South Bend consolidation: Which schools change? Which stay the same? Where will kids go?

SOUTH BEND — Consultants working with the South Bend school corporation shared recommendations Monday for a multi-year plan to reshape Michiana's largest school district.

Eye-catching proposals, such as closing Clay High School and Warren Elementary, have readily captured attention. However, redistricting recommendations are likely to have far-reaching effects for thousands of elementary and middle school students across the city.

Redistricting efforts have been proposed to help solve for an imbalance of enrollment across South Bend schools. Adams High School and McKinley Elementary, for example, are enrolling more students this year than their building's determined capacity, according to planners. Clay, Riley and LaSalle, on the other hand, are less than half full.

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

Under consultants' proposals, families' elementary and middle school choice would be limited to three geographic attendance boundaries, though high school choice and magnet programs are expected to continue. The enrollment boundaries, if approved by the school board, are expected to take effect with the start of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Here's a look at each school in the South Bend district and how it could change if consultants' recommendations are adopted. The South Bend school board is expected to vote on a plan in their April 17 board meeting at LaSalle Academy.

High schools

At the high school level, consultants are proposing to continue the district's practice of open enrollment and magnet programming, meaning families could still be offered significant choice in which remaining South Bend high school they would like to attend. Enrollment decisions will be subject to building capacity.

• Adams High School: Adams, which serves 9th-12th grade students, would largely remain unchanged. Its International Baccalaureate magnet program is expected to continue.

• Clay High School: Clay would close after the 2023-2024 school year. Its students would move to Riley. The school's fine arts magnet would also move to Riley.

• Riley High School: Riley would stay open and take students from Clay. The school would also likely see $1.5 million in renovations to support the fine arts magnet.

• Washington High School: Washington would remain open. Consultants have recommended a $4.5 million investment to support an expansion of the school's medical magnet program.

• Rise Up Academy: The district's high school credit recovery program, Rise Up, is currently in the old Perley school. Consultants have proposed moving this program to the Kennedy.

Middle schools

Consultants are proposing reshaping middle school options within the district. Boundaries would create west, south and northeast enrollment zones. Each would give families a choice of sending students to a single preK-8 school or one elementary and one middle school before moving on to high school.

Other popular programs, like Clay International Academy, would continue to be offered districtwide regardless of a family's home address. PreK-8 school options would transition into selected schools one grade at a time beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.

• Clay International Academy: Clay IA currently serves grades K-8 and would remain open to students across the district. Consultants also propose growing the programs to offer pre-kindergarten classes.

• Dickinson Fine Arts Academy: Dickinson's existing 6-8 fine arts program would move into Navarre. The remaining building would be renovated to become a preK-8 school serving the district's west side and would offer a dual language magnet. Dickinson students would feed into Washington High School.

• Edison Middle School: Edison, currently a 6-8 school, would convert to a preK-8 school, also with a dual language magnet program. McKinley students would move into the building to fill lower grade levels. Edison would be open to students on the northeast side and students would go on to Adams for high school.

• Jackson Middle School: Jackson, a 6-8 school, would keep its grade configuration and serve students in the southern district boundary. The school will feed into Riley High School.

• Jefferson Traditional School: Jefferson, also a 6-8 school this year, would remain as a 6-8 middle school and serve students in the district's northeast section. Jefferson students would feed into Adams.

• LaSalle Academy: LaSalle Academy, currently a 6-8 magnet program open to all South Bend students, would continue as a districtwide 6-8 magnet. LaSalle would be renovated by the 2024-2025 school year and take on Kennedy students.

Elementary schools

Like middle schools, elementary schools will be divided into geographically assigned feeder patterns with a few exceptions for popular districtwide programs, such as at Marquette Montessori. Also like in middle school, enrollment boundary transitions would begin with the start of the 2024-2025 academic year.

• Darden Elementary School: Darden would see no change to its current elementary school structure. It would be a part of the district's northeast side feeder pattern and direct students to Jefferson for middle school then Adams for high school.

• Kennedy Academy: The Kennedy Academy program would move into the LaSalle building after the 2023-2024 school year to share space with the LaSalle Academy program. Both programs would remain open districtwide. The Kennedy building would be converted by the 2024-2025 school year to house several other district programs, including Rise Up, the School Age Mothers Program, virtual school offices and a new K-8 alternative education program.

• Lincoln Elementary School: Lincoln would remain as an elementary school in the district's south side feeder. It's students would go to Jackson for middle school and Riley for high school.

• Madison STEAM Academy: Madison, like Lincoln, would remain an elementary school in the district's south side feeder, sending its students to Jackson for middle school then Riley High.

• Marquette Montessori Academy: Marquette would continue to offer its popular Montessori program to students from across the city. Consultants have recommended expanding the current preK-6 program to seventh- and eighth-graders.

• Marshall Traditional School: Marshall, currently a preK-5 school, would expand to serve preK-8 students in the district's south boundary, and would feed into Riley High School.

• McKinley Elementary School: McKinley students would move into the expanded preK-8 school at Edison, and the McKinley building would be converted to an early childhood center serving students across the city.

• Monroe Elementary School: Monroe would remain as an elementary school on the south side of the district feeding into Jackson Middle School then Riley High.

• Muessel Elementary School: Muessel would stay open as an elementary serving the district's northeast boundary. It's students would go to Jefferson for middle school then Adams High.

• Nuner Fine Arts Academy: Nuner would continue as an elementary school in the district's northeast boundary area. Nuner students would feed into Jefferson Middle then Adams High.

• Swanson Traditional School: Swanson would remain a traditional elementary school in the northern part of the district and feed into Jefferson for middle school and Adams for high school. It would serve students within the northeast boundary lines.

Empowerment Zone schools

The future of South Bend's Empowerment Zone, a set of five administratively independent schools operating under the district's umbrella, is somewhat unclear.

This fall, the Empowerment Zone will enter the last year of its current five-year contract. Administrators from both sets of schools say their respective boards will meet in the coming weeks to make a determination about governance. Facility planners have said they anticipate no building changes would occur until after the 2023-2024 school year.

• Coquillard Elementary School: Coquillard would feed into Navarre, as it does now, then Washington. It would be restricted to serve students on the west side of the city.

• Harrison Elementary School: Harrison would similarly feed into Navarre, as it does now, then Washington, and serve the west side. The school's dual language studies would move to Dickinson and the school would also absorb some students from a proposed closing of Warren Elementary.

• Navarre Middle School: Navarre, a 6-8 school, will remain a 6-8 middle school serving the west side and will feed into Washington. The school will also take on Dickinson's current programs.

• Warren Elementary School: Consultants have recommended closing Warren after the 2023-2024 school year. Students from Warren would be liked by absorbed into two west side-serving elementary schools, Harrison and Wilson.

• Wilson Elementary School: Wilson would remain a west side serving elementary school, feeding into Navarre then Washington. It's likely to take students from Warren, if the elementary is closed.

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: Here's what each South Bend school could look like after consolidation