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Posted By admin on July 10, 2022

SOUTH BEND South Bend schools won't be moving out of its downtown headquarters this summer.

ButSouth Bend city and school district officials say they both feel close to finalizing a deal after the Indiana attorney general's office cleared the way this week after an investigation ofa local charter school's challenge to the district's plans to move.

This spring, the city offered $2.8 million to buythe administration building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevardfromthe South Bend district, whose leaders estimate they cansave$400,000 annually in operating expenses by moving out of the six-story office building.

The South Bend Common Council approved a $7.8 million appropriation request in March to support the city's purchase and itsdesired renovations to the school headquarters. City officials said at that time that they hoped to take control of the building this summer, renovate it in the fall and winter, and move offices from the County-City Building by 2023.

Facilities study: South Bend shifts away from school closure talks ... for now

The school corporation, meanwhile, made plans to invest $2.1 million into its former Brown Intermediate School to house new administrative offices.

A finalized purchase agreement, however, stalled after a local charter school attempted to block the district's move, exercising a state law that requires public districts to offer unused buildings to interestedcharter organizations for $1.

Now, with a favorable finding from the attorney general's office, which investigates complaints under the state's "$1 law," city and school district leaders say they feel confident they can move forward quickly with a deal under many of the same terms negotiated earlier this year.

"I don't think that we lost anything too dramatic," City Controller Dan Parker said of the delay. "We are not changing the financial terms or any of the other significant terms other than the timeline."

South Bend deal: City offers $2.8 million for school administration building

The negotiations come as the South Bend district looks to save money and "right size" its footprint amid recently imposed tax caps and years of declining enrollment.The district has already closed or repurposed seven schools buildings since 2018 and is exploring future opportunities for consolidation through an ongoing facilities study.

"In the position we're in now, it didn't happen over night.It happened over a period of time," Assistant Superintendent Kareemah Fowler said. "One of the reasons we've looked at the administration building …it's allowing us to shrink our portfolio and not touch the classroom."

Larry Garatoni, board president for South Bend's Career and Success Academy charter schools, said he lodged two complaints this winter one for the Brown building and another for the district's closed Hamilton Traditional School. The complaints suggested the school district was not using either building and had failed to offer them to charter schools.

In a first for the state, the Indiana attorney general's office agreed with the complaints and allowed the school corporation to share additional information proving the two buildings were actively being used by the district.

Fowler said the corporation compiled years' worth of documentation showing the district's past uses and future plans for the two buildings.

Brown, a former immediate school in South Bend's Keller Park neighborhood, was used for community programs andtemporarily leased to the St. Joseph County Public Library system after the school closed in 2018.Today, the building is used for community outreach, tutoring and food services, Fowler said.

Charter challenge: Career Academy files complaint overBrown buildings

"I was very surprised," Fowler said of the state's initial findings issued in February. "The building was open. There's a bunch of different things going on there."

This week, the attorney general's office came back with an additional response, reversing course on Brown and clearing the way for the district to move its administrative offices.

But, after months of waiting for a response from the state,Fowler said the district was unable to begin its renovations at Brown andis now "regrouping."She said the district feels close to finalizing a deal to sell the building downtown, but timelines will need to be shifted back as the district closes its books on the past fiscal year, prepares for the start of a new school year and continues with its ongoing facility planning.

To finalize a sale, both the South Bend school board and the city's Board of Public Works will need to pass similar resolutions approving ofa potential purchase agreement, which will outline terms for when the building should changehands.

Parker said he expects the city's vote to come "within the next few weeks" or "at the longest, a month." He said he doesn't expect the city to take possession of, or begin renovations at, the current school headquarters until at least 2023.

Though not affecting negotiations over the building downtown, the attorney general's office issued a separate finding for the Hamilton school, saying it didn't believe the building to be in use.

That building was once leased to the South Bend Hebrew Day School, but has been used primarily for storage, its kitchen space and athletic fields since the Hebrew Day School moved into South Bend's recently closed Hay Elementary building, Fowler said.

"The ideal thing would be for us to be able to get through the study," Fowler said, referencing the district's facility planning work. "I wanted to believe that there were some other opportunities for that building."

The district may now have no other option but to list the building, which is worthat least $1.7 millionaccording to the county's assessed valuation. And, Garatoni says, he's interested in exercising the state's $1 law.

Career and Success Academy tried to take the district'sTarkington Elementary after it closed last summer to house the academy's K-5 classes. But, in another precedent-setting process, the state awarded that building to an Indianapolis-based charter network, which expects to open a new, K-8 school in fall 2023.

Garatoni says he now has his sights set on moving middle school studentsto Hamilton should Career Academy be the only charter interested in the school.

"We're just screaming for space," Garatoni said. "We've got both middle school and high school in one building …breakout spaces that we once had, now we've got those divided into classrooms."

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If able, the academy would take possession of Hamilton"just as soon as we can," Garatoni said, adding that the academy would likely invest several million dollars in transforming the former elementaryinto a middle school.

Garatoni said taking the Hamilton building would help Career Academy grow its enrollment but, even with the possibility of taking Hamilton, the academy is still looking at other options, such aslocal churches with educational spaces, to expand, considering the Brown building will most likely stay with the South Bend district.

"We're open to looking at any space at all that makes sense," Garatoni said.

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.

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South Bend's district headquarters won't move from downtown this summer. Here's why. - South Bend Tribune

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