The Empowerment Zone Program begins its transition into the SBCSC

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --At Tuesday's meeting, The Empowerment Zone's Board of Directors stated that the transition to the South Bend Community School Corporation began when class started on Aug. 15, with things going well so far but with work still needing to be done.

“But we would tell you it’s not a finished product yet. There’s still a lot of work to be done. Even though the Empowerment Zone has dissolved, there’s nothing more critical than this work that’s happening in those classrooms right now," stated President of the South Bend Regional Chamber and Board Member of South Bend Empowerment Zone Jeff Rea.

In an effort to realign students, and due to a lack of funds, the South Bend School Board voted back in July to dissolve the Empowerment Zone Program.

When it began in 2019, the vision was to eliminate the academic, social, and emotional opportunity gaps in four schools that were struggling, working to improve test scores and graduation rates.

Empowerment Zone Board Chair, Sam Centellas, stated that they did see improvements, causing the school corporation to adopt some of the successful policies and programs for all South Bend students. 

“We piloted some ways that we could try to create targeted student intervention based on individual student needs, based on their diagnostic, and so that is one of the things that the entire school corporation is doing now and then ultimately will transition to the next tool as they continue to develop those tools better,” stated Centellas.

Rea explained the zone was expected to last until the end of the 2026 school year but lost two critical funding sources.

“We really can’t offer the uniqueness that we had without those dollars to give us some smaller classrooms, to give us some more classroom aids, to give us some new curriculum or some other things. So, all of us kind of made that difficult decision that because the funding wasn’t there, we’re going to have to go backwards,” Rea states.

But he did say that they do expect to implement some Empowerment Zone practices from the past few years, with hope to see higher test scores in the spring.

Rea continues, “…The teachers that have been committed to doing this work are still there, the principles that were providing the leadership are still there, and so even absent the money, we hope that the students don’t experience any drop off this school year,”

The Empowerment Zone will close officially in just a few weeks on Sept. 15, but the transition for students will continue to be monitored throughout the school year.