South Bend schools facility plan shifts focus away from school closures, consolidation

SOUTH BEND ⁠— South Bend facility planners are turning their attention away from school closure and consolidation — at least for now.

Education planning consultant Tracy Richter, of the firm HPM, brought his first recommendations to the South Bend school board during a meeting Wednesday night.

His initial priorities include new construction of a regional career center and investments in Washington High School's medical magnet program.

Any further discussion of school closures or consolidation would wait until at least the fall after planning teams are able to better assess the district's school feeder patterns from the elementary schools on up.

"We don't feel like our plan is ready for that yet," Richter said of possible school closures. "We don't feel like we've aligned the programs along with geographic feeder patterns."

The discussion comes as South Bend schools grapples with enrollment change. The district has lost more than 10,000 students since 2007 and expects to see its enrollment decline by nearly another 1,000 students by the 2026-27 school year, according projections from the district. Only one of the district's four high schools is near its full capacity.

Richter's recommendations Monday night come after months of work exploring district facility needs at the middle and high school level — a step some community members said should only come in tandem with exploring how elementary school programs align with middle school level academics.

Past ideas raised during the facilities planning process — including one to repurpose Clay High School into a career center or athletic complex and to consolidate some 6th through 12th grade students into the Clay International Academy building — also saw significant pushback from parents and community members.

Many have also expressed frustration about bussing, magnet programs and open enrollment among schools within the district, some times sending students across the city for programs further from their homes.

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"There's a square footage issue out there," Richter said, referencing the amount of underused space across the district. "And trying to (right size) smartly is going to require a deeper dive into how elementary schools are going to feed into middle, and how they're going to feed high schools."

First investments proposed

Richter is now proposing the district spend some of the remaining money from the district's $54 million capital referendum to address deferred maintenance at, and strengthen programs within, Washington High School.

A $5 million to $6 million investment could bring bigger labs and more "student-centered spaces" to the school, Richter said.

The consultant did not give estimates Wednesday night for what it would cost to construct a new career center and did not say where the district might look to build it other than at "a central location." Planners have said in multiple public meetings that they are working within a budget of about $35 million.

Neither Richter nor Kareemah Fowler, the district's assistant superintendent of business and finance, were available to answer questions directly after the board meeting.

Superintendent Todd Cummings said plans are preliminary and the district will look at the ongoing affect of inflation and potential community partnerships before determining the cost of a career center project.

Board Secretary Stephanie Ball said she supports investments at Washington, where she said she feels the school's medical magnet program has weakened over time as similar classes were introduced in other South Bend schools.

"When we're able to realign and bring all of those programs under one roof and improve facilities that make it state of the art ... that can bolster up the medical magnet program as it should be," Ball said. "It can draw more students into that medical program, so that potentially can be an increase in enrollment at that location."

Board member Oletha Jones, however, asked the facilities planning team to speak more transparently about how proposals will advance student equity. She also expressed concern that a regional career center could create competition between existing high school programs.

"We're weary of seeing things on paper," Jones said to the district's consultant. "You talked about inequities, but we have to move past talking and get action."

Next steps in planning

No board action was taken on facilities during the Wednesday meeting and Richter brought his recommendations to the school board only as a presentation

A board vote on Washington investments and a new career center could come in the fall. And, while Richter made clear he is not recommending any immediate school closures, Cummings said more recommendations are likely to come after additional review of community feedback.

Recommendations made Wednesday were a part of the first stage of planning that is expected to carry into the coming school year and consider both short-term investments to make within five years, and "more visionary" projects to be addressed within the next six to 10 years.

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To further address longstanding student loss, Richter said planners will work with updated enrollment data this fall and focus attention on elementary and middle school feeder patterns.

The consultant said community meetings will likely be scheduled in September in specific neighborhoods to collect feedback at the elementary level. The facilities planning team is currently sifting through more than 300 pages of comments from a survey put out this spring, Richter said.

A community task force composed of more than two dozen invited city officials, business leaders and members of the faith and arts communities met several times in closed session and once in public this spring after The Tribune sought state officials' counsel on whether such committees must meet in the open. That task force will meet again in August, September and October, Richter said Wednesday, and additional updates will be provided to the school board during that time.

The facilities recommendations also comes as scrutiny grows toward district leaders from community members who have expressed frustration with an increasing list of changes from recent principal transfers and retention challenges to outsourced grounds and maintenance work, and renewed relationships with local police.

One parent, Allison Mynsberge, voiced her frustration with recent communication challenges, asking that administrators bring parents into the conversation with honest assessments of what the district does well and what it needs to improve.

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"When you propose an innovative idea like combining grades, let us know you have the capacity to do it the right way," Mynsberge said, addressing the board and superintendent. "When your consultants suggest changing feeder patterns, share the documents, detailing and analyzing current district feeder patterns. When you suggest building a new facility when we're closing schools, share why our many underutilized existing facilities won't do."

"If we can't build trust within the district by solving easy problems and owning the hard ones, we have no chance of building trust with all those families and community members who have disinvested from South Bend schools."

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 board shifts away from school closures ... for now