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The nine members of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance have a big task over the next four months: recommend how to transform city public schools.

The education landscape includes not just Indianapolis Public Schools, but also nearly 60 charters, which have different authorizers and operate under their own school boards. Some charters have partnerships with the district through its Innovation Network, and others don’t.

But not all of these schools offer transportation or have adequate facilities. Not all schools have the resources to teach students with disabilities who have serious needs, or those who are English language learners. And many schools struggle to enroll enough students to stay afloat.

In response, the alliance — which state lawmakers established this year to make non-binding recommendations — must craft a plan that reduces inefficiencies by addressing facility and transportation needs for all schools. It also must make recommendations on school closures, special education policies, and what kind of governing body should oversee city schools.

State law requires the mayor and the IPS superintendent to serve on the board, while giving the mayor four appointees and the district three. Most members have worked in the charter sector or have connections to the local Mind Trust nonprofit, an influential group that has helped launch many Indianapolis charter schools.

In July, the mayor’s office announced former IPS school board president Michael O’Connor as project manager for the group. O’Connor, a principal consultant with Bose Public Affairs Group, was elected to the board in 2016 with backing from the Indy Chamber that has historically supported reforming the district.

Chalkbeat reached out to all nine members to speak about their work, and six agreed to interviews. Below are key facts on each member’s history.

Tina Ahlgren, superintendent appointee

Tina Ahlgren has been an IPS teacher for over two decades and has served as the bargaining chair for the Indianapolis Education Association for 10 years. Her son attends Harshman Middle School.

Although appointed as a parent representative, Ahgren could serve as a union voice on the alliance — something the IEA pushed for when lawmakers created the alliance. Ahlgren is a staunch defender of traditional public schools, but acknowledges that kids are thriving and struggling in every school type.

She worries about students falling through the cracks of a predominantly charter system that might not be able to serve certain students, like those with disabilities.

“The challenge with the full choice model is it’s kind of this idea of everyone out for themselves versus someone looking out for the big picture,” she said. “That’s kind of the role that IPS has served.”

Barato Britt, IPS board president appointee

Barato Britt, the CEO of the Edna Martin Christian Center, has experience in the charter school sector dating to the early 2000s, when he served on the board of Irvington Community Schools. He now serves on the board of KIPP Indy Public Schools, which runs three Innovation Network schools in Martindale-Brightwood and values its collaboration with IPS.

Britt, whose son attended Merle Sidener Academy for High Ability Students, said he believes the city will need to close schools. He understands those who want the creation of strong school choice options, but cautioned that the city can’t just plan “innovation for innovation’s sake.”

“Let me invest in practices that are actually showing some real merit,” he said. “I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.”

Mayor Joe Hogsett, chair

The majority of Indianapolis charter schools are authorized by the nine-member Indianapolis Charter School Board, six of whom are appointed by the mayor. Hogsett’s Office of Education Innovation also renews or revokes charters for those schools.

Hogsett’s office did not make the mayor available for an interview.

In a statement, Hogsett said the work before ILEA is in the service of strengthening Indianapolis Public Schools.

“We have complicated discussions ahead about topics such as school finance and how schools address transportation and facility management,” Hogsett said.

It’s unclear whether Hogsett, who has faced calls to resign amid a sexual harassment scandal, will seek a fourth term as mayor when his current term expires in 2027.

At the outset of his third term in 2024, he pledged to improve education in Indianapolis. Although he never unveiled a comprehensive education plan, his office launched a literacy tutoring program in traditional public and charter schools that has grown to 11 schools this year.

In December, he told Fox59 that state lawmakers need to consider the complex education landscape in Indianapolis and across Marion County, which encompasses 11 different school districts and superintendents.

“There’s a lot of duplication and redundancy that I think could be consolidated effectively,” he said.

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson

Johnson began her teaching career in New Jersey as part of Teach for America, but returned to her home state of Indiana to become a founding teacher at the KIPP Indy middle school.

Before becoming IPS superintendent in 2019, Johnson helped usher in many of the Innovation Network’s schools as the district’s innovation officer.

Johnson has emphasized that potential solutions from the ILEA — such as closing schools, or establishing some sort of academic accountability measure — need to be applied across both charter and traditional schools.

A significant challenge, she said, is navigating a school system that features a high level of flexibility at the individual school level.

“If we are now saying, ‘Well, we need a systems solution across the board,’ then that necessitates some level of restriction to that decision-making authority and flexibility,” she said.

Maggie Lewis, mayoral appointee

Maggie Lewis is the Democratic majority leader of the City-County Council and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis. She’s also on the board of directors for the Mind Trust.

A spokesperson for Lewis did not make her available for an interview.

In 2013, Lewis chaired a 16-member committee with Republican businessman Al Hubbard to examine solutions to reuse excess space in IPS buildings and expand preschool.

During the past legislative session, Lewis joined former mayor Bart Peterson and others in calling on IPS to share more of its property tax funding with charter schools. She also expressed support for the Girls IN Stem Academy charter school that faced staunch public opposition to its opening in Washington Township last year.

In 2023, she co-wrote an Indianapolis Star op-ed with other councilors and school board members that affirmed the need to fill teaching vacancies and expand mental health supports “so we spend less time discussing district vs. charter schools and more time expanding supports that are working for our children.”

Tobin McClamroch, mayoral appointee

Tobin McClamroch is a partner at the Dentons Bingham Greenebaum law firm that frequently lobbies at the statehouse, including for private school choice.

McClamroch also has years of experience lobbying for charter school operators.

He served on the City-County Council in the 1990s and leads the board of trustees at Marian University, which has received support from the Mind Trust nonprofit for various education initiatives.

McClamroch said it’s important to have accountability for both traditional public and charter schools, and that the legislature should help define it. He also expressed concern for a school district that relies on voter-approved tax increases.

“It’s very important that we consider the taxpayers and what’s sustainable for the taxpayers in the IPS school district,” he said.

McClamroch said the group also must consider a governance model for the city’s schools, calling it a “major issue” for the ILEA.

Andrew Neal, superintendent appointee

Andrew Neal is the father of three children at Herron Preparatory Academy, an Innovation Network charter school.

He leads Outreach, a nonprofit that serves people ages 14-24 who are experiencing homelessness and works in many local IPS and charter high schools.

Neal said he’s not very politically involved. But part of his goal, he said, is to “provoke these conversations that should’ve been happening over the course of years now.”

Neal sees pros and cons to having just one charter school authorizer, and believes the concept of one authority to oversee all buildings is an interesting concept to consider.

“If you had some sort of hybrid governance board and you were able to consolidate authorizers, could you also empower that board with maybe the potential to do system-wide coordination between enrollment and facilities and transportation and data?” he said. “I think potentially that could be an option.”

Bart Peterson, mayoral appointee

Former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson helped create the city’s charter school landscape after assuming office in 2000.

When state law gave the mayor the power to authorize charters, Peterson created the Indianapolis Charter School Board to review applications and make recommendations, he said. He also included the City-County Council in charter decisions.

In 2006, Peterson also co-founded the nonprofit Mind Trust. He later served as CEO of Christel House International, which runs four charter schools in Indianapolis as well as international schools.

Peterson previously led the Hoosiers for Great Public Schools political action committee, which last year gave over $160,000 to Republican candidates for state office. State finance records show the PAC has raised $1.6 million from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and billionaire John Arnold, both supporters of charter schools.

He said there are too many charter authorizers, and noted that the alliance will have to consider a governance structure. Over the past few years, he said, he’s noticed the growth in charters, their closures, and the lack of coordination around their location and how they would interact with the IPS schools in the same area.

“We have ended up with a situation where there’s no single kind of mind or authority thinking about all this,” he said. “It has gotten to a point where it needs that.”

Still, Peterson favors competition, and said the introduction of charter schools is part of the reason IPS is a lot better today than it used to be.

“We are actually providing a lot of things that the one-size-fits-all IPS district of 2002 wasn’t doing,” he said. “As a result, I think we are providing, overall, a far better education in IPS and outside of IPS in the public sector than we did 20-plus years ago.”

Angela Smith-Jones, mayoral appointee

Angela Smith-Jones is associate vice president for state relations at Indiana University, and previously served as deputy mayor for economic development during Hogsett’s first term.

She did not respond to requests for an interview.

Smith-Jones has also served as director of public policy for the Indy Chamber, which can hold significant sway over the district’s decisions and embraced the district’s move toward autonomous Innovation schools in 2016.

When Mayor Greg Ballard shut down the Project School charter school in 2012, he tapped Smith-Jones to help families find new schools, the Indianapolis Star reported at the time.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.