A charter school has won the latest battle in its war with the South Bend Community Schools to take over the former Clay High School.
The Indiana Department of Education has ruled that the South Bend Community School Corp. must make the former Clay High available to charter school Career Academy for a dollar.
The school corporation has refused to give up the building and has appealed the decision to the state Board of Education. But the Republican-controlled state administration and Legislature have been friendly to charter schools.
The corporation says that it’s exempt from the state law requiring closed public school buildings to be given to charter schools because it already has a relationship, and has shared property tax referendum dollars, with the Purdue Polytechnic charter school.
But the General Assembly this year passed a new bill removing such exemptions if the revenue sharing happened before May 2023. And in this case it had.
Pete Agostino, attorney for Career Academy and the Save Clay community group, says they expect a state board ruling within 30 days. If they win, Career Academy doesn’t know if they can open by next Fall but they’re excited for the future.
"If you look at the community they have, if you look at the fact that people moved into that area, the fact that we have generations of Clay families in that area, there is, I believe, a continuing desire to have a school in the neighborhood, in that neighborhood," Agostino said.
