For much of the past few years, Indiana’s $1 law has loomed over proceedings of the South Bend school district.
The controversial law requires that public school districts sell buildings they close for just $1 to any interested charter school. The will sunset in the new few years, but it is currently a cause for concern for many traditional public school districts around the state.
In 2021 South Bend was forced to sell Tarkington Elementary School to a charter network out of Indianapolis and many worried the same would happen if the district voted to close Clay High School.
However, the Indiana Department of Education recently confirmed to WVPE that no such institution has expressed formal interest in Clay, meaning South Bend can do what it wants with the building.
What will become of Clay, however, is less clear. Members of the district’s administration team declined to talk about future plans for the building. School board president John Anella said the district has no firm plans for Clay as it hasn’t yet closed.
“We just passed the new boundaries. There’s still a lawsuit against us trying to keep the school open. THere’s the county council passing a resolution trying to get theIDOE to intervene,” Anella said. “To jump forward and say ‘what happens to the building’ might be a little premature while the school hasn’t even officially closed yet.”
The school board in April voted 4-3 to close Clay because it has the lowest enrollment of the corporation’s four high schools while needing the most costly renovations. Consultants for the district reported it would cost around $16 million over the next few years in renovations to keep Clay open.
The approved plan does include paying some of that maintenance cost to make sure the building is safe to go in after it closes.
Anella noted the district has a number of other closed schools including Greene Intermediate Center and the old Marquette School. The board also voted to close Warren Elementary School at the same time it voted to close Clay and to Anella's knowledge, no charter expressed an interest in that building either.
"There's a handful of schools we could talk about demolition long before we talk about what happens with Clay," said Anella.
Far down the line, Anella said he might like to see the Clay building turned into a park or be used by a local government in some fashion.
Meanwhile, efforts from a small, but vocal, group of people trying to prevent Clay from closing were hindered this week, when a federal judge denied them a chance to intervene in a lawsuit.
