Indio Middle School

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Location
Indio Middle School - Charter School
81-195 Miles Avenue, Indio, CA 92201
Information
Principal	Dan Miller
Type	Public
Established	1992
Information	(760) 775-3800
Colors Mascot	Teal/Gray Tiger
Homepage	Indio Middle School Information

Indio Middle School (IMS) is a middle school (grades 6 to 8) in Indio, California in the Desert Sands Unified School District. It is also a Charter School as of 1996 the second in DSUSD history after George Washington Elementary School in Palm Desert. The school first opened in 1991 in a temporary site but its' present site was constructed in 1992/93.

It is also a California Distinguished School with a relatively above-average rank in state academic standards in the past decade (since 1997), among 90 others in the state with this honorable designation. The official school mascot name is the "Tigers" and the first principal was Robert Block, whom resigned in a federally investigated school district money laundry scandal in the mid 1990s.

IMS is third out of five middle schools in the city, with Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, John Glenn and Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High School in the Coachella Valley Unified School District for students residing south of Avenue 48/east of Jefferson Street.

IMS serves students residing in western parts of Indio, as well some students in Bermuda Dunes and northern half of La Quinta. But the school's boundaries once covered those areas until John Glenn and Colonel Mitchell Paige Middle School of La Quinta later opened in the 2000s. These areas are also served by Palm Desert Middle School and later La Quinta Middle School by voluntarily choice.

Currently IMS has 920 students, which has increased over time in the 1990's and 2000's. About half of their students attend Indio High School, but two-fifths choose La Quinta and one-tenth go to Palm Desert High Schools, since these high schools ranked higher in state and federal academic standards. In student body ethnic/racial makeup, 55% are Latino, 30% are Anglo (non-Latino white), 1-5% Asian-American/Pacific Islander and 5-10% African-American due to mainly black neighborhoods in West Indio.

The school provides all required classes that provide Math, English, Social Studies, Music (the Indio Middle school band appears in the annual Indio National Date Festival parades every Feb.), P.E. including sports (softball, football, basketball, volleyball, and track & field) and several elective courses of various academic subjects. The school increased the number of classrooms to boost the availibility and choice of classes for their students.

Originally, IMS was supposed to be called Ronald Reagan Middle School in a debate at the DSUSD headquarters in 1991, but a former supervisor of Desert Sands took down the idea in his quote "What did President Reagan have done to public education?" But the DSUSD later put his namesake on a new elementary school in Palm Desert, California in 2007. IMS officials apologized for politicizing the decision.