health fellowship program. She hopes to become a nurse one day.
She’s both excited about the new addition to the school — and a bit jealous. She’ll be more than halfway through high school when it opens.
“We’ll get to enjoy it for, like, one year,” Hayes said. “That’s not really enough!”
But, Franklin said, another addition to the school includes plans for a multipurpose room, one she envisions alumni using in the evenings so students like Hayes will always have a place to come back to.
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Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
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