Ball State might sponsor three more charter schools, and the university is looking for homes for the schools in Gary, Richmond and Graysville.
White Hat Education Management Co. -- which operates 16 charter schools in Ohio, Arizona, and Colorado -- applied to Ball State to open Gary's third charter school: The Life Skills Center of Gary.
The Life Skills Center would be the city's first charter school for at-risk high school students and dropouts ages 16 to 21.
The school received a letter of support from Mayor Scott King, according to an Associated Press report.
"Many teachers spend so much time disciplining that there is not enough time to teach," Kenneth Barksdale, head of the Life Skills Center's board of directors, said. "Our intent is not to discredit teachers or the community schools, but to work with them."
A public meeting was held in Gary on Wednesday night to discern community opinion. Both Barksdale and Martin Dezelan, director of charter schools for Ball State, said the meeting revealed an overall positive response from the community.
Dezelan said the process Ball State uses to open up a charter school is very rigorous.
A 10-person review team, made up of five Ball State faculty and five education experts, researches the proposals. President Blaine Brownell then makes the final decision. He should decide on all three schools by Oct. 10.
Ball State sponsors nine of the 20 Indiana-sponsored charter schools. Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson authorized seven; the rest are converged, meaning a school board sponsored regular schools to converge into charter schools.
Charter schools are funded like public schools through state and local funding, Dezelan said. Ball State does not use its own money.
The law legalizing charter schools in Indiana was passed in 2001. Dezelan said Ball State decided to support charter schools because of their "innovative curriculum and teaching approaches."
Dezelan said people are in opposition to charter schools because they are worried about losing students in traditional school and raising taxes and because they do not understand the concept.
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