MPS board discusses why 13 schools are being considered for closures or mergers. One part of the city would be affected most

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The board overseeing Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) on Tuesday had its first extended conversation about what it would look to close several schools over the coming years. The meeting included a pair of disruptions, a sign of how difficult such conversations will continue to be.

"We have had absolutely enough!" Beverly Williams, an active critic of the district, shouted, accusing MPS of racism in its facilities planning.

MPS officials have not committed to closing any schools. However, the reality is the district's enrollment has declined by nearly 30,000 students since 2006. Falling enrollment, as well as a birth rate decline, has left the district with more building space than it will have students for years to come.

The district hired an outside consultant, Perkins Eastman, to study MPS' long-term facilities outlook. The consultant's report came out Friday, and it broke schools into multiple categories, such as those in position to expand or continue to be monitored.

Thirteen schools, however, were labeled as possible candidates to close or be merged. Perkins Eastman said it considered a school a leading candidate for closure if it had an enrollment that was less than 50% of its building capacity, has experienced declining enrollment over the past five years and is less than one mile from another underenrolled school.

Perkins Eastman presented its findings to the MPS board as part of a special meeting Tuesday night. Board director Henry Leonard said he believed eventual closures are unavoidable.

"I think it's inevitable," he said. "I think there's gonna be some kind of significant shifting that will occur."

There's currently an imbalance where some MPS schools are overcrowded; those are located almost entirely on the south side. Those schools tend to offer more specialty programs than those on the north and west sides, which makes them more popular with parents.

Meanwhile, each of the 13 schools on the closure/merger list are on the city's north side. At two different points during the meeting, members of the audience disrupted the meeting. A common concern was closures will disproportionately affect majority-Black neighborhoods in the city.

"That's a major concern. We don't want that to be the case," Leonard said. "It's difficult, and I would say we're trying to wrap our heads around how do we do this in such a way that we don't cause damage to happen just in that part of the community."

Closures would happen over several years, according to a timeline laid out in the presentation. The earliest would come in the 2026-27 school year as part of repeating two-year cycles. Planning and community conversations would occur in the first year, then the next closures would happen in 2028-29 and again in 2030-31.

Perkins Eastman said in reviewing other cities' closures, the negative effects were more severe when closures happened at once.

By carrying out the plan over several years, the plan would also call for the district to prioritize investment in improvements and expansions at schools in the neighborhoods where others close.

Board director Darryl Jackson cautioned the district would also have to take into account whether there'd be a risk of violence depending on which schools were combining.

"There may be an uptick in violence once you bring in young people together from different neighborhoods," Jackson said. "And now, where once this is the rival territory, and now we're meeting up here."

Perkins Eastman said that very issue surfaced after closures in Washington, D.C., and it would be something taken into consideration throughout the process.

The biggest concern, however, was ensuring neighborhoods in each part of the city would have schools offering specialty programs and buildings in good condition.

Leonard said, based on early conversations, the process will call for making improvements and expansions ahead of when students would move into those schools.

"If it's done the right way, the way we're talking about it, that we will have things in place so that parents and families know, 'here's the schools we're gonna have for you,'" he said.