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Darryl Heller, director of the IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center, left, speaks next to Regina Williams-Preston, of Black Lives Matter South Bend, and Paul Mishler, of the Michiana Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, during a press conference Wednesday about resource officers in schools.
Tribune Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN
Community outreach coordinator connects with PPHS South Bend families
Ingenuity, compassion Courtney Harjung s commitment to PPHS South Bend students and families
With the clock counting down to enrollment deadlines for the 2020-21 school year, Courtney Harjung took to TikTok to get students and families interested in Purdue Polytechnic High School South Bend.
Harjung, who started her new role as PPHS South Bend’s community outreach coordinator in January 2020, came up against the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly impacted open houses and other traditional methods to get the word out about the new school.
“We tried different ways to get students to hear about us and get to know us,” Harjung says. “We put things on social media. I remember making robotic hands and box cars – literally making a car out of a box – to post on TikTok mom groups just so families could see what we were all about during a crazy time. We made cool stuff that we would do here.”
South Bend Community School Corp. leaders are expected to produce more detailed proposals this week to try to turn around two failing elementary schools.
Two models being considered â a school redesign and an innovation network â would bring considerable autonomy to the operation of two South Bend elementary schools on the cusp of state intervention.
Both Marquette Montessori Academy and Muessel Elementary School have seen five consecutive years of failing grades assigned under the stateâs accountability system, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
âWe need to make sure that weâre addressing the underlying root causes that have for more than four years contributed to Muessel being an underperforming school,â Superintendent Todd Cummings said in one of several community meetings last week. âIâve only been the superintendent for two of those years. I wish we wouldâve started after the first two.â