Could one or more South Bend high school close? Here's what's on the table for discussion.

SOUTH BEND — A facility planning team for South Bend schools is asking the public to weigh in on a series of ideas for consolidation that promises to bring sweeping change and set the stage for the next decade of education across the city's shrinking public school district.

Among the scenarios planners are asking the community to consider are:

• Should South Bend consolidate to two or three high schools?

• Should the district close its Clay High School and/or convert Riley High into a middle school?

• Should district magnet programs be offered regionally?

These ideas come after months of planning and community discussion, as the district looks to tighten up its budget amid years of declining enrollment and recently imposed tax caps.

Under-enrolled:How many students attend each South Bend school?

Facility planners working with the corporation brought several scenarios to the South Bend school board Monday night — each with elements that can be combined differently into a final plan. Consultants say they are putting the ideas forward to see which parts the community likes and what suggestions community members have of their own.

Planners stress that nothing is decided and no changes would occur before the 2024-25 school year. A series of community meetings are scheduled across the district this week to gather input before planners return to the school board in March with their formal recommendations. A final board vote could take place April 17.

"We're doing this to facilitate the conversation," said Scott Leopold, a director of planning with consulting firm HPM. "It's OK if you hate all of it, but give us suggestions. Tell us what we should consider. The intent is not to select one of these scenarios as presented and make it the recommendation, but we want to take pieces of it."

What are the ideas?

Planners on Monday introduced three scenarios. Some include school closures and others suggest a reorganization of grade levels. Each proposal generally groups buildings by high school region and contains a variation of a K-8 school option, seeking to replicate the corporation's popular Clay International Academy across different corners of the district.

Each scenario also proposes ways to streamline student assignment patterns, solving for a system that currently allows families to travel across the district, far from their neighborhood schools, to participate in specialty magnet programs. Some elementary schools see students break off into as many as six different middle schools.

In suggestions proposed Monday, elementary students would be given clear direction as to which middle and high school they would attend in an effort to establish "clean feeders" across the district.

Ideas likely to garner the most attention, however, come at the high school level.

One scenario proposes keeping all high schools open. A second suggests closing Clay High School. And a third explores the idea of moving to only two high schools.

With two high schools, planners say, Riley High School could be converted to a middle school while Clay High School would be likely to close. The scenario also proposes converting two middle schools, Jefferson and Navarre, into freshman centers feeding into Adams and Washington high schools, respectively.

"One of the questions I asked, if we could start completely over from scratch and build an entire school corporation, how many high schools would we have? The answer that I got was two," Leopold said. "This was kind of the idea of what would we have to do, given our current state, to get to two high schools. This may not be palatable to the community at all, but I think it's important to at least look at the data and have that conversation."

All three scenarios help the district resize its footprint, planners say, increasing the amount of space used across the district from it's 70% rate today to at much as 87% under a two high school model.

Each scenario also proposes an additional set of school closures and reconfigurations, including the possible conversion of Kennedy and McKinley into pre-kindergarten centers, and the potential closure of Muessel, Jackson or Warren schools.

Muessel has received significant investments in recent years in a locally created academic redesign model and Warren is one of five schools belonging to the South Bend Empowerment Zone.

Planners say for each building left vacant, the former school's future use would be determined at a later date. Two ideas floated by planners include uses for alternative education or special education programming.

How much will it cost?

All of the scenarios bring millions of dollars of recommended building upgrades.

In 2020, administrators said they would set aside more than $30 million of the district's $54 million capital referendum to "right size" the district. Long-term renovations costs to be addressed over a 20- to 30-year timespan range from $242 million to nearly $300 million. Planners recognize meeting all of these recommended facility upgrades is not feasible, but say charting out the expenses can help the district set priorities over time.

Cost savings is one of the driving factors in the district's desire to reassess its physical footprint. The corporation has lost more than 4,000 students over the last decade and with it, tens of millions of dollars in state education funding.

Under the three scenarios posed by planners Monday night, a move to two high schools would save the district more than three times as much as continuing to operate four high schools.

Planners estimate the district would save $584,000 annually under a restructuring that maintains four high schools. The corporation could save as much as $1.3 million under the three high school scenario and about $2.1 million with two high schools.

The consultant's presentation Monday did not address the growing conversation of bringing a county-serving career center to the area — another investment South Bend district leaders planned for when campaigning for the corporation's 2020 referendum. Administrators budgeted about $8.5 million in capital referendum money for such an effort.

Cost estimates for all scenarios are simply that: estimates, planners say, and could change as the district makes its final selections for consolidation. Buildings with the lowest "condition scores" include Clay International Academy, Clay High School, Dickinson Fine Arts Academy and the Brown Community Learning Center, which district leaders have identified as their next headquarters upon moving out the corporation's downtown administration center.

"As I'm watching this presentation, I'm sure other people's heads are exploding just as mine may be as well on the different scenarios," Board President John Anella said Monday night. "We want this to play out. We want to hear from the public. Ultimately, what we want this process to accomplish is something that will help move this district forward."

How to share your ideas

The district has scheduled multiple opportunities for public input between giving an initial school board presentation in early February and making their final recommendations in late March.

• Feb. 6: Community survey goes live seeking input on facility planners' proposed scenarios. The survey can be accessed through the South Bend district's website.

• Feb. 7: Planners will have two community meetings at both Dickinson and Edison. The first of each set of meetings will begin at 5:30 p.m. The second will begin at 7 p.m. Planners say these meetings will be identical.

• Feb. 8: Planners will have two community meetings at both Jackson and Clay International Academy. The first of each set of meetings will begin at 5:30 p.m. The second will begin at 7 p.m. These meetings also will be identical.

• Feb. 13-17: Planners will schedule small group, virtual community meetings during this window. Interested community members can register through the online survey launched Monday.

• March 6-10: The district’s facility planning task force will meet during this week. An exact date and time are forthcoming.

• March 20: Planners will give their final recommendations to the school board in its regularly scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. at Clay High School.

• April 17: A final vote is expected at the district's mid-April school board meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the administration building.

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 consolidation: Will Clay or Riley close as high schools?