Career center, athletic complex or high school closure? South Bend district wants feedback

SOUTH BEND — South Bend school leaders are sharing their ideas for, and seeking community feedback about, what should happen next across four high schools and seven middle schools.

In a well-attended meeting Thursday night, a facilities planning consultant presented three options for South Bend high school reconfiguration and three options for middle schools.

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The options, labeled A, B and C for both the middle and high schools, pair well together, said Tracy Richter, a consultant with educational planning firm HPM, but, can also be considered independently or used to spark other ideas for change across the district.

"I encourage you tonight that if you don't like options, tell us," Richter said to a packed community room in the Charles Black Community Center. "There's some options on here that I'm not sure I can see work altogether yet, but that's why we need your input."

The conversation comes as the school corporation tries to correct for years of enrollment loss and declining revenue.

Administrators have closed or repurposed seven schools since 2018 and are currently negotiating a $2.8 million offer from the city to buy the district's downtown administration building. But, even with those changes, a majority of schools in the corporation are under-enrolled.

All but one high school is operating at less than 58% capacity. More than 4,100 seats sit empty across the district's middle and high schools under the corporation's current configuration. And, overall enrollment — at about 15,400 students this year and down from 26,000 in 2007 — is expected to fall by another 1,000 students in the next two years, according to projections provided by the district.

"Think about that. 4,100 seats. If Washington's 1,500 (seats), that's two Washington's and half a Washington," Richter said. "That has to be corrected because ... the amount you have to maintain — the floors, turn the lights on, heating, cooling, mow the yard — all those expenses go to 4,100 empty seats."

School leaders presented no detailed estimates of what it would cost to pursue their proposals, which included everything from building a new career center to the partial demolition of Clay High School to make way for a new athletic complex.

Assistant Superintendent Kareemah Fowler said last month that the district hopes to put about $30 million of its $54 million capital referendum toward projects proposed through the facilities planning process. She told a reporter Thursday that the district's proposals were not priced out because each "option" encompasses ideas for schools that also could be considered "a la carte".

Fowler said the cost of the projects could exceed the expected tax collection from the district's $54 million referendum, meaning the district could turn to bond financing to support some of its plans.

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Superintendent Todd Cummings was not present for the highly anticipated meeting that was attended by city leaders, business professionals and community members, as well as school board trustees and the leader of a competing charter school.

District officials said the projects proposed Thursday come as a part of the creation of a long-term, five-to-10-year facilities plan and are not expected to take effect in the coming school year.

Here's what each option proposes:

Option A: Close Clay, build an athletic complex

Planners' first option calls for closing Clay High School, which currently houses the district's visual and performing arts magnet program. A "selective demolition" would take place at the high school to make way for a new athletic complex serving students across the district.

With this, the corporation would look at building a new, centrally located career center. Planners on Thursday said they don't have a site in mind yet and that they would consider both property currently in their possession and not owned by the district.

The plan also calls for restructuring Clay International Academy, which currently serves grades kindergarten through 8, as a 6th through 12th grade performing arts academy with additional focuses in dual language, construction trades and digital media studies.

This programmatic restructuring would also call for physical changes. Planners propose a building addition at Clay IA and moving the school's current international magnet students to Edison Middle school.

No capital projects would come to Adams or Riley high schools, and the schools each would likely retain their current magnet programs. Washington, home of the district's current medical magnet, would receive upgrades for a "medical academy" complete with operational health and dental clinics.

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This plan also calls for moving Kennedy Academy students into LaSalle, which is at less than 38% capacity, and converting the Kennedy building to a districtwide pre-K facility.

Combined, these middle and high school plans would decrease the number of empty seats in the district by more than 1,510 and reduce the corporation's footprint by over 200,000 square feet.

Option B: Close Clay, build a career center in its place

Ideas for Adams, Riley and Washington high schools remain similar in Option B to what planners suggested in their first reconfiguration proposal. Here, however, selective demolition at Clay would make way for a career center.

The proposal is also similar in that Clay International Academy students would still move to Edison. However, LaSalle Academy students would move to the Clay IA building and a sixth through 12th grade performing arts academy would open in the space they leave open in the LaSalle building.

This plan calls for a building addition at the current LaSalle facility rather than at Clay IA. Combined, the middle and high school restructuring would carve out more than 1,000 empty seats and cut back also around 200,000 square feet of space.

Option C: Keep all high schools open, build a new career center

This option keeps plans similar for both Washington and Adams high schools, but proposes the creation of two combined sixth through 12th grade schools housed at Clay and Riley high schools.

Clay would retain its current focus as a fine arts school and take on students from Edison Middle School. The change would require "significant condition improvements," according to planners.

Riley would take on Jackson Middle School students and retain its engineering focus. However, planners don't anticipate making any capital upgrades to the Riley building.

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Both Edison and Jackson middle school buildings would be closed but slated for potential re-use in elementary school master planning, which is expect to come later this year in the fall.

This proposal also calls for combining Kennedy and LaSalle academies in the LaSalle building and opening up districtwide pre-K in the Kennedy building.

This plan would shave away the most empty seats, at 1,830, and reduce the district's overall footprint by more than 350,000 square feet, according to data provided by the corporation. Although, it's unclear if those figures take into account reintroducing Edison and Jackson classrooms as a part of longer term elementary school planning.

Altogether, the options take into consideration school size, academic offerings, transportation and geographic feed patterns, among other things. The first option, Option A, appears to check the most boxes on planners' list of guiding principles.

Administrators on Thursday night, however, made clear that no final decisions have been made. They say they want to hear from the community first before bringing more information to a public school board meeting, likely sometime in mid-June.

The school corporation is distributing a survey to students, parents, staff and community members seeking their feedback. The survey will be open through May 15 and is available online.

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend school leaders float plan to close Clay, build career center