Superintendent James Kapsa on Monday recommended Studebaker Primary Center as the location for the New Tech High School.

"We believe this would be an ideal site for New Tech," he said before the South Bend Community School Corporation Board on Monday night.

The School Corporation board will vote on whether to hold the New Tech High School in Studebaker on Monday, Aug. 17.

The high school, which will be heavy on technology and project-based learning, is scheduled to hold its first class of 100 students in August 2010.

But it hasn’t always been clear which of the 12 buildings looked into would host the school.

Months ago, the Marycrest building was the location of choice. Then, a couple of weeks ago, The St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Joseph County was discussed as the best location.

But at Monday’s board meeting, Kapsa said The St. Vincent de Paul location would cost roughly $11 million to renovate. The Studebaker School, on the other hand, will cost roughly $500,000, he said.

Studebaker will be empty in June. At present, students from Monroe are there as their school is renovated.

When Marycrest was the favorite location, the city had allocated $1.3 million in tax increment financing dollars, or TIF dollars.

With Studebaker, those funds won’t be available.

"Boy I hate to give that money back, but again, it's not enough in order to do the job," said Kapsa.

School board members confirm they are still securing seed money. But the School Corporation did approve $100,000 in July to help the school with fundraising.

Many of the financial details will get ironed out in the next week. The budget for the new tech high school will get presented on Monday, Aug. 17.

Funds have to be secured by Sept. 1 to comply with a grant through the United Way.

"It's always a struggle,” said SBCSC member Roger Parent. “Right now we're looking for some money for the first year, and we've got a lot of that put together. But we do have a deadline to meet, and we've got to meet that September 1st deadline to raise additional funds," he said.