GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – After months of discussions, ideas, scrapping plans, and evaluating data, a final recommendation for changes to the Green Bay Area Public School District (GBAPS) boundaries has been presented to the school board.
As expected, the proposal calls for the closure of three more elementary schools. It comes after three schools closed their doors for good two days earlier.
“We would rather see enrollment going up, we would rather see funding for special education and multi-language learners going up, but we’re not there so we need to make decisions based on the info we have today in hopes that it changes at some point,” said Interim Superintendent Vicki Bayer on Monday night.
If approved, Elmore, Langlade, and MacArthur would all close.
In order for the changes to be made successfully, voters would need to approve a multi-million dollar referendum for several projects, too, including the construction of a new 600-student elementary school that would replace Kennedy Elementary. Students from MacArthur would attend the new school.
Elmore students would be consolidated in Chappell and Lincoln, and the referendum would update both buildings and add a new gym at Chappell.
Langdale students would consolidate into Doty, and the referendum would update the building, create a new addition, and new gym. Part of Langlade’s boundary, north of 172 and west of the East River, would be reassigned to Webster.
Beaumont’s boundary would be adjusted to include the area south of Mason Street, which was formerly assigned to Tank, which closed on June 7. The referendum would update Beaumont’s building and add a new gym.
The northern corner of the Sullivan boundary, north of Eastman Ave/east of Baird Street, would be reassigned to Nicolet. The referendum would provide building updates to Nicolet.
The southern portion of the Danz boundary, south of Deckner Avenue, would be reassigned to Martin.
The school board will review the recommendation before voting on it on June 24, 2024.
Click here to view the PDF file.
While the recommendation was more widely supported by district families than past proposals, there are still reservations.
“I’m nervous about the change. It’s disheartening that Elmore is planned to be dissolved into two different schools,” says Nora, who just finished her first year teaching at Elmore. “I understand that funding from the state is definitely why we’re having this discussion and all these proposals, but it’s not our students’ fault, and yet the students are the ones that will be the most impacted by this.”
Renee Vincent, a speech-language pathologist who has worked at Elmore for 23 years also expressed concerns.
“Will extra staff be assigned to those receiving schools so that we can truly meet the social emotional and learning needs of our students? If we can’t answer yes to that question, then I have serious questions about equity and I really hope we can reconsider the current proposal,” she says.
Board members like Andrew Becker expressed concerns with the proposal too, namely the proposal to close Elmore, which data shows has a 79% capacity rate.
“I am going to take some time the next few days to review some of the feedback we’ve gotten about Elmore and really give that some thought because I’m not sure where my vote would be on that,” he says.
The proposal would removed just shy of 700 seats in the district, a district where one in four chairs currently sit empty. The district currently sits at around 67% of total capacity.
Officials also say this recommendation impacts the least amount of students, around 1,200 of them.
“Nobody enjoys this,” adds Bayer. “We acknowledged that boundaries haven’t changed in this district for decades, and it hasn’t happened because it’s hard.”
The school board will vote on the proposal on June 24.
If it passes, board members will be presented with the preliminary referendum list on July 8, hear community input on July 10 and 11, and vote on the project list and ballot question on July 22. If everything passes, the question will appear on the fall ballot.
If it fails, the district says the schools will still close, but it ‘won’t be comfortable.’
Bayer says the board would invite Woolpert Inc., the consultants, back to work on another plan.
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