Map shows possible school closures in Milwaukee Public Schools

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

The remaining seven are just a few 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, mostly black neighborhoods that have fallen victim to anti-poverty efforts. inequalities for decades.

Of the thirteen schools that could expand, ten are in the southern half of the city.

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

“We understand that these are difficult conversations, and that we’re not just dealing with this 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 company argues that decades of change in Milwaukee’s population mean that many northwest-central schools today have more space than necessary to enroll every eligible child living in the area. That’s the case even as many families choose to bus their students to schools further away in search of better academics, often taking seats in already overcrowded schools on the South Side.

Meanwhile, MPS is facing serious budget deficits and criticism for financial mismanagement. And overall enrollment is down with 30,000 students in less than twenty years, reducing funding per student.

These facts have been before the public for weeks.

In response, teachers, parents and others have demanded justification – or alternative options – for closing community schools Anchors and resource centers for some of Milwaukee’s most underserved families.

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

How did Perkins Eastman decide which schools to recommend for possible closure or upgrades?

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

At these schools, 92% of students are black, compared to 50% overall at MPS.

These schools have all experienced declining enrollment over the past five years, and as a result, Perkins Eastman data shows at least half of each building is unused. They are also each within a mile of another school that is at least half empty.

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

But most of the district’s 144 schools won’t see any closures or expansions at all. The majority are candidates for new academic courses and building renovations, or are still being evaluated.

The goal is to invest in schools across the district, says consultant Nate Morris — especially in neighborhoods that could also see closures, to offset the damage he acknowledges will come with them.

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

Why don’t we just invest in all schools?

MPS students in the northern part of the city have fewer academic programs to choose from, such as those in bilingual education or college level. That inequality, consultants say, is a factor driving students to enroll in schools further south.

These enrollment patterns are leading to questions from the community: Why not just invest more in all schools?

In an interview, Davis said that even if every potential 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 declines, but also changes in Milwaukee’s population. Eight of the thirteen schools that could potentially close or merge were built around the year 1900, the oldest being Brown Street Academy in 1882.

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

The MPS long-term facilities plan, prepared by Perkins Eastman, is intended to be rolled out over several years. If investments revive school enrollment, the district could change plans for closures, consultants said.

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

At a school board meeting on October 29, MPS board member Megan O’Halloran described why her own child does not attend the school closest to home: That would have meant sending her to a high school with 43 children in one classroom.

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

O’Halloran asked whether MPS could address the district’s enrollment disparity with policy changes, such as requiring students to attend the school closest to home or allowing them to attend school across the city. Perkins Eastman has already proposed similar options.

“I think the decisions that come out of this will be very unpopular,” O’Halloran said. “But if we exhausted all our analysis and had public input, whichever is least unpopular, I think that would be more fair.”

Schools are ‘good candidates’ eligible for closure or upgrades, but require further sorting

Perkins Eastman consultants said it is easy for the public to see the recently released list of possible school closures and assume decisions have been made. But they said that list was only intended to indicate which schools are “good candidates” for closure, expansion or otherwise.

MPS and its advisor say they will get more feedback from the community before making any decisions. This could include shapes “steering groups” consisting of parents, teachers and students.

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

Yet many affected by district-level decisions are clear about their distrust in the process.

Walker-Henry, from the teachers union, said she is skeptical about relying too much on the consultancy’s “utilization rates”, or on the number of students enrolled in a school relative to its capacity. Teachers need space to do their work, 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 concerned mother who had just been evicted, who came to her children’s school and relied on the social worker for help. Connecting families to such crucial resources, she said, is much easier when school is just around the corner.

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

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

The schools 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).

The schools that could receive capacity expansion are: Accelerated Learning Academy (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-Five Street Elementary and Whittier Elementary.

The full list of schools can be found at: tinyurl.com/munc8mwu.

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