The South Bend Community School Corporation Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday to end negotiations with Purdue Polytechnic High School.

Even though the state charter board approved the school to come to South Bend, the window has closed on it being housed in the same building as a South Bend high school.

Negotiations broke down after months of talks between South Bend schools and Purdue Polytechnic High School, an outcome many from the community spoke in favor of during Monday's school board meeting.

"I vote that members of the school board vote in favor of [ending talks]. Three minutes don't provide enough time to explain all my reasons for saying that," former South Bend teacher Linda Wolfson said.

"We believe in the power of public education. This is why we were so vocal about this partnership and why we were against it," African American Advisory Leadership Board Member Dalila Huerta said.

After multiple public forums, Superintendent Dr. Todd Cummings said it's clear where the community stands on this partnership, and the school board stands with the community.

"Since I've been superintendent, we've changed, augmented decisions twice based on community input,” he said. “When I became superintendent, I said that is what we're going to do, and here we are with yet a second data point."

This comes just one week after public feedback shaped the school corporation's decision to delay bus route changes to the beginning of next school year instead of Feb. 2.

The public participation did not go unnoticed either.

"We also, to be successful, have to listen to the members of our community, to our families, to our students, to our teachers, to our employees," board President John Anella said.

"We need to continue to have these conversations and these are healthy conversations because you have a voice, you have an investment, you're a stakeholder in this community," Vice President Leslie Wesley said.

Negotiations are done, but that doesn't mean there is no future for Purdue Polytechnic and South Bend schools. Cummings says they could revisit negotiations once there's more data on how the charter school affects students, but not before the school operates here for at least a year.