Election Day in Indiana: South Bend Fights On, and 37 Districts Ask Voters

Indiana voters are deciding school questions across the state today — and the night before the polls opened, one school board decided to keep fighting in court. As today’s Indiana Education Daily reports, the South Bend Community School Corporation board voted unanimously at its public meeting on Monday, November 2, to appeal the October 26 ruling from St. Joseph Superior Court on the former Clay High School building.

That ruling said the district must make Clay available to Career Academy for purchase or lease for $1, under Indiana’s law covering unused public school buildings. The building is valued at $50 million to $55 million. The district says Clay never stopped being used: it houses career and technical education and adult learning, and the district plans to expand it into a centralized career hub. Career Academy, which said it is disappointed, plans to move two schools into Clay for 2028–29. Because the ruling takes effect only when it becomes final and unappealable, that move is now pending an appellate court’s answer, not a date anyone can count on.

On today’s ballots are operating referendums in 37 districts, the Indianapolis Public Schools board election, school board races across Marion County and the state, and the first partisan school board elections under the 2025 law. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time. Indiana requires a photo identification to vote in person, and student identifications are not an accepted form. Registration, polling places, and sample ballots are at IndianaVoters.in.gov. We will report the referendum results district by district, and the Indianapolis board winners, in tomorrow’s episode.

Two other numbers from Monday frame what those votes are about. The waiting list for Indiana’s child care vouchers fell 78 percent since May — from 41,175 children to 9,006 at the end of October — with nearly 48,000 children now receiving vouchers. And Indiana added more than 10,600 new registered apprentices in the last federal fiscal year, the most in a decade, for more than 27,000 active apprentices — a reminder of why career-preparation buildings like Clay are treated as strategic assets, not surplus property.

Takeaway: If you are voting in Indiana today, check your referendum’s exact question before 6 p.m. — and if you follow South Bend, watch the appeal, not the calendar: Clay’s future turns on the appellate court, and the 2028–29 move cannot happen on the October ruling alone.

Sources: South Bend Community School Corporation statement and November 2, 2026 board vote; St. Joseph Superior Court ruling, October 26, 2026; Indiana voter information at IndianaVoters.in.gov — all as covered in today’s episode, which publishes its sources in its episode description. Primary source: South Bend schools — Board votes to appeal Clay High School ruling