Career Academy seeks to reopen South Bend Clay High as a charter school
SOUTH BEND — Career Academy Network officials announced Wednesday its intent to turn the current Clay High School into a charter school for middle- and high-school students after the South Bend school closes in June 2024.
The Save Clay group, local political leaders and officials from Career Academy Network stood Wednesday morning in front of Clay on Darden Road, announcing the charter group has sent a letter to the South Bend Community School Corp. seeking to enter into a lease-purchase agreement to eventually establish a charter school.
South Bend school board members approved plans in April to close Clay High School and consolidate across Michiana’s largest school district.
The plan, seeking to solve for years of under-enrollment, will shutter the north side high school in summer 2024 as well as Warren Elementary school on the corporation’s far west side.
Peter Agostino, attorney representing the Save Clay High School coalition, said the group's efforts to keep the school open have prompted the charter school concept.
"Today, as time is running out, there is only one viable solution that has been presented to us, and that is the sale of Clay High School to Career Academy of South Bend to be operated as a charter high school," Agostino said.
Larry Garatoni, president of the Career Academy board, said the letter to the school district is likely the first step in a long process.
Clay High School currently is part of the South Bend Community School Corp. and is scheduled to close after this academic year.
Agostino said the Save Clay group has taken many steps to try and keep clay open, speaking with the state Department of Education to inquire about making Clay its own school district and trying to get the Department of Justice involved over the lawsuit and consent decree faced by the school district.
In October, U.S. District Court Judge Philip Simon denied the group Save Clay’s request to intervene in the federal consent decree governing racial balance in South Bend schools. The judge did, however, say the school district must provide more details about the plan to transition to the new structure, setting a Dec. 20 deadline for South Bend schools officials to submit final plans to transition students out of Clay.
In September, the St. Joseph County Council voted 5-4, along party lines, with the Republican majority voting to encourage Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner to study the possibility of carving out a separate school district from the unincorporated parts of the county.
The South Bend district has lost more than 1,700 high school students over the last 17 years alone, leading to a $12 million drop in the district’s annual education budget. Administrators, further, have looked to plug a hole of more than $19 million in annual operating revenues after recently imposed tax caps took effect.
The district has taken some recent action, closing or repurposing seven schools since 2018, and moving last winter to close a $2.8 million sale to the city on its downtown administration center.
The district passed a $54 million capital referendum in 2020, with a promise of using $34 million to "right size" the district, and began collecting money in 2021.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Career Academy plans to reopen Clay High as charter school
