MPS releases list of schools considered for closures, mergers

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) on Friday, Oct. 25 released a list of schools it will consider to either close or merge into another school as part of the district's 10-year facilities plan.

MPS interim superintendent Eduardo Galvan said in an interview Thursday the district was not committing to closing any of the schools, and any decisions about closures and mergers would be made over multiple years.

The list is part of a broader presentation from Perkins-Eastman, a consultant MPS hired to provide guidance for the district's long-term buildings approach.

Closures have long been on the table for MPS because a long-running trend of declining enrollment has left the district with an amount of students that doesn't match its volume of building space. MPS has 30,000 fewer students than it did in 2006. 

Currently, dozens of the district's schools have enrollment totals well below their building's capacity. According to a building inventory report MPS is required to give the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, 36 schools have an enrollment number than is than 70% of capacity.

23 schools are operating at less than 60% of their buildings' capacity, and 14 schools are less than half-full.

Here is a look at the list of buildings in the closure/merger category:

• Auer Ave
• Brown St Academy
• Carver
• Clarke St
• Douglas
• Holmes
• Hopkins-Lloyd
• Jackson
• Keefe Ave
• La Follette
• Seifert
• Sherman
• Starmes Discovery

According to MPS, the goal of these changes is to improve the educational experiences of all students but that could come at a cost for others.

MPS says no closures or mergers would be planned for either the upcoming or the 2025-26 school years.

Researchers sorted schools into four categories:

1.Building and programmatic investments

2.Building addition

3.Closure/merger

4.Ongoing monitoring and evaluation

Schools that fell into the closure/merger category had a utilization rate of less than 50%, five-year declining enrollment trend and are located within one mile of another underutilized schools.

Galvan would not say how many schools the district could end up closing over the next several years. The presentation indicated the earliest closures would happen during the 2026-27 school year.

"That's not a question that I am able to answer because, again, as we said, we don't know what the future holds," Galvan said. "So, we're gonna take this very methodically. We're going to look at what happens in our community, and what the future brings, we don't know."

Galvan said any school that could be considered to close or merge could also become a candidate for investment into its programming and facilities.

"When we talk about closure, we always have to remember that closing a school is always difficult," said Eduardo Galvan, MPS interim superintendent. "So, when you look at it, we also need to think about investment. So, how do we invest in schools and in areas that make those schools more attractive to those families?"

Galvan said the primary benefit of merging schools would be the district having an easier time committing to a full array of services in schools where the enrollment matches the building.

"A school with 100 students may not have full-time art, music and (physical education); they certainly will have those services, but they won't have them maybe at a full-time capacity," Galvan said. "Whereas a school enrolled at 500 students does have full-time art, music and (physical education.)"

CBS 58 spoke with MPS parents to see how they feel about the potential closures. Some say they're concerned about what their neighborhoods may look like without these schools. One mother we spoke to off camera, said if her child's school was closed it would be a disservice to the community.

Another parent told CBS 58 his two children -- ages 11 and 13 -- are both MPS students and that they live down the street from their school. He says if it closed, there would be a big impact and the neighborhood would feel empty and, "like a ghost town."

“I’m basically right down the street from here," said Corey Edwards, MPS parent. "It’s going to make a big impact because now you have to find bussing, see if they’re going to qualify for bussing, and if not, how they’re going to get to school, what time the school ends, and how safe is the school gonna be?”

The Milwaukee School Board is set to have a special meeting Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 5:30 p.m. to review the progress report which will be open to the public.