Thea Bowman Leadership Academy

Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is a 13-year charter school in Gary, Indiana. The academy is named after Sister Thea Bowman, an African-American, Roman Catholic nun, teacher, and scholar, of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. The school is authorized by Ball State University, was established by the Drexel Foundation for Educational Excellence, Inc., and is managed by American Quality Schools, Inc.HistoryThea Bowman Leadership Academy first opened as a K-6 charter school on August 18, 2003. With each passing year, Bowman Academy added an additional grade level. As of the 2009-2010 academic year, the school had expanded its program to accommodate all thirteen grade levels, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Students who entered the program as 6th graders in August 2003 comprised the school's first class of graduating high school seniors in June 2010. The K-6 Thea Bowman Leadership Academy occupies the building that once housed Holy Angels School, a Roman Catholic school associated with the adjacent Cathedral of the Holy Angels, which is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gary. The current building opened in 1966 as Holy Angels School, and was renamed in 1994 as Sister Thea Bowman School, but was ultimately closed in 2002 by the diocese though the current school is in no way affiliated with the Cathedral and diocese.In 2008, Bowman Academy began construction on a new building to accommodate students in grades 7 through 12. The new Thea Bowman Leadership Academy High School was dedicated on April 23, 2009, and is fully operational for the 2009-2010 academic year.