WAUWATOSA, Wis. — The Wauwatosa School District is considering consolidating the middle schools in a new grade configuration proposal.
District administrators released recommendations on Thursday, June 6 that would shift the current school configuration from a JK (junior kindergarten, traditionally starting at age 4) to grade 5, middle school (grades 6 – 8), and high school (grades 9 – 12) to a new configuration of JK – 6 and grades 7- 12.
“In order to maximize academic culture, execute the open enrollment draw down and maintain the current school footprint – including small and accessible elementary schools – District administrators recommend that sixth grade operations relocate to elementary school facilities,” according to the district’s documentation.
“This will ensure that all elementary buildings remain full and, therefore, open. This would then prompt the consolidation of secondary operations – relocating 7th and 8th grade students at Longfellow and Whitman to middle school-specific areas within East and West, respectively, while maintaining the unique identities of each middle and high school community.”
The proposed model has students only transitioning from 1 building instead of 2, with the district saying that the move is “good for the social-emotional health of students.”
The district also acknowledges that “[t]he 7th-12th grade model only works if there is capacity for all 6th grade students to attend school in all existing elementary schools. In short, the model enables all elementary schools to remain open without the need to fill schools with non-resident students.”
As for the elementary schools, “the elementary schools will be two-section buildings. All existing schools have requisite capacity to accommodate a two section JK-6th grade educational model.”
But the bigger question: what happens to the current Wauwatosa middle school buildings? “Consolidation of secondary operations within the current high school sites would avoid school closure, decrease the number of facilities that require ongoing maintenance, allow District administrators to explore the development of an athletic complex on the current Whitman Middle School site, explore liquidation of the current Longfellow Middle School site, and, importantly, support the District’s Academic Programming recommendations.”
A written version of the long-range recommendations is available here and the academic and resident enrollment recommendations are here. All of the proposed recommendations will be presented by Superintendent Dr. Demond Means at the Wauwatosa School Board Meeting on Monday, June 10.
