Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) is closing Broad Ripple High School (BRHS), and as the district decides the facility’s fate, the Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) is making sure the community has its chance to weigh in on potential options. Citing Broad Ripple’s rich tradition of neighborhood schools, resident attraction and retention, and the school’s indispensable place amongst community infrastructure, BRVA is on record stating its desire for community-focused, scholastic re-use. A report released by BRVA today shows strong community consensus for this position. BRVA used two methods to collect community input on the issue. The first was an open house on Aug. 24 with approximately 50 attendees comprised of neighbors, community leaders and business owners. The second, an online survey, received significant interest with 574 respondents, 77% of whom live in Broad Ripple or the immediate surrounding area. Results from both efforts demonstrate overwhelming support for educational, civic-focused re-use, with a strong sentiment against more housing and commercial development. “This is a clear message from the Broad Ripple community,” said BRVA Board Member and Past President Kent Springer. “Residents, business owners, alumni and others are lining up to express how important it is for Broad Ripple to retain a hub for public education and community gathering.” Springer says BRVA plans to discuss the results directly with IPS and work to collaborate on potential criteria for re-use proposals. Results from the input session skewed heavily toward community re-use. More than 94% of attendees selected a community-focused option for re-use as their top preference. Looking deeper into community re-use options, attendees overwhelmingly chose scholastic, with nearly 70% voting for this option as their top choice. When ranking options in the online survey, more than 86% of respondents chose a community-driven purpose (scholastic, arts and theater, recreation and wellness, events plaza, green space) as their top choice for re-use. Conversely, residential (condos, single family homes, apartments – 9.4%) and commercial (office, retail – 4.5%) options received far less support as a primary choice. The least appealing option was residential, by a wide margin. Residential options received 64.5% of last place rankings, followed by commercial (24%) and community (11.6%) options. Download Full Report

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