Planning career hub in downtown South Bend, school leaders want to use Clay during transition

Jordan Smith, South Bend Tribune
Updated ·5 min read
A photo rendering of the St. Joseph County Career Hub, a project of the South Bend Community School Corp., that is set to occupy Studebaker Building 84 at 635 S. Lafayette Blvd. in downtown South Bend.
A photo rendering of the St. Joseph County Career Hub, a project of the South Bend Community School Corp., that is set to occupy Studebaker Building 84 at 635 S. Lafayette Blvd. in downtown South Bend.

SOUTH BEND — The South Bend school board will soon consider plans to locate a long-planned career center — designed to engage students with hands-on learning that directly translates to jobs — in a former Studebaker building in downtown South Bend.

But because the center won't open until fall 2025, South Bend Community School Corp. leaders will also ask the board to allow Clay High School, set to close this summer and coveted by a local charter school network, to host equipment for a number of career and technical education courses for at least another year.

At the school board's Monday meeting, district leaders will ask members to approve Studebaker Building 84, the six-story industrial relic just beyond Four Winds Field, as the home for the St. Joseph County Career Hub. The proposal calls for South Bend schools to consider a 20-year lease at a later date and use $8.5 million set aside from a 2020 referendum, along with $5 million in additional grant money.

Leaders will also put forth a resolution intended to keep Clay under its control for the foreseeable future, months after the Career Academy charter schools network announced its intent to buy the building for $1 under a controversial Indiana state law.

How South Bend schools leaders plan to use Clay High School

Kareemah Fowler, assistant superintendent of SBCSC, said Clay is home to several career and technical education courses, as well as equipment needed for those programs. The career hub aims to consolidate these courses in one building and improve the quality of instruction.

But the year-long gap between Clay's closure and the career hub's opening means the district needs time to shift its career and technical education coursework out of its current high schools. About 400 South Bend schools students are enrolled in such courses.

"We need the opportunity to transition out of Clay," Fowler said. "We have a gap."

More: Clay was closing. How did it become a charter school candidate?

State law requires school districts to make unused buildings available to charter schools for a lease or sale price of $1. An amendment signed into law this month strengthens a mandate for districts to close underutilized buildings, where enrollment has dropped by at least 10% within the past five years.

But South Bend school leaders believe they meet criteria to keep the building open for other uses outlined in the law, such as alternative education programs, administrative offices or storage space.

The school board will hear a similar resolution to continue to use the Warren Elementary School building, the other school it voted to close after the 2023-24 school year.

"Moving forward, (Clay) is a building and a property that is still owned by the corporation," South Bend schools spokesman Andrew Goetz told The Tribune in a phone interview. "This resolution will allow flexibility for the corporation as it moves into the next phase of its planning.

"In the short term, the building can be used for automotive, for welding," he added, "and then in the longer term, there are numerous ways this building can be used.”

What would be in the St. Joseph County Career Hub?

These buildings along South Lafayette Boulevard are the remaining structures that once was the Studebaker Corp. auto manufacturing and headquarters in South Bend, as seen from a drone image from WNDU-TV. The photo shows the six-story Building 84, center, Building 113, at left, and Studebaker's administration building, lower right.
These buildings along South Lafayette Boulevard are the remaining structures that once was the Studebaker Corp. auto manufacturing and headquarters in South Bend, as seen from a drone image from WNDU-TV. The photo shows the six-story Building 84, center, Building 113, at left, and Studebaker's administration building, lower right.

At Studebaker Building 84, off Lafayette Boulevard, the district plans to lease 40,000 square feet across two floors and offer 19 educational programs.

A second-floor space will host "dirty tech" programs such as automotive services, precision machining, construction trades and welding. Rooms on the third floor will feature an array of career-oriented courses such as culinary arts, television and radio, criminal justice, cosmetology, and cybersecurity.

St. Joseph County is the largest county in Indiana without such a center, according to Jeff Rea, president of the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce and a leading advocate for the career hub.

Such centers are responses to what the the Indiana Chamber of Commerce called the state’s “leaking talent pipeline.” Indiana high schools have adopted programs better aligned with new state graduation requirements driven by experiential learning.

“When we're spending time with prospective employers that are thinking about doing something in our area," Rea told The Tribune, "things like (the career hub) are important pieces of that conversation, because prospects want to know how we're going to help them build their pipeline of workers.”

Andrew Wiand, president of enFocus, a consulting organization hired by the Chamber to study a career hub, said he expects the facility to open with about 500 students. They'll split time during the school day between traditional classes at area high schools and specialized courses at the career center.

Most students will be from South Bend schools. But he expects the Studebaker building's central location will draw students from other districts to earn their career and technical education credits at the career hub. Currently, New Prairie High School sends students to Michigan City’s A.K. Smith Career Center in LaPorte County and Mishawaka and Penn high schools send students east to the Elkhart Area Career Center.

Other schools won't contribute to the cost of building the career center, Wiand said, but would reimburse South Bend schools for each student they send with state money allotted to career and education coursework.

School leaders expect the city of South Bend to contribute $5 million, Fowler said. Caleb Bauer, executive director of South Bend's Department of Community Investment, said that although the career center is a "critical need" and the city is planning "significant financial support," no set amount has been determined.

Correction: A prior version of this story said the South Bend school board would vote on a 20-year lease for the St. Joseph County Career Hub at its Monday meeting. The board was choosing only the location for the center on Monday and will vote on a lease at a later date.

If you go

■ What: The South Bend Community School Corp. Board of Trustees will meet to discuss resolutions allowing the school corporation to lease space for a St. Joseph County Career Hub and to maintain limited instruction in Clay High School.

■ When: 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 18

■ Where: Third floor of the South Bend Community School Corp. Administration Building, 215 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., South Bend

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend schools to talk St. Joseph County Career Hub, Clay High School