GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay residents concerned about the future of their neighborhood school gathered Wednesday night at a school district task force meeting that continued to look at scenarios that include school closures, consolidations, new construction, and boundary changes.
Green Bay’s school board will have the final say on right-sizing the district as it faces declining enrollment.
The task force plans to make a recommendation to the school board on May 8.
The 94-year-old Green Bay West High School hosted the task force, which has been looking at potential scenarios where the building no longer operates as a high school.
“A little alarmed by the many options that included West closing or repurposing because I feel that is really an integral part of the neighborhood and the students need to be able to get to high school easily.” said Kari Ness, an alumnus of Green Bay West.
Ness is one of dozens of residents who showed up to the task force meeting. The residents could only listen as fellow community members on the task force discussed possibilities for all schools in the district.
“Anytime we look at boundary changes or school modifications or possibly closing, people tend to think it’s negative, but this is not negative,” said Chuck Holden, the task force’s facilitator. “This is a group that is looking at really positioning Green Bay Public Schools for the future, the best possible learning environments for students.”
A main goal of the district is to cut operational expenses by 10%. The task force has looked at seven potential scenarios to do that, and two new ones were introduced at the meeting — bringing the number of potential scenarios to nine.
“The main goals are really to take this opportunity with the declining enrollment, but some depth falling off, and some opportunities to enhance the schools and maybe right-size the number of schools,” said Holden.
For West, three of the nine scenarios repurpose the building to house a middle school and district offices. Other scenarios have it as just a middle school, a K-12, a 6-12, a middle and gifted school, closing, and remaining as a high school.
If it isn’t a high school, the students would most likely go to Southwest High School, which could be expanded.
“It’s a lot further than you think when you live four blocks from West High and you have to figure out a way to get home at five o’clock at night from Southwest,” said Ness.
The earliest any decision could take affect is the 2024-2025 school year.
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