Waukesha school leaders outline plan to reduce building space by 10-15%; could lead to school closures

WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Waukesha is known as the birthplace of electric guitar pioneer Les Paul, but when it comes to the future of its schools, this community is striking the same chords as many others across Wisconsin. Declining enrollments are forcing tough decisions, and administrators on Thursday presented a plan to adapt by reducing the district's building space by 10-15%.

District leaders pointed to declining birthrates as reason to expect enrollment to keep falling in the years to come. It's a demographic challenge facing most of Wisconsin's school districts.

In the School District of Waukesha, the on-site enrollment of 9,675 students is nearly 4,000 fewer than the 13,526 seats available throughout the district. 

Harvey Stowe served as a middle school principal and assistant superintendent in the district before retiring in 2008. Before Thursday's meeting, he said the district weighed closing schools amid declining enrollment toward the end of his career.

"About 2002, 2005, around there, and people discussed the need down the road with population that we may have to do some things differently," he said.

District leaders said downsizing Waukesha's facilities footprint would still leave more space than students, but it would close the gap. With 23 buildings, including 20 schools, a 10 to 15% reduction could mean two or three schools closing.

District officials did not explicitly mention closing schools in the future, but they noted the district has previously closed three schools since 2010. They also pointed to a reduction in full-time teacher positions, going from 238 in the 2015-16 year to 196 currently. Those cuts allowed the district to maintain an average 4K-5 class size of about 22. 

Sara Behrendt, also a retired principal and administrator who attended the presentation, said she felt like she was watching the district go full circle.

"You know, we've gone 360," she said. "I lived through West being built and schools expanding and renovating, and now, we're flipside and we're downsizing."

Stowe said one potential benefit of reducing the number of schools would be needing to hire fewer specialists, which has become more difficult amid a teacher shortage. He said expert teachers in narrow subjects, such as calculus, or special education instructors could be a focus in fewer buildings.

"The more you can consolidate your needs, the more you can find more quality people," he said.

Waukesha is far from alone in having to manage too much space for too few students. Over the past year, Kenosha has closed six schools. District officials in Wauwatosa have weighed closing two middle schools, and Milwaukee Public Schools is in the midst of long-term facilities planning that could lead to more than a dozen schools closing.

Any decisions on school closures in Waukesha wouldn't come for at least several more months. The district will collect feedback from families through October. According to its "Optimizing Our Future" outline, administrators will present a series of recommendations to the school board between October and December. 

Behrendt said even after spending 37 years in the district, it was hard to think of advice she'd give to Waukesha's current leaders.

"Try to make that as least painful as you can, but knowing it's gonna be an emotional, hard thing for people to deal with," she said. "So, how do you square that? I don't know a good answer to that."