GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay Schools Superintendent Claude Tiller will ask the school board to move forward with closing two more elementary schools at the end of this school year, at a school board meeting Monday October 9, 2023. It would bring the total to three schools to be shut down if approved.
Tiller spoke to Fox11 about the decision to move forward with closing more schools.
“I will say this and stand by this. All changes will be made in the best interest of children, and I understand families have individual children of two or three children, but I have to make decisions based on 19,000 plus kids and the best interest will be made for the 19,000 plus kids moving forward. I guarantee the parents that.”
Tiller is recommending to the school board to close Tank elementary school and move the students to the Lincoln elementary.
The recommendation is also to close Helen Kellen Elementary and consolidate those students at Kennedy Elementary.
With board approval, after extensive study, both Tank and Keller would close next June.
“Our goal has always been to provide students with the best locations and best schools that they can be at. Tank is an older building so it’s time to move out of that building,” Tiller explained.
By combining schools, Tiller says more services could be offered and still save money to cut the current projected $7.7 million deficit.
“An annual savings of $2.1 million (by) moving, consolidating Tank into Lincoln and consolidating Keller into Kennedy. So, it’s a big savings.”
Those savings would come from cutting duplicate staff–estimated to be the equivalent of more than 15 full-time employees. Other savings would come from no longer needed building maintenance and upgrades on those closed schools.
The original district task force recommended this past spring to close 10 schools. But so far the school board has only approved shutting down Wequiock Elementary.
That raises the question, whether additional schools are being targeted for closing this year as recommended by the task force.
“No not right now do we anticipate. That’s why we’re taking a little bit at a time,” said Tiller pointing out the task force plan for closing and consolidating operations is a five-year plan.
Tiller knows some families will be disappointed with their schools being closed. He says his goal is to be as transparent as possible.
“If we get the thumbs up from our board then we’ll set up parental meetings in the community, set them up for Keller set them up for Tank so we can hear what the community has to say what the families have to say as we move forward with this process.”
The recommendation is for the school board to vote on the proposal at its meeting on October 23rd.
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