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The former Forest Manor Middle School was once rich in resources: Two fountains flowed on either side of the building and the 5.5-acre campus featured a baseball field and a pool.
But by the time Indianapolis Public Schools sold the building in 2020, it was in dire need of a makeover: The roof was deteriorating. Groundwater was leaching up from the pool. And the fountains — which rested in ponds tucked on both sides of the property — no longer functioned.
On Wednesday, over 500 students occupied the once-shuttered building as officials with the Andrew J. Brown Academy charter school celebrated building renovations in their second year on the property.
“We turned the pool into a gym,” School Director Garrett Gammons told visitors as they walked in for a tour. “You’ve got to check it out.”
The building dedication is the latest chapter in the transformation of the school, which last month joined the Paramount Schools of Excellence network that operates seven other charter schools statewide.
Forest Manor Middle closed in the early 2000s and was later used for staff training. It also housed a small charter school until 2022-23. The building is roughly seven miles west of the location Andrew J. Brown operated in for decades.
The school’s change in location follows a split from the for-profit charter operator National Heritage Academies that had run the school since its inception in 2003. Last year, the academy board tapped Paramount, a nonprofit, to run the school instead. But the shift meant that the school needed to leave its Far Eastside building, which was owned by NHA. (NHA, which attempted to open a charter school in the same building, told Chalkbeat it no longer plans to submit an application for a school).
Paramount used a loan to purchase the building for $4.25 million, moving students into the space last school year while investing $6 million in upgrades. Now, the leaky pool is one of two new gyms, the roof is new, and the fountains outside are flowing.
“It’s just phenomenal that we get a chance to ignite the community with high standards for our kids, high standards for our families,” said Gammons, who as a child participated in an old Forest Manor baseball league and played football at the Wheeler Boys and Girls Club just two miles away. “We’re going to continue the tradition and the data-driven efforts of Paramount here at Andrew J. Brown, and it’s going to be amazing.”
New operator hopes to boost test scores, enrollment
The change in operators and location cost the school some students and staff. Andrew J. Brown lost 135 students — the biggest dip in recent years of declining enrollment — from 2023-24 to 2024-25, according to state enrollment records. Over 50 of those students went to the neighboring Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, according to a district presentation in November.
Now, Reddicks anticipates growing back up to a population of 600 students next year while slowly increasing test scores on the state’s IREAD and ILEARN exams that have remained largely stagnant.
Roughly 50% of Andrew J. Brown students are Black, with another 41% Hispanic, according to state enrollment records from last school year. A little over half of the students are English language learners.
Facility renovations will continue at the school, which doesn’t yet occupy the building’s second level and is only using some of the building’s 16 boilers. Reddicks said he hopes one day to find a high school interested in partnering with Paramount and sharing the site for a full K-12 experience.
As part of its merger with Paramount, Andrew J. Brown Academy — named after a local civil rights leader — will have two board members on Paramount’s board, one of which will be a permanent legacy member, Reddicks said.
Physical classrooms or books aren’t the only things that make Andrew J. Brown special, eighth-grader Ja’layah Jackson told the crowd at the ribbon-cutting.
“What really makes our school special is the great sense of family,” she said. “When you walk through the halls, you feel welcomed. You feel like you belong.”
Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.
