Purdue Polytechnic High School, a STEM-themed charter school, has opened a permanent site for its location near downtown Indianapolis.
After being housed in an old factory location its first year and in a downtown mall the last two years, the school will be housed in a former factory that has undergone a $38 million redevelopment.
Over 120 years, the facility has been a home for the Indianapolis Indians baseball team, the site of Wonderland Amusement Park and a P. R. Mallory and Co. battery factory. The main building had been vacant for almost 30 years.
“When we selected the P. R. Mallory campus as our permanent home several years ago, we knew it would be a long journey to get to where we stand today,” says Scott Bess, head of the school. “Frankly, it was a leap of faith then that a long abandoned, neglected building could be turned into an asset to the community.”
The Purdue Polytechnic High School is a tuition-free, public charter school network focused on providing underrepresented students STEM-focused experiences, Purdue University says in a news release. There are now three Purdue Polytechnic high school campuses in central and northern Indiana.
“In spite of all the challenges with the building when we started this process, there wasn’t a better location for Purdue Polytechnic High School to call home,” says Rob Wynkoop, associate vice president of administrative operations at Purdue. “It serves students that might not otherwise get an opportunity to get this kind of hands-on learning and education.”
The site includes a main 120,000-square-foot administration building that Purdue Polytechnic High School will share with the Paramount School of Excellence and a secondary, 70,000-square-foot building housing for-profit tenants.
Purdue Polytechnic High School opened its first Indianapolis charter school in 2017 and its second in Indianapolis’ Broad Ripple neighborhood in 2019. The upcoming Purdue Polytechnic High School in South Bend will replicate the innovative model that has been serving students in the Indianapolis area.
The STEM-focused schools provide students with experiences including internships, industry projects, dual-credit courses and technical certifications.
