South Bend’s school board this week took another step forward in creating a new county-wide career center, which would offer technical and career-focused courses to high schoolers. However, tensions still linger over the closure of Clay High School nearly a year ago.
On Monday, the board voted to move forward and negotiate a 20-year lease for around 40,000 square feet in the Studebaker building in downtown South Bend for the center.
The career center will house 19 programs aimed at giving students work-based learning to develop career and technical skills. Programs range from auto manufacturing to IT to cosmetology to welding and Indiana increasingly emphasizes professional skills in its graduation requirements.
Consultants estimate around 500 students would take classes in the center in the first year of operations. Most of those would be South Bend students but officials hope the central location will draw in students from New Prairie and Penn High Schools.
The career center was part of the South Bend school corporation’s promise during its 2020 referendum campaign and the district is spending over $13 million to the project, with the city of South Bend set on committing funds as well.
However, discussion about the new career center was quickly conflated with long-standing gripes about how the school board voted to close Clay High School nearly one year ago.
Because at the same time as the board moved ahead with the career center, it passed another related resolution outlining the district’s intent to continue using the Clay building.
The future of Clay has been a hot-button issue for the board over the past year as the local charter school Career Academy Network is attempting to purchase the building. A controversial state law lets charter schools buy unused or underused schools for just $1, but there is an exception for buildings that are still used for storage, administrative space or alternative education.
School board president Stuart Greene has told WVPE the resolution regarding Clay, and an identical one regarding Warren Elementary, are aimed to keep them exempt from the $1 law. The resolutions had been on a previous school board agenda, but were removed after WVPE reported on the topic.
The text of the resolution is vague about what will happen with Clay, but assistant superintendent Kareemah Fowler told the board some heavy machinery will likely go in Clay for the interim while the career center is prepared for use.
Still, board members Mark Costello and Jeanette McCullough voiced their opposition to the resolutions saying the outline for Clay isn't defined and reflect poor planning.
“Quit giving us bits and pieces of things that might help politically but damage us educationally,” Costello said.
The pair have been vocal critics of superintendent Todd Cummings’ administration in recent months and they also voted against the career center. McCullough asked why the district needs to rent space in the Studebaker building when they have space at Clay, while Costello questioned the administration’s estimates on how many students would use the center.
"I still maintain the question of ‘how many students are going to be attending this?’ Costello asked. “In order to get those other students from those other schools in here to South Bend, it’s going to be difficult.”
Consultants working with the school corp. laid out three options for the career hub: build it new, rent space somewhere or renovate an existing building. The board voted to close Clay primarily due to the school's extensive required maintenance and the consultants' estimates showed renovating an existing school building would have been twice as expensive as renting the Studebaker building.
School board member Kate Lee said that while the distinct doesn’t know quite yet what it wants to do with Clay, the resolutions give the board much needed flexibility.
“We need to move forward and be in a holding pattern. So when next years’ moves get taken and we’re done with that we can pause and ask our students and our families what could we do? Let’s imagine it bigger," Lee said.
The school board is set to finalize its lease at the Studebaker building at a meeting in April.
