Wauwatosa School District considering proposal to close middle school buildings

The Wauwatosa School District is considering a proposal that would close its middle school buildings to help address a budget shortfall projected to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

The district anticipates a $61 million budget shortfall over the next five years, documents show.

The proposal would close the district's USTEM program at Underwood Elementary School.

The closures are part of a larger plan to address the district's facility and operational needs, which could potentially be addressed, at least in part, by a referendum later this year.

Here's what to know about the proposed new grade configuration and the district's other facility and operational needs:

What changes are being proposed to the district's grade configuration?

The district's current grade configuration is a junior kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary school, sixth- through eighth-grade middle school and ninth- through 12th-grade high school model. Under the district's list of administrative recommendations, that model would change to a junior kindergarten through sixth-grade and seventh- through 12th-grade model, eliminating the need for separate middle schools.

Sixth-graders would relocate to the district's elementary school buildings, while seventh- and eighth-grade students at Longfellow and Whitman middle schools would relocate to middle school-specific areas at Wauwatosa East and West high schools, respectively.

The changes are proposed to take effect starting in the 2029-30 school year.

Why are the changes being considered, and how would they be implemented?

The district says that, like other Wisconsin school districts, its state-imposed revenue limits have not kept up with inflation.

The district's long-range facilities plan recommends investing $32 million to address deferred maintenance at its elementary schools and $13 million to make sure its elementary schools meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

It also recommends investing $15 million to ensure the district's high schools meet ADA standards.

The plan also recommends all projects be funded by a capital referendum and recommends a referendum question be put on the November ballot, seeking $60 million over 20 years to address these items.

The second phase — to fund the seven- through 12th-grade model — would place a facilities referendum question on the November 2026 ballot, depending on the amount of improvements district residents are willing to support. The district has not specified how much that referendum might be for.

The plan also calls for adopting a capital improvement fund and plan for future work to the district's elementary schools.

In a video on the district's YouTube channel, the district said it has about $150 million in deferred maintenance needs across all of its schools. The district said it could avoid having to address $28 million in deferred maintenance at both the middle school buildings by closing them.

The plan would also help the district to avoid having to rebuild and remodel the two middle school buildings and two high school buildings, which the district estimated would cost between $440 million and $530 million.

Why is an open enrollment drawdown being proposed, and how would it work?

The district has been using open enrollment to help maintain its current building footprint of nine elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools. But the district has increased expenses by adding more classes and staffing to implement that strategy.

Wauwatosa's strategy differs from other Wisconsin school districts, which usually decide on the number of schools and classes needed to support resident students and then fill in classroom space with nonresident students, according to a district document about its open enrollment.

But the cost of maintaining its current number of facilities "is significant and not financially prudent given the limited return (12.8% or $1.25M) on net annual revenues."

To use open enrollment "in a more financially-driven and strategic manner," the district is considering a districtwide minimum of nonresident students annually and leveraging a waitlist in its open enrollment formula. This would allow the district to maintain annual net revenue of about $1.25 million from incoming open enrollment students. A a portion of that would be reinvested into the needs of nonresident students, reduce the district budget shortfall and reduce district dependence on its current open enrollment strategy."A draw down / gradual reduction model also allows the District to explore the potential of placing 6th grade students in the elementary schools and creating 7-12 secondary schools," the document said.

How would attendance boundaries be affected by the changes?

The district hasn't had changes to its schools' attendance boundaries since the 1996-97 school year. Since then, elementary school enrollments have become imbalanced. Since the district relies on open enrollment to fill its buildings, some district schools have more nonresident students than others.

During the district's last boundary change in 1996-97, the area west of North 92nd Street shifted from Longfellow Middle School's attendance zone to Whitman Middle School's attendance zone. Students living east of North 92nd Street continue attending Longfellow Middle School. The boundary line change allowed for all McKinley Elementary students to attend Wauwatosa West High School, which balanced attendance at the high school level, according to district communications director Sarah Ellis.

But she said that some families, in particular those living east of 92nd Street, may want their child to attend Wauwatosa East High School so they can remain with their middle school peers.

Since 1996-97, there has been "considerable attention and discussion" within McKinley's community about where students would attend high school. Within the last year, the district has received requests to reconsider where those students attend high school. Any such requests have to take into consideration the potential lack of balance in student population between the secondary schools; facility renovations needed to accommodate the boundary line shift for McKinley students to the east side secondary schools; space capacity at the east side secondary schools to accommodate new students and unintended consequences affecting the west side secondary schools due to any boundary change.

Administration recommends closing USTEM

The district recommends creating a new course on STEM principles taught to all elementary level students for 60 minutes per week. That would be in addition to the average 70 to 90 weekly minutes of science elementary classroom teachers currently teach.

As a result, administrators recommended closing USTEM, Underwood Elementary School's selective program where kindergarten through fifth grades learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics in multi-age classrooms.

That recommendation has "stunned and saddened" USTEM parents, said Robin Brannin, a parent and the president of the Underwood Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization.

"(The school's) elimination would do nothing to improve STEM education across the district but would harm our kids who thrive there and disrupt our community," Brannin wrote in a statement to a Journal Sentinel reporter. "Closing it does nothing to advance the shared goal of helping students across the district and only serves to unfairly penalize children who are thriving in this unique environment."

While the administration recommended closing USTEM, its plan would retain Wauwatosa STEM School, the district's first charter school, which USTEM was modeled after. Closing one while keeping another open "sends a conflicting message about our dedication to STEM for all," Brannin said.

The Underwood PTO plans to hold an emergency meeting with the administration at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 13, with administration to get more answers and share feedback with the Wauwatosa School Board.

When will the Wauwatosa School Board next discuss the topic?

No action was taken on any of the district's recommendations at the school board's June 10 meeting.

The board is scheduled to vote June 17 whether to place a referendum question or questions on the November ballot, according to an email from Ellis.

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wauwatosa School District considering proposal to close middle school buildings