At community meeting, officials leading turnaround effort cite dramatic progress
Gary students have far better educational opportunities today than they did five short years ago, officials told students, parents, educators, and community members tonight at a meeting of the Distressed Unit Appeal Board (DUAB), the state agency that oversees the school district.
The meeting was an opportunity for officials from the organization that have led the turnaround since 2017, MGT, to highlight the community-wide efforts behind Gary Community School Corporation’s significant improvement. Now, with DUAB members recently saying that “we are at the beginning of the end” of state involvement, MGT’s educational experts laid out how it plans to build on this progress and support the end of distressed unit status.
In an hour-long presentation, officials cited five major achievements over the last five years:
- GCSC eliminated its $22 million deficit.
- GCSC invested $43 million in its current buildings and sold or demolished most of its abandoned buildings.
- GCSC extended its school day, creating two years of extra learning opportunities.
- GCSC stabilized its enrollment.
- Gary residents overwhelmingly supported the referendum after two straight losses.
“Five years ago, Gary Community Schools were not in a strong position to serve its students, families, or staff members,” said Eric Parish, Executive Vice President at MGT, who has worked with GCSC since 2017. “It’s a different story today. By working with the community, we’ve eliminated the deficit, stabilized enrollment, and created far more educational opportunities for students in Gary.”
“Five years ago, Gary Community Schools were not in a strong position to serve its students, families, or staff members,” said Eric Parish, Executive Vice President at MGT, who has worked with GCSC since 2017. “It’s a different story today. By working with the community, we’ve eliminated the deficit, stabilized enrollment, and created far more educational opportunities for students in Gary.”
In its presentation and in response to questions from DUAB members, Manager Dr. Paige McNulty and other MGT officials outlined how they planned to sustain these gains and ensure continued progress. Likening the next two-year period to Phase 3 of the project, the team emphasized an overwhelming focus on academics and described bringing in new instructional leaders and additional resources to ensure the academic achievements more fully mirror the fiscal and operations achievements.
The presentation made clear that there have been academic gains. The percentage of GCSC students earning CORE 40 diplomas rose from 70 in 2017 to 87 in 2021. The number of Career and Technical Education pathways available to students increased from four in 2017 to 11 in 2022. Growth scores based on recent assessment data show significant improvement in both reading and math across all elementary and middle schools. But MGT is looking for even more.
Two of the speakers at tonight’s meeting, MGT’s Rajeev Bajaj and Andre Wright, described efforts to build on and accelerate the hard-earned progress achieved to date. Both longtime educators began their careers in education as teachers and have worked in a variety of roles in turnaround school districts across the country. In their remarks to Gary residents, Bajaj and Wright described their plans to support the GCSC team in its ongoing work to continuously improve students’ academic outcomes. They also stressed the importance of building local capacity to ensure a smooth handoff as GCSC prepares to exit distressed unit status.
In his closing remarks, Parish, the project lead for the last five years, summarized the progress in Gary by comparing the results of the school referendum. Efforts to raise critically needed funds for the schools in 2015 and 2016 both failed, which was one reason the state intervened. In 2020, however, Gary residents backed the referendum with nearly 60 percent support.
“The referendum results are more than 13,000 Gary residents showing their support for their students and their schools,” Parish said. “That wasn’t happening six and seven years ago. The voters’ support is a testament to the hard work that students, families, educators, and community members have put into improving Gary Community Schools over the last five years. Our task now is to build on this progress and hand over the district.”