INDIANAPOLIS — The Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township is actively seeking volunteer tutors to help save the Lynhurst 7th & 8th Grade Center from a state takeover.

“We learned about this possibility on Nov. 7,” said Jeff Butts, superintendent of the MSD of Wayne Township. “This is going to be quite a challenge for us. Once we get back from break we will have about 45 days of instruction before the first administration of the ISTEP.”

The district was informed that the Indiana Department of Education has proposed changes to its school accountability rules and targeted the Wayne Township school for state intervention and a potential take over. This could happen as early as 2012.

Butts explained that one of the rules that is changing has targeted Lynhurst alone.

The component that changed is the amount of time a school be considered an “F” school. In the past, a school had six years to get out of that category. The proposed changes reduced it a four-year period.

“The fact that only one school was affecting was shocking,” he said. “It has increased our awareness and our state of urgency, which I am sure was part of the plan.”

He said the administration has been working on programs to help the school improve its scores.

“But we just didn’t make enough progress,” Butts said. “We’ve not met the growth requirement.”

If the state does takeover the school, it would be controlled by a company contracted by Indiana. This means the tax dollars that would normally go to the school will no longer be locally controlled.

“And after they did a takeover and they fixed the school or got it where it needs to be, it would return to the highest ranking elected official in the municipality,” he said. “So for us, that would be Trustee Andy Harris. It would never return to the school district. We would lose it forever.”

He said it is unclear what would happen to the debt the district carries on the school which was recently renovated.

“We sold bonds to renovate the school,” Butts said. “We currently have about $30 million in bonds and the debt would remain with the district even though the state would be getting the tax funds to run the school.”

In an effort to keep the school under local supervision, the administration is hoping to increase test scores through a unified effort. The community is being asked to step up and help tutor the students in need of extra help.

“We have a very aggressive plan to make sure they are prepared for graduation as far as the ISTEP is concerned,” Butts said. “We are creating a HOSTS like program at Lynhurst. These mentors will help students with the extra support they need.”

Wayne’s teachers and administrators will give of their own time to provide the intensive intervention some of Lynhurst’s students will need in the months ahead. But Butts said they cannot do it alone.

Those who would like to volunteer may call the Lynhurst office at 988-8100. Individuals may also call 988-8675 to reach the HOSTS (Help One Student To Succeed) program, which is organizing the volunteers for this effort. As little as an hour a week of volunteered time would be welcomed.

The second component of the plan is to reduce class size so students get more one-on-one help from teachers.

“We are adding seven math teachers and seven language arts teachers,” Butts said. “We’re targeting recently retired teachers because they are already proficient and have the content knowledge we need.”

The school has seven teams of students. Each team will receive one math and one language arts teacher. This will reduce the number of students in each class.

“We are also hiring a position called the community outreach coordinator,” he said. “This person will be able to work directly with parents and give them additional strategies for homework preparation.”

That person will also be working with parents who may be moving during the school year between the March and May ISTEP testing dates.

“Any time we have a student move out of the district between the test dates, they count as undetermined or failures,” Butts said. “Last year, we had like 52 or 53 students in that category.”

He said they will work with families to try to make arrangements so the students’ education can remain stable.

“And we have staff from all of the Wayne buildings who will be helping with the tutoring,” he said. “We will also be looking at after school tutoring and Saturday tutoring as well.”

The final component of the plan to improve the school is more professional development for the staff.

“We will be working after school and on Saturdays,” Butts said. “We will also be retooling a little bit of our curriculum.”

There will be a public meeting to discuss the details of the plan at 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Lynhurst 7th & 8th Grade Center.

brenda.holmes@flyergroup.com