Success Academy opening new South Bend grade school at Boys & Girls Club's South Bend site

SOUTH BEND — Success Academy plans to open a new elementary school in the OC Carmichael Jr. Youth Center at Sample and Fellows streets in South Bend in time for the start of next school year.

The tuition-free charter school to be called Success Academy at Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County will serve students in grades K-5 and expects to enroll about 150 students in its first year.

Leaders from South Bend's Career and Success Academy as well at the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County announced the new school in a press conference Monday morning.

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They say the new school will bring a new model of experiential learning to students with pod-style instruction and dedicated time outside of class for career exploration.

"At Career and Success Academy, we are relentlessly looking for new and innovative ways to provide education for students," Career and Success Academy Superintendent Jeremy Lugbill said. "We are looking to prepare students for success after high school both professionally and personally."

Expanding space for student programs

The model will place students in three pods — grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5 — in classrooms at the Boys & Girls Clubs' OC Carmichael Center during the day — a space typically unused during school hours, but bustling when after-school activities begin.

Students will learn in a more traditional classroom setting four days a week and participate in experiential learning opportunities in the community during a fifth day.

"We know that learning happens at higher rates when students have prior knowledge and are exposed to actual, real-world applications in the community," Lugbill said.

The Boys & Girls Clubs will continue to offer its popular before- and after-school programs out of the center.

Career and Success Academy leaders plan to lease space from the Boys & Girls Clubs, which will retain ownership of the OC Carmichael building. Boys & Girls Clubs leaders say they are planning to move administrative positions out of the Sample Street location next week and into space downtown for about two years to make way for additional classroom space.

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Though timelines are not set, renovations should be completed in time for the start of the 2023-2024 school year, said Jacqueline Kronk, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County.

The Boys & Girls Clubs will continue to serve students in its five partner school organizations across 23 club sites in St. Joseph County. Students of all schools served by the clubs will have access to technology and classroom upgrades coming through the growing Career and Success Academy partnership.

Expanded classroom space could help the clubs serve some of the more than 600 students who are currently waitlisted for Boys & Girls Clubs' out-of-school programming, Kronk said. The new Success Academy school is being funded in part by a $4.4 million Explore, Engage and Experience grant announced by the Indiana Department of Education in July.

"Now, our building goes underutilized during the day," Kronk said. "This is going to allow us to serve kids with their before school starting at 6:30 a.m., providing experiential learning during the day, and then complemented with after-school programming in the evenings."

Success Academy seeking charter

A public hearing regarding the new school's charter will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the OC Carmichael Center. The school is seeking charter authorization through Trine University.

Trine currently authorizes Career and Success Academy's other South Bend locations, including Career Academy middle and high schools and Success Academy elementary school.

The expansion of the Career Academy South Bend Network comes as the South Bend Community School Corp. continues to grapple with years of enrollment loss. 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.

A majority of the 1,400 combined students Career and Success Academy schools serve live in the South Bend district, according to state transfer reports.

This comes as Purdue Polytechnic High School continues to grow enrollment in its first South Bend charter school location, which opened in 2020, and as Paramount Schools of Excellence, an Indianapolis-based charter school network, prepares to open its first K-8 location in the city this fall at South Bend community schools' closed Tarkington Elementary.

Partners in the new Success Academy school say they see this new their new approach to experiential learning as a pilot that can be later replicated in others schools in the Career and Success Academy Network. Each grade level pod will be assigned a certified teacher and a youth development professional working with the Boys & Girls Clubs.

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Leaders in the new venture said they visited schools in California to learn more about the community partnership-led model of learning. Though a new concept to Success Academy, similar experiences have been exercised, school leaders said, such as a recent trip to the South Bend International Airport, where students could talk to and learn from pilots, safety professionals and other airport employees.

Career and Success Academy Board President Larry Garatoni said he hopes the school helps elementary students channel their youthful excitement for learning into career exploration at an early age.

"Somehow you've got to capture that enthusiasm and carry it through school," Garatoni said.

Success Academy and the Boys & Girls Clubs will have a parents' open house at 6 p.m. Dec. 19 at the OC Carmichael Center.

Enrollment for the new school will open at 8 a.m. Jan. 9, with information available on the Success Academy website at successacademysb.com.

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 Indiana's Success Academy to open new charter grade school