Shortridge High School is a public high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Shortridge is the home of the International Baccalaureate and arts and humanities programs of the Indianapolis Public Schools district.(IPS). Originally known as Indianapolis High School, it opened in 1864 and is Indiana's oldest free public high school. New Albany High School (1853) was Indiana's first public high school, but was not initially free. Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Shortridge class of 1940, said that Shortridge was: