Fountain Square Academy

CITY TO CLOSE FOUNTAIN SQUARE CHARTER SCHOOL; March 18, 2011; Indianapolis Business Journal (IN) 

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard will force the Fountain Square Academy, a charter middle and high school, to close at the end of the next school year, but plans to work with the school’s board of directors to launch a new school in the same neighborhood.

The decision, announced Friday morning at a press conference, marks the first time Ballard has chosen to shut down a charter school. It is also the first time a charter school in Indiana will be shut down primarily for academic reasons.

Ballard also gave a shorter-than-normal renewal to one other school, KIPP Indianapolis, 1740 E. 30th St., which in recent years also has had poor academic performance… [More about KIPP Indianapolis College Preparatory HERE] 

Ballard also suspended a decision on one other school, Fall Creek Academy, to allow city officials to review student scores from the state-standardized ISTEP test taken earlier this month. If those scores continue a recent growth trend, Ballard said he would “be happy” to renew the school’s charter…

It’s been five years since a mayor-sponsored charter school has been forced to shut down. In 2005, Mayor Bart Peterson decided to close Flanner House Higher Learning Center, citing poor academic performance, too few teachers, inflated enrollment figures and generally poor management.

Fall Creek Academy and Fountain Square Academy are both managed by Indianapolis-based GEO Foundation…