Granger Republican State Senator Linda Rogers’ bill implementing a state takeover of the elected South Bend Community school board is set for its first committee hearing Wednesday at the Statehouse. Local officials opposed to the move plan a press conference in South Bend Tuesday.
The press conference at noon Tuesday at the County Building in South Bend will include some local elected Democrats, along with South Bend NAACP President Trina Robinson.
Robinson says when the NAACP weighs whether to support a school board candidate, it questions them on their knowledge of the details and history around the federal desegregation consent order that the corporation is working under.
“When we have someone that’s chosen to appoint individuals, that’s taken away from the community, the opportunity to get a chance to understand what they know about the current consent order," Robinson says. "That is the NAACP’s major concern.”
The NAACP is not one of the nine entities Rogers has picked, like the homebuilders and realtors interest groups, to have input on who would be nominated for state approval.
The bill will receive a first hearing Wednesday before the Senate Education and Career Development Committee. They’ll also hear a Rogers bill that would make it easier for charter schools to acquire for free buildings that public school systems have vacated.
