Embedded Files
As we reflect on our first ten years as a school community, we remain committed to our founders’ powerful vision for all that a school can be for its students, its families, its staff, and for the whole of the community. We are honored to have been given the opportunity to actualize our hopes and dreams, and to bring to life a school that inspires, motivates, and compels everyone involved to reach toward their best selves, and to learn from and grow with one another. We dreamed a big dream back when all of this began in 2006. And now we dream a new big dream about what TPS can become in its second decade of operation. We look forward to new partnerships and collaborations, new programs and outreach, new resources to expand our students’ and families’ horizons, and new spaces to increase the number of children and families who will benefit from our mission, vision and values.
As we reflect on our first ten years as a school community, we remain committed to our founders’ powerful vision for all that a school can be for its students, its families, its staff, and for the whole of the community. We are honored to have been given the opportunity to actualize our hopes and dreams, and to bring to life a school that inspires, motivates, and compels everyone involved to reach toward their best selves, and to learn from and grow with one another. We dreamed a big dream back when all of this began in 2006. And now we dream a new big dream about what TPS can become in its second decade of operation. We look forward to new partnerships and collaborations, new programs and outreach, new resources to expand our students’ and families’ horizons, and new spaces to increase the number of children and families who will benefit from our mission, vision and values.
Sustainability Education: Part of our vision since our inception has been graduating students who see themselves as stewards of the environment. However, located in the “concrete jungle” of downtown Bloomington has limited our abilities to actualize this aspect of our vision. In the late spring of 2018 we received our first gift of property - a green space located in the residential neighborhood that is adjacent to our current school location. This generous gift will allow us to begin exploring an expanded sustainability program beyond the walls of our building. During the next decade, we envision the installation of a working vegetable garden - one which will produce food for our students, our families and the larger community. We also envision this space being used as a living lab for diverse P3 projects based on the environment and sustainability, with core science and social justice components. We are excited about the future of sustainability education in the lives of our students and families.
Exploration of New Partnerships with the Local School Corporation: Since our original founders first designed our model, they have envisioned having TPS serve as a leader in the strengthening of public education for children in our local community and beyond. During our first decade of existence, we have reached out to the traditional local school corporation to express our interest in sharing resources and expertise. As we enter our second decade, we look forward to seeing the fruits of our labor in building this collaborative relationship. During the fall of 2018, The Project School leadership was approached by the local superintendent to consider the possibility of combining forces. The exploration for this possibility is just beginning. During the next ten years, we envision partnering with educators and leaders from the traditional school corporation to implement programs that have the capacity to improve educational opportunities for all.
Makerspace Vision: Our vision for TPS – both in programming and facility – is to serve as a central hub for creative exploration for the community. Our building is located in what is becoming an important downtown corridor for the business, social service, and arts sectors. We want to invite the community into our spaces to experience social justice and equity programming that benefits everyone. We want to make our building available to other organizations and individuals in the community with these shared values, in order to increase our collaborative community partnerships. With the addition of space, we will be able to also provide Makerspace opportunities to a broader population during low-need times for TPS. Our space will parallel the efforts of the Indiana University School of Education, which developed its own Makerspace in 2015 for use by students and staff from throughout the campus. We believe that the addition of our new classroom space should go beyond service to The Project School in order to create broader community opportunity and impact.
We recognize that while adult literacy remains essential, the definition of what is necessary to be considered literate is changing dramatically for future employment and community engagement opportunities. Through implementation of cutting-edge instructional technology and Makerspace, we are able to build knowledge, skills and abilities in crucial areas for participation in the career arena of the future: production and processing, engineering and technology (including computers and electronics), building, construction and design, critical thinking, time and human resources management and coordination, complex problem solving, oral and written comprehension, manual dexterity, public and group speaking, and deductive reasoning
Lottery Numbers/Student Retention/Waiting List: Since first opening our doors in 2009, TPS has had a substantive waiting list. Since 2013 the waiting list has exceeded the actual enrollment. The response to our annual lottery is a testament to the impact TPS is making in the community, and to the deep desire among community families for whole-child education.
A Vision of Expansion: The current version of TPS began with a dream of educators. A dream to serve children and families in a public school setting through a heart-mind-voice education model. A dream that was developed through a set of core beliefs, a mission, and a vision that has become a reality at TPS.
Although we are still in the early phase of envisioning our next ten years, we can imagine an expanded TPS model as a part of a dream. This dream would be the stage of our development that allows our brilliant staff and school community to use what we have learned to serve even more children and families.
The second phase of TPS could include —
Two Locations for Small School Benefit. We believe strongly that small schools - with fewer than 300 students - allow for the building of the strongest community, allow adults to have the most meaningful relationships with the children in their care, and allow us to retain fidelity to our mission, vision, values and model. Our hope is to have a second downtown site to complement our current location, and to share important resources between the two in order to be the best stewards of the dollars we receive.
Students Served. Our new location would mirror our current location in size, with future determination made regarding the most effective division of grade levels between the two locations. Our goal is to double the number of students we currently serve in each grade, with each site serving approximately 275-300.
Community Spaces. The current TPS school building is fully utilized, with limitations on multi-use of space. Our vision is to design a new space to be utilized more creatively, and to open up opportunities for community collaboration. Our new space will ideally include a multi-purpose performance space and a makerspace, both of which would become available for use by the larger community. We also intend to create school garden spaces which will produce nourishment for community organizations.
Why Expansion Matters: We believe that expanding our programs, the number of children and families we serve, and our outreach within the community will create even greater and more powerful impact. Expansion will allow us to create —
Waiting List Reduction. The hundreds of children annually on the waiting list demonstrate the desire and need among families in our community for innovative, inclusive, whole-child educational opportunities, especially for children with special learning needs, and for families with socio-economic challenges; expansion will allow us to serve a large percentage of children on our waiting list.
Opportunities for Visionary Educators. With little to no faculty turnover occurring at TPS and locally, expansion will allow us to create opportunities for outstanding educators to remain in the community, and to potentially attract new innovative educators to Indiana and from throughout Indiana.
Potential for Additional Multi-Use Educational Spaces. The current TPS facility, albeit beautiful and functional, is small and limited; expansion will allow us to think creatively about the potential addition of performance and gross motor activity spaces for use by our school and by the community.
Expanded Community Impact. With a larger student body, faculty, and group of families, TPS will be able to connect more substantively with partner agencies and businesses whose missions benefit the community, therefore living our values of educational equity, social justice, and sustainability.
Financial Stability. Expansion of our school will allow TPS to draw additional funding to strengthen administrative and support services, and will allow us to explore additional grant, donor and financing opportunities to overcome the discrepancy between chartered public school and traditional public school funding models.
Obstacles to Expansion: We recognize that there are a number of obstacles we must overcome in order to successfully actualize a potential long-term expansion vision, including —
Faculty Salaries. The Project School annual budget is very tight each year, with a focus on doing more with less. The reality is that once the local district received a large referendum, TPS could no longer keep up with their salary schedule, resulting in educators making significantly less to work at TPS. Our faculty demonstrates great dedication to the mission, vision and core beliefs of our school. However, we recognize that our inability to keep pace with the local district will make it challenging to retain and recruit excellent teachers in the future. This is an issue that must be addressed for sustainability and expansion.
Location and Affordability. Our expansion vision places great importance on establishing a second site in close proximity to our current location. This is a central part of our expansion vision, as it will allow us to share resources, co-create curriculum and programmatic experiences between the two sites, and continue to take advantage of the many benefits that come from being located central to both the downtown and the university. However, choosing to be located in the downtown area creates an obstacle, as it is difficult to secure appropriately sized space - and space that is not cost-prohibitive - in what is very much a seller’s/leasor’s market. An in-earnest search for suitable property that meets our needs in terms of finances and location has been underway since fall of 2016. Securing such a site remains a major challenge.
Ongoing Funding. As represented in our stated obstacle above for faculty compensation, our annual funding structure provides little room to fund expanded programs. An increase in our student population will provide for an influx of per-pupil DOE dollars. However, those dollars - as with current per-pupil dollars - will not cover the full breadth of our school’s mission, vision and work. We continue to reply on alternative funding sources such as grants, corporate support, and individual donor dollars to make up as much of the difference as possible each year. With a larger school comes greater need and therefore greater pressure to seek out these additional financial resources. Once a location is able to be secured, TPS will actively seek all funding sources through the Department of Education and other avenues, in order to begin the action portion of the process for expansion.
Planning For Our Leadership Future: At the 2018 annual meeting of The Project School Board of Directors, our current School Leader/Superintendent and Business Manager shared that a goal for the 2018-2019 school year is to intentionally develop a plan for a transition of leadership for the future. While the benefit of consistent, competent leadership has certainly had a positive impact on all that The Project School is, it is of critical importance that the school community continue to not only exist but stay true to the mission, vision, and values of the original founding group far beyond the current leadership. While this plan has yet to be developed, it is clear that within the current staff, there are several individuals who have the skill and capacity to serve in leadership roles. We have much confidence around the model of developing leaders, as we have successfully done with teachers in our school community.
What an Extended (beyond 5 years) Renewal Would Mean: As we reflect back on the first ten years of the life of our school, we are extremely proud of the fidelity we have retained to the original mission, vision and values of our founders, while also learning and growing through experience and through feedback. The renewal process at our 5 year marker was extremely beneficial in allowing us to look back on what we said we would do and accomplish at the outset of our school, and allowing us to think bigger in terms of changes and tweaks we could make to always best serve our students and to expand the number of students we serve.
What an Extended (beyond 5 years) Renewal Would Mean: As we reflect back on the first ten years of the life of our school, we are extremely proud of the fidelity we have retained to the original mission, vision and values of our founders, while also learning and growing through experience and through feedback. The renewal process at our 5 year marker was extremely beneficial in allowing us to look back on what we said we would do and accomplish at the outset of our school, and allowing us to think bigger in terms of changes and tweaks we could make to always best serve our students and to expand the number of students we serve.
As we look forward to the next decade as a school, we believe we are poised to make huge strides in the work we do. We believe we have demonstrated excellence both in educational goals and responsibilities, while also growing in terms of fiscal stability. And we believe we are therefore ready to be granted the longest possible charter renewal allowable by Indiana law. We recognize that the current law only allows for a 7 year renewal term. We also recognize the benefits that a 10 year renewal would provide, including the reassurance of our long term existence for potential funders and a powerful message to the community that The Project School is here to positively impact our community for years to come.
As we look forward to the next decade as a school, we believe we are poised to make huge strides in the work we do. We believe we have demonstrated excellence both in educational goals and responsibilities, while also growing in terms of fiscal stability. And we believe we are therefore ready to be granted the longest possible charter renewal allowable by Indiana law. We recognize that the current law only allows for a 7 year renewal term. We also recognize the benefits that a 10 year renewal would provide, including the reassurance of our long term existence for potential funders and a powerful message to the community that The Project School is here to positively impact our community for years to come.
The Project School would be honored to serve as a pilot site for future consideration of a longer than seven year renewal option. And we would be pleased to participate in any discussions and processes aimed at consideration of this future option for exceptionally performing schools. Legislators are always welcome to tour our school and visit with our leadership and faculty, in order to learn what is possible to achieve in the lives of children and families.
The Project School would be honored to serve as a pilot site for future consideration of a longer than seven year renewal option. And we would be pleased to participate in any discussions and processes aimed at consideration of this future option for exceptionally performing schools. Legislators are always welcome to tour our school and visit with our leadership and faculty, in order to learn what is possible to achieve in the lives of children and families.
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