WAUSAU – The Wausau School District elementary facility task force recommended closing or repurposing four elementary school buildings at the end of their final meeting Wednesday.
The recommended actions would close Hewitt-Texas, Hawthorn Hills and Grant elementary schools and renovate Lincoln Elementary into a dedicated 4K Academy.
The moves would reduce the amount of projected empty elementary school seats in the district from 70% of the district’s capacity to about 85%. The district has about 1,100 empty seats this year.
In recent meetings, task force members ranked 10 potential facility options according to a set of criteria set by the Wausau School Board: fiscal responsibility, efficient building utilization, maintain educational opportunities, minimize impact on students and schools close to students.
Demographer Mark Roffers of MDRoffers compiled the potential options into two “bundles” that could work together plus a few variations and presented to the task force during the meeting Wednesday.
Over 70% of the 35 task force members in attendance voted to approve the recommendation. The key points made by the task force in support of the choice include that it closes two schools on each side of the river, maintains spacing between remaining schools, serves the most students who are able to walk to school, closes schools with combined gym and cafeteria spaces and moves students into schools with quality learning spaces.
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How would the plan impact students?
Under the plan, students attending Hewitt-Texas would move to Riverview, students attending Hawthorn Hills would move to John Marshall and Franklin, students attending Grant would move to Jefferson and students attending Lincoln would move to G.D. Jones. The 4K academies would consolidate to Riverview and a renovated Lincoln.
The changes would cause about 28% of elementary school students in the district to change attendance areas. The task force also sent a recommendation to the School Board to redraw the attendance areas once they move forward with an elementary facility plan.
It is unknown how the recommendation would impact Red Granite Charter School, which currently operates at Hewitt-Texas.
What is the financial impact of the proposal?
According to projections developed through the task force’s work, the plan would save the district about $4.1 million on 10-year maintenance costs and between $2 million and $2.4 million on annual staff and operations expenses. Hewitt-Texas, Hawthorn Hills and Grant elementary schools would also be “available for sale” under the proposal.
The district would need six or seven more bus routes, which cost roughly $40,000 each currently, but this amount will likely change as the district will be renegotiating its bussing contract next year.
Two remaining schools − Franklin and John Marshall − would still be without air conditioning. It would cost about $1.5 million to add air conditioning at those schools.
What happens next?
The Wausau School Board will hear the task force’s recommendation during its meeting at 5 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Longfellow Administration Building.
On Dec. 18, the School Board will hold a special meeting in the Wausau East High School auditorium to receive public input on the task force’s recommendation. The School Board must make a decision on any potential spring referendum questions by Jan. 13.
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA TODAY NETWORK – Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@gannett.com.