The South Bend Community School Corporation is considering adding a high school career center within a forgone Studebaker factory building. School district administrators will continue the career center conversation through the fall with hopes of cutting ribbon in time for the 2025-2026 academic year. Photo courtesy of Google.

News Release

SOUTH BEND — The South Bend Community School Corporation is considering adding a high school career center within a forgone Studebaker factory building. The building is located south of downtown South Bend. The school board has approved the exploration of a lease of the building during their Wednesday, Aug. 6 meeting.

The lease decision is preliminary and will permit school corporation administrators to seek lease terms and architectural arrangements for renovations to present to the school board at a later meeting.

Through a study conducted by a local consulting not-for-profit company, enFocus, it is estimated that the renovations to a 50,000-square-foot zone of the Studebaker building’s second floor could cost around $12.8 million. However, this option is, according to the study, is $9 million cheaper than constructing a new building of the same square footage.

Project planners are aiming to open the new high school center by August 2025.

As of now, South Bend School Corp. already offers programs like construction trades, culinary arts and precision machining. With the expansion of the high school center, the school corporation would have space to include more programs, including cybersecurity operations, automation and robotics.

Offering hands-on learning opportunities to students help prepare South Bend’s upcoming workforce for jobs of the future.

School corporation administrators originally advertised their goals of opening a center during their 2020 referendum campaign. During this time, district leaders agreed to spend $8.5 million of the $54 million capital referendum fund on a career center.

The prospective career center would be a St. Joseph County first. The county currently has no center serving the corporation’s students. As of now, school districts in the area have two options: offer career-specific programming within the high schools or send their students to the career centers that are based in Michigan City or Elkhart.

Under the prototype proposed at the meeting, South Bend schools would conduct the St. Joseph County career center. Other districts could decide to send students there for part of their school day while completing their core classes at their high school. South Bend’s district would be paid state career and technical educational funding and tuition for every student that attends the center.

Project planners expect the career center to be able to serve 750 students.

During the Wednesday, Sept. 6 meeting, enFocus leaders suggested the district to pursue $5 million in municipal commitments and $5 million in district bond funding to help cover the payment of the $12.8 million center. These funds would be in addition to the $8.5 million the district set aside during the 2020 referendum funds.

South Bend district administrators hope investing in the centralized career center will reverse enrollment trends because of the offering of courses that are not available anywhere else. During the district’s survey of students, a lot of interest was shown for career fields in criminal justice, culinary arts and other STEM fields.

The centralized location is not the only perk the old Studebaker building provides for students; it also puts students close to industry professionals. Currently Purdue Polytechnic; the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership; enFocus; The South Bend Tribune; East Race Muscle, an athletic training facility; LEA Professional, audio equipment manufacturer, all hold leases in the building.

School district administrators will continue the career center conversation through the fall with hopes of cutting ribbon in time for the 2025-2026 academic year.