Cudahy School Board OKs closure of one of its elementary schools
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The Cudahy School Board has voted to close one of its elementary schools and send those students to another elementary school while three other merger proposals have failed.
At its Dec. 13 meeting, the board voted unanimously to close Park View Elementary at the end of the 2021-22 school year and send Park View students and staff to General Mitchell Elementary and reduce overall staffing within the district.
A proposal that would have closed Kosciuszko Elementary at the end of the 2021-22 school year and sent students and staff from that school to J.E. Jones Elementary and Lincoln Elementary, as well as to reduce staff, failed by a 4-3 margin. Board members Linda Kutka, Dennis Carney, Joan Haske and Michael Johnson voted against the proposal while board members Laurie Ozbolt, Chris Galewski and Rhonda Riccio voted for it.
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A similar motion that would have closed Kosciuszko Elementary, in this case at the end of the 2022-23 school year, merged the school’s students and staff with J.E. Jones Elementary and Lincoln Elementary School, and accepted district administration recommendations for budget reductions throughout the district also failed 4-3. Carney, Haske, Johnson and Kutka voted no while Galewski, Ozbolt and Riccio voted yes.
A third proposal that would have sent sixth grade students back to elementary school buildings starting in the 2022-23 school year, as well as closed Cudahy Middle School and sent seventh and eighth students to Cudahy High School starting in the 2023-24 school year to create a seventh through 12th grade secondary school, also failed 4-3. Galewski, Haske, Kutka and Riccio voted no while Carney, Ozbolt and Johnson voted yes.
The decision to close Park View Elementary comes after a similar decision was considered in May but failed by a 4-3 vote. The board at that time had considered, along with closing Park View, starting a Montessori program. During that same May meeting, it voted to consider a virtually identical plan later and have an independent firm perform a land valuation on the elementary and middle school buildings and the land they sit on.
In a Nov. 8 email, Cudahy superintendent Tina Owen-Moore said any discussions about what to do with the buildings would wait until decisions were made on the mergers.
The district considered the mergers as it tries to resolve budget issues it says are caused by declining enrollment and state aid, as well as rising costs.
In May, Owen-Moore said that the district was anticipating more declining enrollment and wanted to be proactive. She said at that time the district reviewed its budget in January to determine changes it needed to make before the district’s current $11.75 million operating referendum ends in 2025 to avoid the possibility that continued declining enrollment could put the district in a similar position again.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
