The Project School

Bank foreclosing on former charter school property.” Indianapolis Business Journal (IN), 2/25/2013

Old National Bank is suing the operator of a charter school that closed last summer in Indianapolis, claiming it failed to pay off the $1.8 million balance on its mortgage.

The Project School in August lost a court battleto stay open after Mayor Greg Ballard revoked the school’s charter due to poor test scores and financial issues...

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“Ballard moves to shut down The Project School.” Indianapolis Business Journal (IN), 7/17/2012

It looks like there will be no back to school at The Project School, a charter school just northeast of downtown.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard announced Tuesday evening that he intends to revoke the charter that gives The Project School the authority to operate. Ballard cited poor test scores and “recently discovered financial problems.”

The four-year-old school, which is publicly funded, has never seen more than 30 percent of its students pass both the math and reading portions of the state standardized ISTEP test...

A notice of revocation sent to The Project School paints an ugly picture of the school's finances. It claims the school has run a deficit in each of the last three years and now has nearly $5.3 million in debt. The notice also states that The Project School delayed paying its staff this month by one week because it had so little cash on hand.

The notice of revocation also cited a report by the Indiana State Board of Accounts, which found that The Project School had improperly used more than $63,500 in federal facilities and planning grant money to pay salaries and operational expenses...