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    • The map shows possible school closings in Milwaukee Public Schools
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    The map shows possible school closings in Milwaukee Public Schools

    Online Niel Posted on

    Of the 13 schools that could be closed in Milwaukee Public Schools, six are in one zip code: 53206.

    The remaining seven are just miles down the street in zip codes 53205, 53210, and 53212. They form a square in the northwest-central part of Milwaukee’s most segregated, predominantly black neighborhoods that have undergone poverty management. inequities for decades.

    Of the 13 schools that could expand, 10 are in the southern half of the city.

    The MPS consulting firm that made the recommendations, Perkins Eastman, advised that changes like these would give all Milwaukee children a better education. In an interview, the consultants also said they are aware of Milwaukee’s past and present racial segregation.

    “We understand that these are difficult conversations and that we’re not just dealing with today. We’re dealing with histories of disinvestment in communities,” consultant Patrick Davis said in an Oct. 31 interview. “We have to be able to understand that.”

    The firm argues that decades of changes in Milwaukee’s population mean that today, many schools in northwest Central have more space than is needed to enroll every eligible child who lives nearby. This is the case even as many families choose to bus their students to schools further afield in search of better academics, often taking up seats in already overcrowded schools in the south.

    Meanwhile, MPS faces dire budget deficits and criticism of financial mismanagement. And total enrollments are down of 30,000 students in less than 20 years, reducing funding per student.

    These facts have been in the public eye for weeks.

    In response, teachers, parents and others have called for justification — or alternatives — to closing schools that act as communities. anchors and resource centers for some of Milwaukee’s most disadvantaged families.

    “As you can see from that list, the closings are overwhelmingly overwhelming in black communities,” Ingrid Walker-Henry, president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, said in an Oct. 29 interview. “What we do know is that these are communities that have seen historic disinvestment. And what the families, the students, the staff of Milwaukee Public Schools deserve is investment, not abandonment.”

    More: The future of MPS could include school closures, enhanced programming under the long-term facilities plan

    How did Perkins Eastman decide which schools to recommend for potential closure or upgrade?

    The 13 schools that could close or merge are clustered in a roughly 3-mile square in northwest downtown Milwaukee, including neighborhoods like Arlington Heights, Franklin Heights, North Division and Sherman Park.

    In these schools, 92 percent of students are black, compared to 50 percent overall in MPS.

    All of these schools have seen enrollment decline over the past five years, and as a result, Perkins Eastman data shows that at least half of each building is unused. Also, each is within 1 mile of another school that is at least half empty.

    It’s an opposite reality for the 13 schools that could get expansions, which are already at or over capacity and projected to stay that way. Of these, 10 are south of Interstate-94. These schools’ more than 6,000 students are whiter and more Latino than MPS overall.

    But most of the district’s 144 schools won’t see any closings or expansions at all. Most are candidates for new academic programs and building renovations or are still under evaluation.

    The goal is to invest in schools across the district, said consultant Nate Morris — especially in neighborhoods that could also see closings, to offset the damage he acknowledged comes with them.

    “We don’t want the investment to be overwhelming in one part of the city,” Morris said.

    Why not invest in all schools?

    Northside MPS students have fewer academic programs to choose from, such as bilingual education or college-level classes. According to consultants, this inequity is a factor driving students to enroll in schools further south.

    These enrollment patterns raise questions from the community: Why not invest more in all schools?

    In an interview, Davis said that even if every prospective student living in the northern part of the district attended the school closest to home, MPS would still have far too much space.

    “There just isn’t enough student population to support all the schools,” he said.

    Consultants cited not only the district’s long-term enrollment decline, but also changes in Milwaukee’s population. Eight of the 13 schools that could close or merge were built around 1900, the oldest being Brown Street Academy in 1882.

    “Based on the age of those buildings, it’s pretty safe to say there was a large population living in that central core, and the city expanded,” Davis said. “It’s a pretty typical pattern that we see in cities.”

    The MPS Long Range Facilities Plan created by Perkins Eastman is intended to be rolled out over several years. If the investments help revitalize school enrollment, the district could change plans to close, consultants said.

    Are closings the only way to solve the district’s problems?

    At an Oct. 29 school board meeting, MPS board member Megan O’Halloran described why her own child doesn’t attend the school closest to home: That would have meant sending her to a middle school with 43 kids in only one class.

    “I’m taking her to another school, which is further away,” O’Halloran said at the meeting.

    O’Halloran asked if MPS could address the district’s uneven enrollment with policy changes — such as requiring students to go to the school closest to home or a citywide school option. Perkins Eastman has already suggested similar options.

    “I think any decisions that come out of this are going to be very unpopular,” O’Halloran said. “But if we exhausted all our analysis and had public input on which is the least unpopular, I think that would be fairer.”

    The schools are “good eligible candidates” for closure or upgrading but need more sorting

    Consultants Perkins Eastman said it was easy for the public to look at the recently released list of possible school closures and assume that decisions had been made. But they said the list was only meant to signal which schools are “good eligible candidates” for closure, expansion or otherwise.

    MPS and its consultant say they will get more community feedback before making any decisions. That could include training “steering committees” including parents, teachers and students.

    “We just want people to come forward. If they’re upset or if they have questions that they don’t feel like we’ve answered, that just means we have more work to do,” Morris said. “What’s disappointing is that we can’t get people there.”

    However, many affected by the district-level decisions were clear about their distrust of the process.

    Walker-Henry, of the teachers’ union, said she was skeptical that there was too much reliance on the consulting firm’s construct of “utilization rates,” or the number of students enrolled in a school versus its capacity. Teachers need space to do their jobs, she said — and schools are community centers, not just classrooms.

    She knows firsthand, having worked at Auer Avenue Elementary, one of the schools that could close in the 53206 zip code.

    She remembers meeting a worried mother who had just been evicted, who came to her children’s school and relied on the social worker for help. Connecting families to essential resources like these, she said, is much easier when the school is just down the road.

    “It’s not just school that happens in school,” she said.

    More: As anger grows over school closure talks, MPS must consider committees to get more feedback

    Which specific schools could close, expand or see other changes?

    Schools being flagged for possible closure or merger are: Brown Street Academy (elementary), Clarke Street Elementary, Siefert Elementary, Starms Discovery Learning Center (K-8), Auer Avenue Elementary, Hopkins Lloyd Community School (elementary), Jackson Elementary School, Dr. George Washington Carver Academy (K-8 ), Oliver Wendell Holmes School (elementary), Andrew S. Douglas Middle School, Keefe Avenue School (elementary) Robert M. LaFollette School (elementary) and William T. Sherman School (elementary).

    Schools that could get capacity extensions are: Academy of Accelerated Learning (elementary), Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts School (K-8), Eighty-First Street School (elementary), Escuela Vieau (K-8), Greenfield Bilingual School (K-8), Honey Creek Elementary School, Humboldt Park School (K-8), James Fenimore Cooper School (K-8), Jeremiah Curtin Leadership Academy (K-8), Mary McLeod Bethune Academy (K-8) Morgandale School (K-8), Ninety-Fifth Street Elementary and Whittier Elementary.

    The full list of schools is available at: tinyurl.com/munc8mwu.

    cleo Krejci covers education and workforce development as a Report For America staff member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. For more information on Report for America, visit jsonline.com/rfa.

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