South Bend’s newest charter school opens tutoring center in University Park Mall

MISHAWAKA — The team at Paramount Schools of Excellence want you to know their name, and they're introducing themselves through an eye-catching offer; free tutoring for all students no matter where they go to school.

Using a state law that allows the purchase of unused school buildings for $1, the Indianapolis-based charter network was given South Bend schools' closed Tarkington Elementary last summer.

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In a precedent-setting process, a state panel awarded the building to Paramount over the local Career and Success Academy network, clearing the path for a new K-8 charter school in South Bend.

Paramount — which currently runs three Indianapolis schools and a fourth online academy — submitted its application for a charter with authorizer Trine University this month and plans to invest more than $3 million in deferred maintenance and renovations in the old Tarkington school before opening for classes in fall 2023.

In the meantime, Paramount's educators are working to drum up interest in a community new to them for the school they plan to begin enrolling students in as early as this fall.

Their strategy? Use pandemic relief money awarded to open a new community tutoring center. The charter network conducted its first tutoring appointment last week in its new My Learning Nook center at University Park Mall.

The center is a step to raise name recognition, CEO Tommy Reddicks said, but also an opportunity to introduce Paramount's mission and vision to the community.

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"You can't just buy trust. You have to prove trust," Reddicks said. "We really want to take our time with this and show families over the long haul that we're providing a dependable service and something really good for them."

What is My Learning Nook?

My Learning Nook, just a few storefronts past Barnes & Noble at University Park Mall, offers free tutoring sessions through the week and on weekends.

The center is staffed by licensed teachers and focuses on math and language arts studies at the K-8 level. Students are invited to take a benchmark exam to assess their needs and can come as often as they'd like based on tutors' availability.

Each one-hour session focuses on one academic standard and is adapted to a student's individual learning style. The center accepts students from all schools and educational backgrounds.

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With summer around the corner, Learning Coordinator Nikki Tredway said My Learning Nook tutors are available to help kids, especially those who feel behind after pandemic-related disruptions, catch back up to their grade level before the start of next school year.

"I do feel like Paramount is very unique in the educational community at large in that they've developed an academic way to close those achievement gaps and catch kids up to where they need to be," Tredway said. "We are here to serve the community."

The center is funded in part through a state learning recovery grant program created by Indiana legislators last year to help address learning loss. State records show Paramount's My Learning Nook was awarded $613,000 in a single-year award.

The University Park Mall location is the Paramount's second My Learning Nook center. The charter operator opened its first in November in Lafayette, Ind., where the network has similar plans to open a new school in fall 2023.

That tutoring center, placed in Lafayette's Tippecanoe Mall, has already enrolled up to 120 students, Learning Coordinator Molly Provost said.

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Together, the South Bend and Lafayette schools mark Paramount's first expansion out of the Indianapolis area. Reddicks said the idea to introduce Paramount's name through local shopping malls came from a meeting with marketing representatives at Simon Property Group.

"We know the malls know their neighborhoods and neighbors very well, so we set up a marketing meeting ... just to pick their brains," Reddicks said. "And, they said 'Yeah, but, would you want some mall space?'"

Reddicks said he estimates one storefront center costs about $250,000 a year to operate. But, if the idea takes off and Paramount can secure additional funding, it's a model Reddick said he could see continuing even after the network's South Bend and Lafayette schools open.

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"Simon Properties want a win. They want a great service provided in their mall," Reddicks said. "At the same time, we could get to know the community that way ... where we can introduce ourselves providing something free so families didn't feel like there was a giant catch to having a conversation and getting to know who we were."

Paramount School of Excellence South Bend

When the Tarkington school finally does reopen in 2023, it'll be under a different name. Paramount leaders say the plan to use the network's namesake brand, calling the building Paramount School of Excellence South Bend.

Paramount is known in Indianapolis for its urban farming and STEM-based programs, introducing opportunities like urban farming, beekeeping and cheesemaking.

The network also established an online academy last year, open to any student across the state. Reddicks said, however, online enrollment is highest among residents of central Indiana, where the school currently carries its greatest name recognition.

Pending city approvals for livestock like chickens, goats and bees, Reddicks said, Paramount hopes to bring all similar urban farming programs to South Bend. The school has set a first-year enrollment target of 125 students, with plans to add 40 additional students each year after.

The team is working on physical upgrades to the building now — including new carpet and paint, a community garden, a renovated front façade and possible solar paneling — and anticipates opening enrollment this fall for its first class of students to attend in the 2023-24 academic year.

The network has a matriculation partnership with Purdue Polytechnic — which opened its first South Bend-based high school in 2020 — and is looking to be a community partner, Reddicks said.

The charter school, however, will have to distinguish itself among a growing range of education options in South Bend, and it's likely that not everyone will be enthusiastic about another new charter school in the community.

The competition for students that new schools introduce has long been a sore subject for districts like South Bend, already hurting for enrollment, its associated funding, and now looking to downsize its remaining buildings.

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And, concern for accountability after a string of virtual charter schools shut down amid allegations of noncompliance with state law have left some traditional public school advocates skeptical of charter schools' place in the greater education landscape.

Reddicks said he, too, is a charter school critic.

"Whether you're in the private sector, public sector or charter-public sector, there are examples of great and bad schools," Reddicks said. "We should be really calling out the bad ones no matter what sector you're in and demanding better."

The Paramount CEO says his network distinguishes itself through strong academic programs evidenced by top state academic and attendance rates. The network's first school — Paramount Brookside, opened in 2010 — has received an 'A' grade in the state's accountability system for at least six consecutive years and was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2018.

The school has reported fluctuating attendance rates and above-average chronic absenteeism, according to state data, but Paramount also serves a student body that is highly transient and more racially diverse and economically disadvantaged than the average Hoosier student.

Reddicks said 85% or more of the network's students experience high rates of poverty and 20-30% are likely to change schools before the end of an academic year.

Those challenges have pushed the school to develop a nimble academic plan targeting students' weaknesses to make sure no time is wasted while students are enrolled in Paramount schools.

"We work so hard to be honest, transparent community players and provide great excitement as a part of our school culture," Reddicks said. "I think that continues to win over those who know us, and I'm confident it will there (in South Bend). I'm really hopeful that folks see the Learning Nook as a step one of how we want to be providing a public service as we open our arms to a new community."

More information about My Learning Nook tutoring hours and appointments is available online at mylearningnook.paramountindy.org.

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: Paramount charter school enters South Bend with new tutoring services