Tumultuous week for HOPE Christian Schools: serious student injury, campus merger, change in leadership
After a student fell at school and was hospitalized Thursday, HOPE Christian Schools announced it would be combining its two Fortis campuses and changing leadership due to several safety, behavioral and staffing concerns — concerns that a spokesperson later said did not include the fall.
According to a letter sent to families Thursday, a second-grader fell during gym class at the Fortis North campus, 3601 N. Port Washington Ave., suffered a concussion and was admitted to the intensive care unit at Children's Wisconsin.
On Friday, a spokesperson for Children's Wisconsin, providing an update with parental consent, said the student was in good condition and hospital staff hoped to discharge him soon.
Alicia Meadows, who said her son was the child injured Thursday, told the Journal Sentinel that she was frustrated that she hadn't gotten more information from the school about what exactly happened.
The school's spokesperson, from public relations firm Platform Communications, said the student slipped on a plastic ring on the ground. He said administrators would speak with the family again Friday.
School leaders on Friday emphasized that the fall was unrelated to other changes at the school, which were only announced in the same letter because of the timing. They didn't specify what the "safety, behavioral and staffing concerns" were that led to the other decisions.
"HOPE Fortis is in the midst of a time of deep change reflective of our commitment to provide the best Christian education possible," a Friday statement to the media said.
The statement, along with the Thursday letter to families, were attributed to Dan Depies, the COO of Open Sky Education, a Waukesha-based nonprofit that runs HOPE Christian Schools. Depies is also the interim regional executive director for the schools. He was not available for an interview Friday.
In his letter, Depies said students at the two Fortis campuses will immediately transition to virtual learning. Students at the South campus will be moved to the North campus, with a target reopening date of Oct. 2. The North campus is about a half-mile north of the South campus, 3215 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
Depies also said the campuses' former principal, Trina Lockhart, is no longer with the school, and Dean of Instruction Terri Ghee is serving as the interim school leader. Depies said Lockhart was “no longer with HOPE Fortis” but didn’t explain why, saying he can't comment on personnel matters.
Lockhart told the Journal Sentinel she had been uncomfortable with staffing shortages at the school, which she called a “recipe for disaster.” She said she was hired in late July and served as principal until Sept. 11. She said it was irresponsible to have one principal for both campuses and that other staff were “spread too thin.”
When she started the job, Lockhart said the schools needed teachers for every grade level, and the shortages persisted as the school year began, with teaching assistants filling in for teacher roles.
“HOPE Christian School’s staff, families and scholars deserve better from their school,” Lockhart said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel. “Families deserve and should be able to trust that their school will keep their children safe, educate them and be honest.”
HOPE Christian Schools includes five campuses in Milwaukee and one in Racine. The private Christian schools are part of parental choice programs, meaning they receive tax-funded vouchers in place of tuition for lower income families.
The Fortis campuses together serve students in grades K4 through eight. The school network closed its high school in 2022, citing a shortage of teachers and not enough state funding.
Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @RoryLinnane.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: HOPE Christian plans to combine campuses, responds to student injury
