South Bend schools move ahead in facility planning. Could middle schools be next to change?

SOUTH BEND — Planners for South Bend schools are setting a new timeline for when they hope to bring recommendations for changes to the shrinking district’s physical footprint.

After about a year of discussion, planning and architectural consultants say they will bring new ideas for facility planning to the South Bend school board in early February. They will follow their presentation with a series of community meetings — both in person and virtually — in hope of presenting final recommendations to the school board in mid-March.

The new timeline comes as the next step in an ongoing facility planning process that began last year and has changed over time. While initially looking to high school size and capacity, recent conversations have shifted to student assignment at the middle school level with ideas such as K-8-serving centers now on the table.

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The effort seeks to help South Bend schools adjust to lost revenue from recently imposed tax caps and a steady decline in student enrollment over the last decade. A comprehensive plan is likely to include long-term ideas for the district's schools as well as other ancillary buildings.

The corporation has closed or repurposed seven school buildings since 2018 but with more than 4,000 seats empty between the district’s remaining middle and high schools, officials say additional changes are needed.

And time is of the essence. In 2020, administrators said they planned to use more than $30 million of the corporation’s $54 capital referendum for “right-sizing” the district.

"We asked the taxpayers for those dollars, and they can't just sit," said Kareemah Fowler, the district's assistant superintendent of business and finance. "The longer this takes, the more anxiety it creates for families. … We want to move forward with this because we want a solid plan. We want a solid roadmap for what comes next in South Bend schools."

Adapting to enrollment loss

The district has been grappling with how to appropriately resize its footprint for years.

The corporation that once educated 26,000 students more than a decade ago, now projects an enrollment of 14,200 next year as more students leave the district for area private schools, charters and other nearby public districts.

And new school options are on the horizon. Success Academy and Paramount Schools of Excellence both plan to open new charter schools in the city this fall.

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With rising operational costs and fewer students, planners say the district’s current configuration needs rethinking. More than half of the district’s 15 elementary schools and seven middle schools are enrolled below 75% capacity, according to data from the corporation. And, although Adams High School is full, both Clay and Riley high schools are enrolled below half their capacity. Washington is enrolled at 60%.

Planners last year put forward a series of possible changes — including moving Clay High School students to Clay International Academy and repurposing the high school building into a career center or athletic complex.

The goal was to still keep a high school in the region while also making better use of space in under-enrolled buildings, planners clarified later after community members pushed back against changes in the Clay area. One group last year proposed breaking the high school and several of its feeders off into their own district — an idea planners say would be a logistical challenge and a scenario they would like to avoid.

The district's consultants also floated the idea of multiple 6th-12th grade serving academies to redistribute students, but parents brought concerns about school size and student safety.

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“We got some feedback on 6-12 and frankly it wasn’t very nice,” said Tracy Richter with the consulting firm, HPM. “It just wasn’t a concept that this city wants.”

After hearing from the community, planners ultimately shifted away from both ideas and brought recommendations for a $5 million to $6 million investment in Washington High School’s medical magnet program. They also suggested the district pursue working with community partners to explore a centralized career and technical education center.

Although school board members heard both recommendations last summer, Fowler said, no action was taken at the time so that those investments could be considered later as a part of the district's broader plan.

The assistant superintendent said that teams have since spent additional time in Washington exploring classroom space and that costs for that project may come in less than originally anticipated. Renovations there, if approved by the school board in March, could begin as early as spring or summer, Fowler said.

Recommendations to come this spring

In a meeting earlier this week, planners explained their recent shifts in focus. While not revealing their exact recommendations, consultants spent much of their time in a Tuesday task force meeting discussing middle school feeder patterns. Specifically, the planners highlighted the corporation’s current patterns of school enrollment that show many students traveling across the city to attend schools housing district magnet programs.

Richter put forward a suggestion for a redistricting effort that could create one K-8 school option within each high school district. Each neighborhood also would keep a traditional K-5 elementary school and 6-8 middle school. The planner also floated the idea of freshman centers feeding into each high school.

The planning task force didn’t discuss specific recommendations, but forthcoming meeting locations suggest recommendations relating to middle school assignments could be of interest.

“There aren't easy decisions as you move in facilities,” Richter said. “Part of it is to try to make sure that we protect neighborhoods as much as we can and protect that educational process.”

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Planners say no decisions have been made yet and any scenarios brought to the school board next month are likely to change before coming back to the board in March.

"These are not decided," Fowler said. "We know that these are going to need work. We know based off of the surveys and information from before, some of these options are going to be difficult."

Fowler said not to expect any school closures in the coming year as facilities planning continues to draw out. She stressed that consultants have been working behind the scenes to prepare cost estimates and that she hopes the school board can add a sense of direction in its mid-March meeting.

"We're also getting frustrated, too, on the backend, with all the going back and forth," Fowler said. "This is difficult work. … We're looking to not drag this on after the 20th."

Mark your calendar

The facility planning team is sharing a series of ways to learn more about their work before any decisions are made. The team 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: Initial school board presentation at 5:30 p.m. in the South Bend Administration Building; an online survey will be shared at this time.

• 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 in early February.

• 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.

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 eyes middle schools in next steps of facility planning