Major changes could be on the way for Elkhart Community Schools.
The district is doing a long-term feasibility study which could result in a restructuring or closing some buildings.
Elkhart schools partnered with a consulting firm to gather up data and feedback about the district.
A committee will go through the information and make recommendations to the school board.
What sparked this study?
Nearly one year ago, Board President Dacey Davis and four other members of the Elkhart School Board, voted to restructure Hawthorne Elementary into a Pre-K center.
After much public input and debate between board members, the board ultimately voted to approve the motion five to two at the April 12th, 2022, school board meeting.
The board argued they were doing what was best for students and the community.
“I will vote yes tonight because I can’t look into the eyes of these students and do nothing,” then school board member Babette Boling said to a large crowd gathered at the meeting prior to the vote.
School leaders had said the change was needed because of finances, staffing shortages, and declining enrollment.
“We just hate to see all of our kids separated and moved apart in different directions. We just need to stay together,” said one Hawthorne teacher at a protest outside the school days before the final vote.
Some parents and teachers were angry and frustrated by the decision.
After that decision, Davis says, school leaders knew they needed to take a step back.
“We listened; we gave people a seat. We are responsive and we are respectful of what the community needs, and we have kind of course corrected on how we navigate making major decisions,” says Davis.
The Feasibility/Facility Study Begins
In September, the district teamed up with a consulting firm and invited the community to come along.
“This is an important process we are embarking on,” Davis said at town hall meeting on September 14th, “what is most important to the administration and the board is that we are making decisions that you support. We are moving in a direction that the community can stand behind us. but we are also making decisions that are best for the kids.”
The school district partnered with School IQ/SitelogIQ to do the study.
According to the company’s website, it partners with clients in K-12 public and private schools to do a “comprehensive assessment” of facilities and understand the district and community to develop a “project plan.”
According to the company, in 2015 and 2016 it worked with La Porte Community Schools on the same issues.
“People wanted to be involved. They wanted a seat at the table and that is one reason we went with SitelogIQ because they were so focused on community engagement,” says Davis.
So far, the study has included a building and facility study, community and staff surveys, interviews with staff, focus groups and a demographic study.
As the company has gathered its information, it has presented it to the school board and community.
On January 17th, the building and facilities evaluation was released.
On January 30th, the school board received the results from surveys.
Finally, last month, the school board learned the results of the demographic study.
All the information gathering is complete.
Now, with help from SitelogIQ facilitators, a key community committee is meeting regularly to go through the information.
Digging Deeper
“So, the next step is, lets dig deeper into the data, let the data tell the story, and create a foundation so the key committee has something to base their options on. They can clearly weigh the options and come up with some options for the board to vote on that can be supported by the community but also are fiscally responsible,” says Davis.
The committee is made up of 40 community members including teachers, support staff, administrators, business leaders, civic leaders, nonprofit leaders, parents, and senior citizens.
Davis, two other board members, and the current superintendent also serve on the key committee as non-participating members to observe, provide background information, and answer questions,” according to the district’s website.
Davis admits this deep dive into Elkhart Community Schools is something that would have helped the district navigate previous changes in the district.
“I would say probably the repurposing of Hawthorn,” says Davis, “it just wasn’t navigated as best as we could. We didn’t provide a good rationale; we didn’t communicate well, and we really learned a lot from that experience.”
Plus, she says one of the major takeaways from the Hawthorne decision was, “we had to take a broader look at what was happening in the district and that was not something we could do on own as far as collecting the data, analyzing the data. So, it was something we had to do in order to get the information that we needed to right size the district.”
“Right-sizing” the school district
“Right-sizing” is something many urban school districts in the state are having to do.
After years of declining enrollment, nearby South Bend Community School Corporation is undergoing a master facilities study.
The consulting firm working with SBCSC is presenting its recommendation to the school board and the community Monday night.
In Elkhart, the demographic study released in February showed the city of Elkhart, with its population of around 77,000 people, is “at best flat and most likely declining” in the number of school-aged children.
The study showed enrollment in Elkhart Community Schools, the county's largest school district, is declining, especially in the past five years.
“I would say the biggest surprise and toughest report to go through was the demographics,” says Davis, “people were not prepared. Some of the information we have to face is tough.”
Davis points to the numbers showing the percentage of Hispanic students attending Elkhart schools has increased dramatically over the past 10 years while the percentage of white students has dropped.
Not only that, but the demographer suggested that another major change in Elkhart, the merging of the two high schools in 2020, likely triggered more students to leave the district.
“It got very emotional,” says Davis, “it is uncomfortable, but these are things we have to work through to get us over the other side of these challenges.”
The next steps
Unfortunately, Davis says some of what the feasibility study has shown so far, has signaled different decisions could lie ahead.
“This isn’t a decision that everyone will be 100 percent happy with. But we have got to do what is best for the kids educationally and the district fiscally and what the community will support,” says Davis.
Davis hopes the information gathered and the key committee's insight will help grow the schools and the community.
“Everybody who lives in Elkhart should be invested in this process because education, our school system, our district is a driving force for the economy,” says Davis.
The Key Committee has already started meeting to look at what has been gathered.
The committee is expected to make its recommendations to the school board by the end of the school year.
The school district is in the middle of a search for a new superintendent.
Davis says the board will likely hold off on making a decision based on the committee’s recommendations, until after the new superintendent is hired.
You can view all the information gathered from the study so far, here.