Clay High School

1930/1939 – 2024

Founded — the date in dispute: Clay High School stood in Clay Township, north of the city, and served it under the corporation — the school's very name in its first decades, Washington-Clay, ties it to the township's own school line. Its founding year does not come down in one figure. The school's standard reference record gives "established 1930" and a dedication in 1930; the South Bend Tribune's photo archives date the old Washington-Clay High School building to 1931–1932; the Adams student newspaper, in its history of the corporation's high schools, gives 1939. All three are carried; the record read for this section does not settle between them. The newer building, the one the school ended in, was dedicated in 1976. Clay was the district's Fine Arts magnet high school.

The closing: On 17 April 2023 the board voted, four to three, to close Clay as a high school after the 2023–24 school year; the Tribune's report of the vote put the projected saving at $16.2 million over five years, against an enrollment of 628 in 2022–23 in a building of 1,500 capacity. The Fine Arts magnet moved to Riley. Clay's last class graduated in 2024, and the building passed to the corporation's career-technical programs, which moved in during 2024 as the St. Joseph County Career Hub. The fight that followed over the building — Career Academy's claim under Indiana's dollar-law for unused school buildings (Indiana Code 20-26-7-47), the Department of Education's order of 26 July 2024 that the building be listed as available, the administrative litigation that ran to a final decision in February 2026, and the board's consideration of an appeal still open in October 2026 — is a dispute of the present day and is carried as one in City Controversies; the institutional steps stand here, in the order they happened.

Sources:

1. The school's standard reference record (revised October 2026) — "established 1930," the 1976 dedication of the newer building, the Fine Arts magnet, and the dollar-law record through the board's October 2026 discussions.
2. South Bend Tribune, photo archives — the old Washington-Clay High School building dated 1931–1932; and the Tribune's report of 17 April 2023 (Carley Lanich) of the 4–3 closure vote, the $16.2 million projection, and the 628 enrollment.
3. The Adams Tower (student newspaper) — Clay "established in 1939," in its history of the corporation's schools.
4. Indiana Department of Education administrative record, Case DOE-2411-003283 (final decision February 2026, Administrative Law Judge Andrew R. Bernlohr) — the dollar-law proceedings over the Clay building.