Charter network wants to lease South Bend’s closing Clay High School for $1
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A network of South Bend charter schools is making a pitch to take on South Bend’s closing Clay High School.
Officials with The Career Academy Network notified the South Bend Community School Corp. in early December of their hopes to use a state law that allows charter schools to buy or lease an underused public school building for $1.
Network leaders say they hope to reopen the school after its planned closure this summer as a sixth through 12th grade-serving charter school with a focus on STEM and career readiness.
“We want a culture focused on getting kids ready for life after high school,” Career Academy Network President Larry Garatoni said.
The South Bend school district, however, is seeking clarity from state officials on next steps after it says it had been led to believe it fulfilled all obligations under the law and was no longer required to offer the Clay building for $1. District officials say not knowing whether they could be made to sell the school has affected their ability to plan future uses for the building.
“The law’s been through many different iterations,” South Bend Assistant Superintendent Rafi Nolan-Abrahamian said. “We always try to keep up to speed on the requirements … and we’ll continue working with the state to ensure we’re meeting those timelines.”
The decision to close Clay
Clay is one of four high schools in the South Bend Community School Corp. The district’s school board members voted in April to close Clay as a part of a sweeping, districtwide consolidation plan looking to correct for years of declining enrollment. The closure is slated to take effect this summer.
The South Bend district has lost more than 1,700 high school students over the last 17 years, leading to a $12 million drop in the district’s annual education budget.
With that, the district has spent years studying the best way to downsize in hopes of reinvesting operational costs in students’ educational needs. Administrators last spring said it would’ve taken at least $16 million to keep the school open for another five years and that the district would save about $1 million a year in operational costs by closing it.
“We were at a place where we wanted to invest the funds we had in paying teachers more and in student programs,” South Bend Superintendent Todd Cummings said.
Todd Cummings speaks on the district’s decision to close Clay High School.
The decision to close the school, however, was unpopular among some Clay Township parents and community members, including some who formed a coalition to try to save the school.
After a failed attempt earlier this year to intervene legally, the group now says its best chance to keep the high school open is through partnering with the Career Academy Network.
The Career Academy Network sent South Bend school district leaders a letter in early December indicating their interest in leasing the Clay building for $1 after it closes.
“Keeping Clay High School open — that’s the key — and transforming it will undoubtedly require a tremendous effort,” Pete Agostino, an attorney representing the Save Clay coalition, said in a news release last week. “That’s why we are fortunate to have a high-caliber alternative to closing this facility down. There’s literally no reason to close this facility. Not with an excellent alternative like the Career and Success Academies in this community.”
What is the $1 law?
In Indiana, public school districts are required to notify the Indiana Department of Education after making a decision to close a building used for classroom instruction. The IDOE then facilitates a process in which charter schools are given the first opportunity to buy or lease a closing district’s school for $1.
In other words, if a charter school expresses interest, state law says the district must lease or sell them the school before exploring other ways to use the building. If no charter school expresses interest within 90 days of the IDOE sending out notification of an available building, the school district can dispose of the building as it pleases.
Todd Cummings talks about what could happen next at Clay.
South Bend district leaders told Inside INdiana Business that they notified the IDOE in an email last April of the school board’s decision to close the school. And, until the district was contacted by Garatoni this December, administrators had been under the impression the 90-day window had passed and the district could move forward with their own plans for the building.
An IDOE spokesperson, however, told Inside INdiana Business in an email that the district hadn’t notified the department of plans to close Clay until Dec. 15, meaning charter schools are within the legal window to express interest in the closing school. The spokesperson said the IDOE acknowledges this notification when a form is filled out, a step that goes beyond an email.
South Bend school administrators said they will work with the department to follow the appropriate directives.
Career Academy seeks building
Garatoni says he believes the charter network has a path to leasing the building, though he admits moving forward, which could involve multiple state-level boards and agencies, will not be quick.
The earliest his team estimates they could move into the school—assuming the South Bend district fights their efforts—would be in early 2025. Career Academy officials hope to invest $10 million to $12 million in building repairs and reopen Clay in the fall 2025 semester under the names Clay Academy High School and Clay Academy Middle School.
Career Academy operates four other schools in South Bend, including a new elementary school that opened this fall and a new high school, called The Portage School of Leaders.
The Portage School was supposed to open this August in the newly renovated, former Temple Beth-El building in downtown South Bend, but students have been learning in a temporary space in Ivy Tech this fall due to construction delays. The school’s 20 or so students are expected to move into their permanent home this winter.
Garatoni expressed no worry about filling seats in the Clay High School building, which South Bend school leaders said was operating at about half its 1,500-student capacity last April. Since then, enrollment has dropped to 477 students, South Bend Assistant Superintendent Rafi Nolan-Abrahamian said.
Career Academy Middle School and Career Academy High School, which share a building on South Bend’s far west side, have the charter network’s highest enrollment in a single building with just over 800 students.
“It’s not unreasonable to expect that we could have 800 kids in that building,” Garatoni said of Clay, “Because it’s going to be both a middle school and high school.”
The charter operator shared optimism that, though a long process awaits, Career Academy would garner the support of state officials in their bid for the building.
“They’re very interested in having a robust school choice program,” he said.