GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The future of the Green Bay school district could be decided in the near future. Only two proposals remain as a Green Bay schools task force tries to handle declining enrollment.
Both options keep West as a high school — contrary to previous proposals.
A taskforce has been meeting for months and now has just two options.
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Close Keller, MacArthur and Kennedy elementary — combining into a new building at the Kennedy site
Close DaVinci, Doty, Jackson, Tank, Minoka Hill, Washington and Wequiock schools
Repurpose Franklin, Langlade and McAuliffe as K-8
Repurpose Webster as gifted school
Repurpose Lincoln as district office building for business operations
Repurpose West as 6-12 school, plus district office building for education operations
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Close Keller, MacArthur and Kennedy elementary — combining into a new building at the Kennedy site
Close Beaumont, DaVinci, Doty, Tank, Elmore, Minoka Hill, Washington and Wequiock schools
Repurpose Washington as a district office building
Repurpose Franklin, Langlade and McAuliffe as K-8
Repurpose Webster as gifted school
Repurpose Lincoln as alternate school
Repurpose West as home for John Dewey Academy of Learning and keep current high school
“The taskforce had a hard time seeing, frankly, West as not a high school — based on the tradition and history within Green Bay,” explained Green Bay Area Public Schools Chief Operations Officer Josh Patchak.
There are two options for West.
One would include grades six through 12. The other would house the John Dewey Academy of Learning, along with the high school students.
“There was a question about redrawing the West boundaries, but the only way to do that, to fill them up, would be to cross the river,” says Patchak.
Neither plan includes changing attendance boundaries for the high schools.
Preble High School has the largest student population by several hundred, but neither plan moves students out of Preble.
“Looking at the boundary between Preble and East is, I think, something that should probably be on the table,” says Patchak.
“It comes back to potential boundary shifts, and that’s something that the task force hasn’t got into a lot of that detail, and the school board will have to,” says facilitator for ATS&R Architects Chuck Holden.
Both proposals would close several elementary schools.
“There’s just too much space, too many empty classrooms and empty desks,” says Holden.
And both would reconfigure some schools to K-8.
“When kids don’t have to transition as often between school buildings, and they’re able to stay with that younger cohort, the behaviors do tend to improve,” says Patchak.
At Wednesday’s meeting, task force members hope to choose a proposal for the Board of Education to consider. Then, the Board will vote in early June.
Changes would not begin until after the 2023-24 school year.
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