NEENAH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – If you take a walk through 92-year-old Shattuck Middle School, you’ll see some things that could use work.
You’ll also find a closed auditorium.
“Back on December 18, we had a piece of heavy plaster fall from the ceiling on the stage in the auditorium,” Neenah Joint School District Communications Manager Jim Strick said.
The district notified families about the incident on Wednesday, more than a month after the plaster fell. Strick says this piece of plaster was covered by previous renovations, so they did not know it was deteriorating.
Strick tells FOX 11 no children were in the auditorium when the plaster fell onto the stage.
“The point of the release was really to let parents know that we’re going through the building, our engineers are checking things, things that are covered up. We don’t normally send out releases every time we have repairs in our buildings. Because we’re doing that every week, all the time.”
But this repair caught the public’s attention.
“The reason for the release was there was a lot of chatter within the community that people heard about it.”
Strick says the auditorium repairs will cost about $30,000. He says the school has a capital maintenance budget to cover expenses like this.
The falling plaster comes less than three months before Neenah residents will vote on a $115 million referendum April 7.
If the referendum passes, 92-year-old Shattuck Middle School would close.
Horace Mann Middle School would be converted into an elementary school. A new high school would be built, and all 5th through 8th grade students would move to the current high school.
“At this point we’re keeping up with what we need to proactively just to make sure that the kids are safe,” Strick said.
Community members took to Facebook to discuss the middle school and referendum.
“Sounds like it’s past time to shut it down. Those of you who are against a new school– would you continue to live in a crumbling home that was too deteriorated to continue pouring money down the drain to fix?” one community member said.
“We needed to just tear it down!” another said.
Others weren’t convinced.
“Advertising for the referendum… free since they have all parent’s emails. Good marketing, if I do say so myself,” a community member commented.
Some people simply commented, “vote no” to the referendum.
The district also addressed water safety concerns at Shattuck Middle School. Strick says the city regularly checks the school’s water and it is safe. The most recent test was in December.
