Patrick Mapes News Today

Patrick Mapes retired in spring 2023 from Perry Township Schools in Indianapolis as the district struggled with finding enough bus drivers.

Parents and students spoke up about the decision before the school board voted to eliminate school choice in most cases.

Parents in Perry Township criticized plans to draw new attendance boundaries and eliminate school choice for elementary students.

Superintendent Patrick Mapes to retire in June after six years with the district, the district announced one day after a controversial vote to end elementary school choice.

The Perry Township school board approved new elementary school boundaries and ended its choice program to help alleviate bus driver shortages.

Driving the proposal, district officials say, is a shortage of school bus drivers.

Superintendent Patrick Mapes is concerned the district would have to cut the arts and limit academic and extracurricular activities if voters say no.

Perry Township Schools is asking voters to approve an 8-year property tax referendum in the May primary. The referendum would extend the tax increase for home and business owners that was first approved in 2015.

MSD Perry Township district leaders said its unclear what led up to a woman crashing into the school. Classes were canceled the remainder of the day.

Jetta Productions/Getty Images The Indiana State Board of Education on Wednesday quietly rescinded an earlier decision to count nearly 1,100 additional students who left school without diplomas as dropping out. Instead, under a new, more lenient policy, the state will only categorize about 470 students from the class of 2020 as having dropped out because they did not have the proper documentation to show they were learning at home. The decision means some 600 students will no longer be counte...