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The city of Indianapolis will pay a consultant $40,000 per month for work with the state-mandated Indianapolis Local Education Alliance as the ILEA crafts recommendations for the future of education in the city.
Michael O’Connor, a principal of the Bose Public Affairs Group and a former chair of the Indianapolis Public Schools board, will lead the consulting work as part of the city’s contract with Bose. The firm will manage the ILEA’s ongoing work on how to change the city’s environment of fractured school transportation and building resources. State law also allows the group to consider a governance structure for both IPS and charter schools.
The six-month contract ends in December and covers the timespan the ILEA has to make recommendations for a more efficient school system to the state legislature. The group must submit those recommendations by the end of the year.
The city could choose to extend the contract for four more months for Bose to support the group’s recommendations as state lawmakers consider them during the 2026 legislative session.
Bose, which will lead the task forces, will also create a facilities assessment plan of all IPS and charter school buildings and “will develop for consideration by the ILEA a transportation model” to serve schools of all types, according to the contract.
The contract also requires the consultant to create an “exhaustive list” of other changes for state lawmakers to consider making to the landscape beyond buses and buildings, including future voter-approved tax increases, shared purchasing agreements between schools, and debt management.
Bose may also seek the Mayor Joe Hogsett’s approval to hire another outside consultant for the work at up to $100,000.
While the mayor’s office, which includes a charter school authorizer, and IPS are both represented on the ILEA and have each collected data and made presentations to the group, IPS is not contributing to the cost of the contract with Bose, per a district spokesperson.
At the ILEA meeting last week, O’Connor announced plans to split the nine-member group into two task forces: one focused on transportation and one on buildings. The groups will meet throughout October in closed-door sessions to produce options for both task forces to consider at a public meeting around early November, he said.
“Final decisions or recommendations will then be considered by the entire ILEA throughout the remainder of the fall in public meetings,” O’Connor said.
Members Barato Britt, Bart Peterson, and Angela Smith Jones will serve on the facilities task force. Members Tina Ahlgren, Maggie Lewis, Toby McClamroch, and Andrew Neal will serve in the transportation group, according to the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.
Hogsett and IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson will be invited to attend all task force meetings.
The next ILEA meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 22 at a location to be announced.
Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.
