Joseph DitsSouth Bend Tribune
SOUTH BEND — Could there be shared interests among those who debate whether Clay High School can be kept open — in spite of its planned closure next spring — if a portion of the South Bend Community School Corp. splits off into its own district?
There were hints of that Tuesday as the St. Joseph County Council voted on this proposal: To encourage Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner to study the possibility of carving out such a district from the unincorporated parts of the county.
In the end, the council voted Tuesday to support the resolution 5-4 along party lines, with the Republican majority in favor.
The council gave members of the public equal time to speak — a total of 30 minutes total for each side, for and against.
Sept. 7, 2023: Council vote approaches, one step in long haul to seek separate Clay school district
Attorney Pete Agostino repeated the advocacy group Save Clay’s arguments that it “can’t get straight answers” from the South Bend schools administration about finances and its use of money from a$220 million dollar bond referendum.
Agostino said an official has responded to the group’s public records request but without any real information yet.
Parent Jennifer Fox said the words of school administrators had previously made her feel that that Clay wouldn’t close. Ultimately, she said, “I moved my boys to St. Joe High School this year because I couldn’t trust the district.”
Marcia Hummel, who’d served on the school board for 16 years, feels that the district should be using pandemic relief money to fix the “neglected” school building. She emphasized that the resolution is merely asking for a study.
Proponents claim the district’s surveys for its massive facilities plan didn’t ask if they wanted to close Clay.
Melissa Riem, who has two sons at Riley High School and two sons who graduated there,fears that vacating Clay High will leave it open to a charter school.
“I don’t want to see Clay ripped from the district, but I also don’t want to see a charter move into Clay,” she said.
If it's pursued, cessation would be a long, complicated process, as The Tribune reported in June 2022.
June 8, 2022: Could Clay Township become its own school district? Here’s what it would take for a split.
Speaking against the resolution, Judy Fox feels the resolution is poorly worded, leaving several townships open to possible cessation. The residents of those townships, she said, aren’t aware of how it could affect them and their schools.
“These people don’t even know this is happening,” she said, suggesting that the resolution be tabled and reworded.
Agostino said the resolution focuses just on Clay, German and Warren townships.
Fox also suggests that it would separate, racially, the “whitest” districts, while Agostino said that was never the intent.
Trina Robinson said the NAACP, of which she’s president, couldn’t support the measure, saying that some council members who support it have also described “equity” as a form of Marxism.
“So are you saying it is OK to consider equity in this situation?” she said.
Karen Nye, who’d retired from South Bend schools 10 years ago, said Clay’s closing is sad, but having it split off, she said, would lead to a domino effect of higher costs and siphon more from South Bend schools.
Michael McManus said a separate district would lead to several duplicate costs like administrations and transportation, causing costs and taxes to rise.
After listening to these arguments, Ken Miller Rieman, who has two children at Swanson Traditional School, suggested that the two sides “have more common ground.”
“There could be winners with the resolution,” he said. “I just don’t want there to be losers. I want a win-win.”
Council Democrats Bryan Tanner, Diana Hess and Rafael Morton argued that the resolution was government overreach.
Tanner argued that the council is “not empowered to have any impact on our local school districts.” He said he’s a “proud parent” of students in public schools, and while he has opinions about vouchers and charter schools, he said, “It’s not warranted for me to bring that up.”
Hess, however, pointed to vouchers and charter schools as taking away resources from public schools, adding, “This cessation would do the same thing as vouchers are doing.”
Hess echoed public criticism of the resolution as “poorly worded.” Tanner said it’s also inappropriate because there hasn’t been any resolution to filings in federal court that allege that Clay’s closure could violate the federal court-ordered consent decree governing racial balance in South Bend schools.
Council member Amy Drake, who’d initially introduced the resolution after months of sympathetically attending Save Clay meetings, said: “Sometimes somebody needs an advocate. People at Clay didn’t feel they were being heard. If I can help them to get answers, I’m happy to do that. All that’s being asked for is a study. No one should feel threatened by that.”
In a written response issued Tuesday night, Sarita Stevens, assistant superintendent of operations for South Bend schools, said, "Tonight’s resolution represents a distraction from the district’s core mission of educating children, and promotes an unrealistic course of action that would threaten the quality of learning for students in Clay Township, undermine established forms of district governance, and would be without precedent in the state of Indiana."
Stevens argued that the school corporation has been open about its facilities master plan, which she said was based on "efficiency studies conducted by an unbiased third-party, as well as over 89 public meetings and 17 surveys conducted for public input."
"It is imperative that South Bend Schools make bold moves to ensure ALL of our students have access to an equitable and high quality education," she wrote. "Continuing with the status quo is not an option when too many students are denied these opportunities."
After the meeting, South Bend school board member Stuart Greene, who in April voted against closing Clay in a 4-3 board vote, told The Tribune: “I’d like to think we could do the kind of study people spoke about. But giving a lot of authority to a single person isn’t consistent with what we are saying.”
By having just Jenner do a study, he said, it excludes many local voices.
“As many voices as possible should be helping us to decide how to help schools thrive,” he said.
South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 orjdits@sbtinfo.com.
