After decades of trying, Greene Township may soon be leaving South Bend Schools.

The South Bend School Board has approved a resolution to work with John Glenn Schools on a preliminary plan to take over the township

School board members from both South Bend and John Glenn say the approval of the preliminary plan is the first step of many.

As the South Bend Community School Corporation prepares to part with Greene Township.

“Those two are key components to this disannexation, is the tax base and the student assignment base," said Brian Kubicki, SBCSC General Counsel

This change has been discussed for about 40 years.

State lawmakers have unsuccessfully tried in recent years to allow Greene Township to join John Glenn Schools without approval from South Bend Schools. New legislation is gaining momentum.

“The board recognized that now would be a time to work toward a resolution that serves us better than other legislation would,” said Kubicki.

With South Bend Schools working on this plan, it means they can have more control over recovering part of lost tuition support from the state if the 72 students in Greene Township move to John Glenn.

“This puts us in a position to be proactive and to figure out where our next set of cuts will be and how we will make up for it,” said Kareemah Fowler, SBCSC Chief Financial Officer.

The John Glenn Schools Superintendent says the true impact won't be known until both school boards can agree on a plan.

That's because of open enrollment, where students already have the choice of being served by either South Bend or John Glenn schools.

The big impact is finding a compromise regarding property taxes obligations.

“That will also be a big portion of the plan outlining how Greene Township can fulfill their tax obligations to South Bend and at the same time there will be an integrated scenario where then they will take some tax obligations here at John Glenn,” said Christopher Winchell, John Glenn Schools Superintendent.

The goal is to possibly have a final plan approved by the end of the calendar year.

Approval will need to be made by both school boards, the state board of education and the Department of Justice.

The new C.D.C community levels... are divided into 3 categories of mask recommendations:

Low, Medium, and High.

Low impact areas has no recommendation for a mask in indoor and outdoor areas.

Medium impact areas the C.D.C says if at potential increased risk for Covid-19, people should to speak to their healthcare provider about wearing a mask.

High impact areas wear a mask in public indoor settings including schools.

The C.D.C also states that people should choose to mask at any time, and people with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with Covid-19 should wear a mask.

All three levels of mask recommendations have a few identical recommendations.

Which are to get vaccinated and boosted, and to get tested if you are sick.

According to the C.D.C map, Saint Joseph County is at a Medium risk so they recommend to speak with your healthcare provider to wear a mask.

The new mask recommendations comes at a time where Covid positivity cases are going down.

St. Joseph County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Mark Fox said

"We’re clearly on the backside of the Omicron surge our number of new cases per day or per week are the lowest they’ve been since last summer at the end of July."

Berrien County is still considered a high risk area, where the C.D.C recommends to wear a mask in public indoor settings including schools.

Berrien County Health Officer Guy Miller said

"Obviously this graphic that just went out we're in the high category our hospital is seeing very very low rates of Covid 19 admissions where at the peak of the pandemic they had upwards of 80 people in the hospital with a positive COVID-19 test and recently they have about 14 across their three sites which is looking very optimistic."

The C.D.C is using information from local hospitals in your community to base their recommendations.

"They’re using new admissions for Covid to area hospitals as kind of a marker for that, that number is reliable it’s just harder for you and me to know what that number is so it’s not as transparent in some respects as the other metrics have been," said Dr. Fox.

The local health officials told WSBT if you are in a low or medium risk category, you should still base the decision on wearing a mask on your current health.

The new C.D.C community levels... are divided into 3 categories of mask recommendations:

Low, Medium, and High.

Low impact areas has no recommendation for a mask in indoor and outdoor areas.

Medium impact areas the C.D.C says if at potential increased risk for Covid-19, people should to speak to their healthcare provider about wearing a mask.

High impact areas wear a mask in public indoor settings including schools.

The C.D.C also states that people should choose to mask at any time, and people with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with Covid-19 should wear a mask.

All three levels of mask recommendations have a few identical recommendations.

Which are to get vaccinated and boosted, and to get tested if you are sick.

According to the C.D.C map, Saint Joseph County is at a Medium risk so they recommend to speak with your healthcare provider to wear a mask.

The new mask recommendations comes at a time where Covid positivity cases are going down.

St. Joseph County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Mark Fox said

"We’re clearly on the backside of the Omicron surge our number of new cases per day or per week are the lowest they’ve been since last summer at the end of July."

Berrien County is still considered a high risk area, where the C.D.C recommends to wear a mask in public indoor settings including schools.

Berrien County Health Officer Guy Miller said

"Obviously this graphic that just went out we're in the high category our hospital is seeing very very low rates of Covid 19 admissions where at the peak of the pandemic they had upwards of 80 people in the hospital with a positive COVID-19 test and recently they have about 14 across their three sites which is looking very optimistic."

The C.D.C is using information from local hospitals in your community to base their recommendations.

"They’re using new admissions for Covid to area hospitals as kind of a marker for that, that number is reliable it’s just harder for you and me to know what that number is so it’s not as transparent in some respects as the other metrics have been," said Dr. Fox.

The local health officials told WSBT if you are in a low or medium risk category, you should still base the decision on wearing a mask on your current health.