Neenah Joint School District votes to close Roosevelt on Doty Island
NEENAH — After practically 100 decades of operation, Roosevelt Elementary School will shut just after next school yr.
At a conference Tuesday evening, the Neenah Joint School District board voted 6-3 to move ahead with the first stage of the elementary amenities prepare that will close the school on Doty Island at the conclusion of the 2022-23 college 12 months.
Through more than hour of public remark, about 15 folks spoke about the proposed closure. There were being Island residents who asked board users to delay the determination and teachers who claimed it can be difficult to educate in the present faculty.
The approved plan will move Roosevelt learners, together with the kids who show up at Wilson Elementary School, to the present-day Horace Mann Middle School, which will turn out to be an elementary school when center school learners transfer to the present large college in 2023. Alliance Charter School — at the moment positioned in Roosevelt — will be moved to Wilson.
Board member Kristian Sahr asked about the upcoming of Roosevelt and was informed there have not been any official discussions about what’s upcoming for the making.
The plans to near the school and transfer all over the other pupil populations had been discussed at the Dec. 7 board conference, and a community listening session was held Dec. 15.
Right before the last vote, Doty Island resident and board member Stefanie Holt motioned to postpone the vote until finally January or February, with a determination to do group engagement. That movement unsuccessful.
In her opinions throughout the dialogue, Holt said her issues are not about the proposal so a great deal as they are about the “haste” in coming to a vote.
In 2020, taxpayers backed a $115 million referendum that’s being made use of to fund the design of a new superior university and the renovation of the existing significant school into a middle college campus for fifth- by way of eighth-graders. Each educational institutions are scheduled to open in 2023.
Relocating the middle-university grades to the Tullar Road campus of the present-day superior school will enable the district to market Shattuck Middle Faculty, repurpose Horace Mann as an elementary faculty and no cost house at other elementary educational facilities, The Put up-Crescent formerly claimed.
Here is a breakdown of what the board approved Tuesday evening:
- Shut Roosevelt facility at the end of the 2022-23 university year
- Repurpose Horace Mann Middle University as a 5K through fourth-quality faculty
- Combine Roosevelt and Wilson elementary educational institutions attendance areas to feed into Horace Mann
- Assign Roosevelt and Wilson students to Horace Mann starting up with the 2023-24 school 12 months
- Relocating Alliance Constitution Faculty to the Wilson facility and begin growth of Alliance setting up with the 2023-24 faculty yr
The district, which operates 10 elementary faculties out of 9 structures, claims the approach is needed because it’s functioning out of space.
Lots of faculties don’t have area for committed art or new music rooms, district leaders say, and it can be tough to increase new courses.
Enrollment has been continual since 2016-17 and foreseeable future projections show only average advancement. But Steve Dreger, director of elementary studying and management, wrote the board to say moving fifth grade out of elementary and into the fifth-eighth quality setting up in 2023 won’t be adequate to deal with all the facility concerns.
For the duration of public remark, a fifth-grade instructor at Roosevelt, Jennifer Wunrow, said lecture rooms in the making are crowded further than crowded.
“The building is not suited for the execution for our curriculum and the high specifications we have for education and learning in Neenah,” she stated.
A different trainer, KarieAnn Zeinert, agreed with inhabitants that the timeline for the determination to near the school was limited, and she claimed she appreciates the nostalgia for the nearly-100-yr-previous university, but that it’s not a great making. For instance, she explained the weather command in her space as a “catastrophe.”
Other voices supporting the strategy Tuesday night time provided mother and father and teachers from Alliance. Teachers from Alliance claimed that if a conclusion wasn’t built Tuesday night, it would impede the constitution school’s capability to implement for a grant it requires to increase.
The smattering of local community voices who expressed disappointment with how promptly the proposal to near Roosevelt arrived to a vote integrated dad and mom, residents of Doty Island whose youngsters are grown and even people who dwell outside of the district.
Some of them described the timing of the conclusion as a “filthy trick,” primarily supplied how shut the conferences are to the vacations.
1 female informed the board Roosevelt was one of the aspects in her family’s decision to transfer from Texas to Doty Island, specifically.
President Brian Epley stated the board did not sneak the vote onto the calendar and stated that the board cannot regulate its calendar that considerably. He expressed irritation over community responses that people today weren’t knowledgeable because he mentioned the school board will work difficult to get folks engaged, and a few board members live on Doty Island.
“What it arrives down to for me, I’m on the board of education,” mentioned board member Peter Kaul. “This is the best program I have observed to teach all of our children.”
Arrive at AnnMarie Hilton at [email protected] or 920-370-8045. Stick to her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.
