Alarming new numbers show not only are fewer school-aged children living in the Elkhart School district, but enrollment in schools is declining as well.
This information is something a community committee is looking into right now.
Schools Feasibility Study
Elkhart Community Schools is undergoing a long-term feasibility study that could results in a restructuring or closing of some buildings.
The school district partnered with a consulting firm to gather data and feedback.
The firm conducted a building and facility study, gathered feedback through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and performed a demographic study on Elkhart and Elkhart Community Schools.
After the Elkhart School Board voted to restructure Hawthorne Elementary in 2022 there was anger and frustration from some in the community.
Board leaders now say, this type of data and information could have helped in that decision making process.
The data gathering portion of the feasibility study is now complete.
A key community committee made up of business leaders, parents, and community members, is evaluating what was collected.
Committee Members
According to the Elkhart Community School’s website, the Key Community Committee is composed of teachers, support staff, administrators, business leaders, civic leaders, non-profit leaders, parents, and senior citizens.
The district has listed all 40 members of the committee including a parent who lives within the Elkhart Community Schools boundaries but no longer sends her children to school in the district and a community member with no school-aged children.
The committee has been meeting to go over the information collected from surveys and focus groups, as well as evaluate the data about ECS school facilities and community demographics.
Following their evaluation, the committee will develop recommendations for the school board.
Scott Matthews is on the Key Community Committee.
Matthews grew up in Elkhart and now lives in an Elkhart neighborhood with his family.
“So, me and my wife have three kids Tyren, Maliya and Ava,” says Matthews.
His oldest is 13 years old and his youngest is five.
When he is not helping his kids with homework or watching them from the sidelines at their sporting events, Matthews is a pastor.
You can catch him every Sunday at River Oaks Church Elkhart Campus.
For Matthews, community is important.
“Just seeing our kids growing up with the people they going to school with was really important to us,” says Matthews as he looks out onto the cul-de-sac in front of his house where there is a basketball net.
Matthews says in the summertime, the neighborhood kids will gather to play, eat popsicles, and ride bikes.
Along with many of the neighbors, his kids go to Elkhart Community Schools.
When school district leaders asked him to join the key community committee and help come up with ideas to improve the district, he said yes.
“Getting that call was a no brainer for me because we want to be involved,” says Matthews.
Demographic Study of Elkhart
Matthews and the other 39 key committee members understand that the recommendations they may end up making to the school board, might not be popular amongst everyone.
“You are going to have pushback and support regardless of which way you go,” says Matthews, “I think you are just going to have tell folks, the numbers are what the numbers are, and we have to do what is in the best interest of the students and the schools money.”
The committee could make recommendations that include major changes like closing buildings or reconfiguring the way the district is set up.
“To be realistic, everything is on the table,” says Matthews, “managing change is hard. Just helping people see the future and the growth is tough but nothing is really off the table.”
New data, released last month by the consulting firm helping the district with its feasibility study, showed dramatic declines in enrollment numbers over the past few years.
In a school board work session last month, board members heard from the firm about the study.
The data showed enrollment decreased because of the pandemic and has not recovered.
The data suggested, the merging of the two high schools might have triggered more students to leave.
The study also showed that 98 percent of the students who leave Elkhart Schools are attending other nearby public-school districts – particularly Concord Community Schools.
The data also showed enrollment of Hispanic students had increased dramatically over the past decade while enrollment of white students had decreased.
Some board members described the results as “emotional.”
“It just kind of confirms what we already knew, so for me, emotional, not so much,” says Matthews, “it was just okay, let’s get to work.”
Not a moment too soon.
The study also projected enrollment in Elkhart Community Schools would continue to decrease over the next 10 years.
“Some of the information we have to face is tough,” says School Board President Dacey Davis, “it is uncomfortable, but these are things we have to work through to get us over the other side of these challenges.”
Declining enrollment in Elkhart is not an anomaly.
“Right-sizing,” as many call it is something many urban school districts in the state are having to do.
Committee members and school leaders say the data is eye opening and underlines the urgency of making a long-term plan for the district.
“Because, where we are at is where we are at and we have to face that reality to make good choices for the future,” says Davis.
The Next Steps
The committee has already started meeting and it is expected to make its recommendations to the school board at the end of the school year.
The district is also in the midst of a search for a superintendent.
Davis says the board will likely wait to vote on the recommendations until after a superintendent is hired.
Tim Shelly is a familiar face at Elkhart School Board meetings, and he is also on the key committee.
Shelly has lived in this historic mansion near downtown Elkhart for 30 years.
“I love the old neighborhood here,” says Shelly, “great neighbors. Great community.”
As an Elkhart resident, he cares about the success of the school district.
“I think anybody who has either a real estate investment or children in the community should really have some type of heightened interest in the success of the school corporation,” says Shelly.
Shelly was asked to be on the key committee because he is also a school corporation attorney.
“A lot of people view that schools should be operating like private industry. Unfortunately, they are not able to necessarily do that. There is a lot of limitations from a legal standpoint,” says Shelly.
As lawyer who has been to over 2,000 school board meetings, he knows what the results of big decisions could mean which is why he says the committee is needed in Elkhart now.
“There is nothing different that Elkhart is dealing with from South Bend, Warsaw schools, even small school corporations. They are all dealing with the flatlining of growth,” says Shelly, “we need to have some candid discussions.”
Both Shelley and Matthews have different but personal stakes in the future of Elkhart.
They both hope to have a role in making the school corporation better for everyone.
“It is going to be tough,” says Matthews, “hopefully in the long run, we can look back in 10 years and say, man that was hard, but it was the right call, and we are glad we did it. More families are served, more teachers and staff feel supported, and we are better in the long run.”