GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Respondents to a Green Bay School District survey on how to handle declining enrollment generally support redrawing school boundaries, with little consensus at the high school level, but with more support for additional K-8 schools.
Click here to read the full survey.
In the face of declining enrollment, a facilities taskforce and consultant are reviewing multiple options, all of which include closing multiple schools and reconfiguring boundaries. Recommendations are expected to be forwarded to the school board in May.
As part of the process, the district asked for public input on a variety of options and scenarios. A total of 3,664 surveys were completed.
The broad concept of making changes was supported.
“I support making boundary changes to address declining enrollment:”
Agree or strongly agree: 66.13%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 22. 96%
No opinion/Don’t know: 10.92%
But when the question got more specific, support declined:
“I support boundary changes that shift students west in order to better balance enrollment across the District (this would result in more students crossing the river to attend school:”
Agree or strongly agree: 44.88%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 40.23%
No opinion/Don’t know: 14.89%
Another version of the high school question fared better, however:
“I support moving the high school boundaries, which would result in moving students west, decreasing the number of students attending Preble High School, and increasing the number of students who attend East, Southwest and West:”
Agree or strongly agree: 60.72%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 27.02%
No opinion/Don’t know: 12.26
Several questions offered differing options on what to do with West High School, often with little consensus.
“I support changing boundaries that would have West students attending Southwest, and repurposing West as a middle school and District offices:”
Agree or strongly agree: 43.65%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 40.96%
No opinion/Don’t know: 15.39%
“I support adding grades 6-8 to West, making it a 6th – 12th grade school:”
Agree or strongly agree: 43.59%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 41.22%
No opinion/Don’t know: 15.19%
“I support keeping West a comprehensive high school and renovating the school in order to relocate John Dewey Academy of Learning (grades 6-12) to West, enabling the District to sell the Cherry Street building where JDAL currently resides:”
Agree or strongly agree: 59.95%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 18.95%
No opinion/Don’t know: 21.1%
One area which saw support was the idea of expanding the number of K-8 schools.
“I would support a K-8 opportunity in Allouez that would eliminate students being bused to the west side, recognizing this would require a referendum, (i.e., students would no longer be bused across the river to attend Lombardi and would feed into East High School instead of Southwest High School):”
Agree or strongly agree: 61.12%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 18.9%
No opinion/Don’t know: 19.98%
“I would support adding K-8s wherever possible on the east side of the district, recognizing this would require a referendum. Some possible school sites that have been proposed are Doty, Langlade, McAuliffe, and/or Wilder Elementary Schools:”
Agree or strongly agree: 57.46%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 21.83%
No opinion/Don’t know: 20.71%
“I would support adding K-8s wherever possible on the west side of the district, recognizing this would require a referendum. Suggested sites to be repurposed to K-8s include Franklin and Lombardi Middle Schools:”
Agree or strongly agree: 54.42%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 24.68%
No opinion/Don’t know: 20.90%
“I would support a recommendation to close the existing Keller, MacArthur and Kennedy Elementary Schools, and for a new school, similar to Baird (capacity of 600 students) to be constructed on the Kennedy site, recognizing this would require a referendum:”
Agree or strongly agree: 53.35%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 23.75%
No opinion/Don’t know: 22.9%
“I support closing Washington Middle School, if multiple K-8s are built on the east side:”
Agree or strongly agree: 60.98%
Disagree or strongly disagree: 21.33%
No opinion/Don’t know: 17.69%
The Board of Education will vote on recommendations in early June. Implementation of the Board-approved recommendations would not begin until after the 2023-24 school year.
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