10 February 2017
Visit/Tour of Clay High School
Location: Clay High School
Time: 8-10 am
Participants: Clay Team A and Team B, Principal Eid
After parking my car in the main parking lot, I walked in through the main door. From the outside, Clay looks like a normal high school, a little old but still in decent condition. After signing in with security, I make my way to the principal’s office. The hallways are lined with plaques, trophies, and artwork, reminiscent of my old high school. We sit down in Principal Eid’s office and discuss the history of Clay, our goals, and Principal Eid’s goals for the project. During this time, we are given a lot of literature on the South Bend Community School Corporation, the various high schools and middle schools. We get numbers on AP/dual class offerings and enrollment. We then are guided on a tour of the school by Principal Eid himself. It is clear that the Arts are a big part of the school as it is an Arts magnet. But another key part of the school is the slate of CTE courses available for those that want to enter the workforce out of high school. The CTE courses include welding, culinary arts, auto mechanic instruction, CNA, EMTN.
Key quotes:
“Penn receives 11,000 dollars per student whereas we only get 6,600 per student because of property taxes”
“The voucher system hit the public schools hard”
“The corporation has been losing between 300-500 kids per year, where are those kids going?”
“There is brain drain towards Adams”
“Once bussing started and Clay was no longer a neighborhood school, the demographics changed. You started to see more diversity. You also started to see more gang affiliation”
“We used to have 4-5 fights a day…gangs taking over parts of the school. There was an intersection that teachers used to avoid at all costs. In my first week I expelled 22 students for gang affiliation and destruction of environment. I was trying to set the tone”
“There was a surge of 773, 312 area codes from Chicago. We were inheriting poverty from another state”
“Right now we are at a student body of 1143. Ideally, I’d like us to be at 1400”
“Lasalle has all the smartypants and most of them end up going to Adams”
“Every morning, I watch 80 of the smartest students get bussed to Adams that are from our(Clay) district.”
Big issue
Clay has a reputation that precedes itself: poor, diverse, not where high achieving students go. Adams is seen as the crown jewel of the SBSC by the school board, the community, the parents, and the students in middle school. How do you make Clay a place where ALL students want to go because it is a good school on a number of fronts. It has strong academics(AP classes, good teachers will prepare you for college), good arts(for those that are interested, supplements and improves learning in other subjects like math and science), it is safe, it will push students to their potential, it has good athletics(something to be proud of and compete in), it has a good community(where one can feel supported and cared about).
3 Key takeways
- Clay is dealing with a vastly different socioeconomic demographic than Penn, many students on free and reduced lunch. This also means that there are fewer financial resources for the school to work with.
- Clay used to/still does have the reputation of being the “thug” school. Lots of fights, poorer demographic.
- Clay has tried to improve itself by getting more AP classes, CTE class offerings, increasing safety.