University President Blaine A. Brownell and Timothy P. Ehrgott, president of the Irvington Community School, will sign the agreement at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 30, at the school on the Indianapolis east side. The building is located in the rear of 345 N. Kitley Ave.

Irvington Community is the first of seven schools chartered by Ball State in March to sign a formal agreement. The school, which will open in the fall, has received applications from 170 prospective students and dozens more are expected before the May 11 application deadline.

School officials had originally planned to open with 96 students in grades K-5, but the high interest will result in the school admitting 120 children the first year, Ehrgott said.

Irvington Community School will use an Internet-based curriculum developed by K12, a national education resource company working with home schoolers and "virtual" charter schools. Irvington will be K12's first "bricks and mortar" school in the United States.

Ball State is the first state university in Indiana to sponsor charter schools under a law created in 2001. Charter schools are public schools that are given a greater degree of freedom than traditional schools.

As a charter schools sponsor, Ball State will not run the schools, but reserves the right to rescind a charter if a school fails to meet performance standards.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Glenn Augustine, associate director of university relations, at (765) 285-1560 or ggaugustine@bsu.edu.)