SOUTH BEND — Just days after consultants proposed closing one South Bend high school, education officials are announcing the opening of another.
The Career and Success Academy charter network will open a new high school this fall in downtown South Bend.
The new academy will be called the Portage School of Leaders and comes as the network’s second school announced to open in the coming school year. Its announcement also comes about a week after consultants working for the South Bend Community schools proposed closing the district’s Clay High School.
Career and Success Academy leaders have plans to introduce their new school in a press conference Wednesday morning.
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They say the new high school, located downtown at 305 W. Madison St. in the old Temple Beth-El will serve students in grades nine to 12.
Enrollment is opening this week for the 2023-2024 school year. The network plans to start small in their first year with no more than 150 students.
Career Academy Superintendent Jeremy Lugbill, taking cues from recent priorities set by state lawmakers in this legislative session, said he envisions the new school “reimagining high school” education.
“Our goal will be to really disrupt the status quo of the high school experience,” Lugbill said. “We really want a personalized, individual experience for high school students, so coaching from trusted adults in a high-trust environment, that’s going to be a key tenant.”
He’s tapped Andrew Hoyt, currently the interim head of school at La Lumiere School in LaPorte County, to lead the charge. Hoyt started his professional career working with the Center for the Homeless in South Bend and spent four years as a founding faculty member of Cristo Rey Jesuit, a Catholic college prep school in Houston, before joining La Lumiere.
He said he expects the new Portage school will feature a traditional academic honors curriculum and STEM education, but will also put a focus on arts and humanity.
“One of the things that we hope for for this school and imagine is that it will be a diverse community of learners,” Hoyt said. “One of the things we can do is learn how to build community and learn together even when we’re very different from one another.”
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Though he did not give a number, Lugbill said he anticipated class sizes would be small. The school is currently hiring teachers, and renovations are underway this week at the old Temple Beth-El site. The school’s central location is an important piece for transportation strategy, Lugbill said.
“Our goal is to serve more students and provide high-quality education for all kids,” Lugbill said. “The vision is to be able to then, with our small transportation fleet, be able to bus students from the different Career Academy schools within the district. Having a downtown location will provide greater access to serve more students.”
The high school is the second expansion announced this school year by the Career and Success Academy network. In December, Career Academy leaders called a press conference to share details of their new Success Academy elementary school in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County.
Network leaders say this school will bring a new schedule to the elementary school day, with students attending class four days a week and participating in experiential learning opportunities in the community on Fridays.
The Career and Success network currently has two long-standing schools on the city’s northwest side; Career Academy, a secondary school serving sixth through 12th graders, and Success Academy, an elementary school.
The network’s expansion also comes as a new charter group introduces itself to the South Bend area. Paramount Schools of Excellence will open its first South Bend location this fall in the South Bend Community School Corp.’s former Tarkington Elementary School. The Indianapolis-based charter network was awarded the building over Career and Success Academy in June 2021 using a state law that allows interested charter schools to purchase or lease a closing public school building for $1.
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With the growing school options in the area, Career Academy leaders say they’re empathetic to the changes in South Bend’s education landscape and say they’re willing to work with other local school networks and districts.
Members of the South Bend school board have pointed to expanding charter and private school voucher systems as one of many interwoven factors contributing to the public school district’s recent enrollment loss.
“I would be eager to partner with people in other high schools to share best practices, to learn from one another,” Hoyt said. “The hope that I would have is that the Portage School is a part of improving high school education across the whole city.”
Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter:@carleylanich.
