The South Bend Community School’s Empowerment Zone chose a leader for a new position as chief Wednesday morning.
The Empowerment Zone is a relatively new system for the school district.
As chief, Doctor Cheryl Camacho will oversee the goals of SBEZ, it’s budget, and the needs of five struggling South Bend schools.
The schools are Navarre Middle and its four feeder elementary schools - Coquillard, Harrison, Warren, and Wilson.
Sam Centellas, SBEZ Board Chairman, said Camacho has experience improving schools similar to those in South Bend’s Empowerment Zone.
“We’re excited about what’s happening in the South Bend Empowerment Zone and we’ve put some principles in place at the schools and now we’ve got the zone chief so we’ve got the team on board,” Centellas said.
Camacho earned her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Harvard University.
She served in various leadership roles over the past several years and has more than 16 years of classroom experience.
They are still working out a start date but Centellas is hoping for sometime in early August.