PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A “community information session” on facilities planning for the Manitowoc school district will be held Wednesday. In a related action, the school board halted plans to close the central office building.
After a report determined the district has $161 million in maintenance needs in the next decade, combined with falling enrollment, former superintendent James Feil brought forward a plan to close two elementary schools. He said doing so would save about $30 million. The school board rejected that plan in July, while also voting to sell the central office building.
As discussions about the facilities issues have continued, another public meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday.
“Interim Supt. Lee Thennes will talk about where we have been, where we are, and where we are going as it relates to creating a master facilities plan that will serve our students, families and community for the next 50 years. Bring your questions and hear next steps as we move forward to improve our schools,” the district’s website states.
The meeting will be at the Washington Middle School Auditorium, 2101 Division St., at 6:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the school board voted last week to halt plans to sell the Central Office.
“The District Administration has started the process of collecting and reviewing data and is seeking direction from the Board of Education. Preliminary estimates and further consideration and evaluation of this decision would create considerable cost to the district in moving expenses and infrastructure updates. In addition, the move would create inefficiencies and continued infrastructure costs as classroom use shifts annually,” the memo to the school board states.
The memo cited several reasons:
- Annually, the district relies on the Central Office space to host dozens of large-scale district-wide professional development opportunities for staff.
- We have recently updated the technology in the board room to accommodate a 21st Century platform for business meetings to engage our public and keep them informed.
- This endeavor would place a tremendous strain on an already depleted central office administrative staff.
- We estimate the cost of moving to be over $100,000+ of contracted services to move, not to mention the time and construction of new office space.
- We are highly concerned about the loss of efficiency and collaboration as a Central Office team. It is imperative that our Central Office Departments have access to each other during the workday.
- Central Office serves as a centralized location to dispatch support to all buildings in a central location in the city. The offices serve as an offsite testing location as well as voting location for the city.
The fate of the center will be discussed within the context of the broader facilities issues.
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