In June 2015, Francis Scott Key School 103 in Indianapolis closed its doors as a failing elementary school, where only 15% of the students passed last year’s state exams.

When it reopens in August, it will be transformed into Indiana's first-ever Innovation Network School under the leadership of Earl Martin Phalen, winner of The Mind Trust’s innovation school fellowship. As an Innovation Network School, 103 will remain part of the Indianapolis district, but will operate with more freedom and greater accountability than a regular public school. This new type of public school was made possible by a 2014 state law in Indiana, which gave the district unprecedented authority to replace chronically failing schools.

“We really have a chance to do something incredibly special for children,” said Phalen, the founder of the George and Veronica Phalen Leadership Academy, whose organization already operates one charter school in Indianapolis and has nine more in the works.

While the same students will return to the transformed elementary school, the teachers will be new (the original teachers have the right to apply for jobs in the new school, but of more than 50 faculty members, only three have submitted their resumes). Also refreshed will be the chairs, desks, carpeting and school culture.

“The goal of it is to feel like Phalen,” Phalen said of the school network he named for his adoptive parents, who prepared him to attend Harvard and Yale Law School and who motivated him to dedicate his life to preparing inner-city students for success. “The goal is for it to be warm, welcoming, structured, rigorous and fun.”

The school will be built on the same principles that Phalen pioneered at Summer Advantage USA, which he previously created with support from The Mind Trust to stem summer learning loss. Teachers will use a “blended learning” approach, which combines traditional teacher-led instruction and online and digital learning.

There will be:

• Two adults per classroom,
• Extra learning time,
• More emphasis on art, music and other enrichments,
• Greater collaboration with parents,
• More focus on college and career readiness, with college visits and inspirational guest speakers.

“We desperately need lots of new schools and we need new ways of tackling education issues,” the founder and CEO of The Mind Trust, David Harris, said. “We need people who have visions for doing things differently and better than we have before.”
The Mind Trust is an organization that — with help from the Walton Family Foundation — invests in entrepreneurial talent to ensure that every student in Indianapolis has the opportunity to receive an excellent education.