Wausau School Board looks for new plan to address district concerns after nixing high school merger
WAUSAU − The Wausau School Board is back to the drawing board as it looks for new ways to address declining enrollment and increasing costs of providing services within the Wausau School District.
The board's Education/Operations Committee met Monday night to discuss its next steps after the board voted at its Nov. 13 meeting to remove a plan to combine Wausau West and Wausau East high schools from consideration to address those concerns. The board had originally approved a plan to combine the high schools in February.
Instead, board members who supported the change in direction pointed toward a reduction in the “footprint” of the elementary schools. These members pointed to Elmbrook School District in Brookfield, which has a comparable districtwide student population to Wausau but only has five elementary school buildings compared to 13 in Wausau.
“That’s what we’re trying to get to,” School Board member Jon Creisher said during Monday’s meeting. “A position to where we have more of our resources in fewer buildings and fewer buildings that we have to (regularly) go to the community to fix something or do referendums.”
The focus on elementary schools signals a return to an idea proposed prior to a referendum in 2020. Voters rejected the referendum in November 2020 that would have consolidated Grant and Lincoln elementary schools into a new building on the Grant Elementary property and renovated six other elementary school buildings.
“I understand the passion for our neighborhood schools because I had it as well,” School Board President James Bouche explained to the Wausau Daily Herald last week. “But at the same time, we need to take a look at economics and academics.”
Throughout Monday’s meeting, School Board member Patrick McKee, who introduced the district’s new planning direction, reiterated several points he made during the Nov 13 meeting. He wants the board to decide on goals and to consider every option including ones board members and school staff may not have enough information or expertise to fully present including moving school boundaries or transportation options for students and staff.
McKee suggested some broader goals to define a direction including equal curriculum offerings between schools to benefit both students and staff and to relieve the district’s increasingly limited budget.
“If you really want to start getting towards what does that ideal culture look like or what that ideal school looks like from a student, parent, staff perspective, I think it needs more thought,” McKee said.
One other source of pressure on the board is the district’s two charter schools, Montessori and Red Granite. These two schools operate largely independently but are still part of the Wausau School District. Under the board’s previous plan, Montessori was going to move into newly remodeled space at Horace Mann Middle School and Red Granite was going to grow into space at Hewitt-Texas Elementary School, adding classes in the coming years.
Red Granite was recently awarded a nearly $2 million grant over five years based on their plan to operate at the Hewitt-Texas building. Montessori has been making plans to use its space. The new plan to reconsider elementary school spaces leaves many unknowns for the two charter schools, and representatives from each made their case for communication and consideration in the board’s new plan.
The board asked Superintendent Keith Hilts to meet with leaders from the charter schools and to bring more info on specific points to upcoming meetings.
The school board has its regular meetings on the second Monday of each month.
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Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA-TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Reach him at epfantz@gannett.com or connect with him on Twitter @ErikPfantz.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Wausau School Board looks for new plan to address district concerns
