Milwaukee Public Schools considers closing, merging schools

Milwaukee Public Schools has found itself in an impossible situation. 

The school district can’t afford to keep its 149 school buildings open, while student enrollment continues to decline. 

But this leaves many people worrying that closing buildings in struggling neighborhoods will cut off services to the children living there. For many children, schools provide more than just education. The building means breakfast, lunch and safety during the day.

Christina Disterhaft is a teacher in MPS. She wants to make sure as the district makes their decisions to close buildings, they do so equitably.

“I’m curious, and I have questions, just because of where those schools are located, mainly on the North Side,” Disterhaft said. “A lot of the South Side schools seem to be not on the closing and merger list.” 

Disterhaft didn’t have a copy of the list, and no list denoting which schools could be merged or closed is publicly available.

The number of MPS schools grew to a high of 178 in 2008, then was gradually reduced to its present number of 149, according to data from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. 

But over three decades, the number of district buildings decreased by only 3.9 percent, despite a 29.1 percent drop over that period in MPS’ full-time enrollment, the policy forum found. 

“The overall trend suggests that the current number of publicly supported school buildings in the city may not be sustainable over the next decade, even taking into account the latest MPS referendum,” an August 2024 Policy Forum report states. 

Voters in Milwaukee narrowly approved a $252 million school referendum in April. 

The reduction or repurposing of school buildings in MPS has been on the table since at least 2017. 

In 2017, the district hired MGT of America Consulting, a Florida-based firm, to create a long-term facilities plan. The firm recommended closing or repurposing 20 schools due to declining enrollment, but the district didn’t follow through. 

MPS is now working with New York-based consultant Perkins Eastman. The group has been holding community based meetings this week. Virtual meetings will be held next week.

Perkins Eastman Principal Patrick Davis said he doesn’t want data to lead the decision making process, rather input from the community. He repeatedly stressed this is a “long-range” facilities plan that will be implemented over the next decade. 

Davis acknowledged closing and merging schools is difficult for communities. 

“It’s a difficult conversation, right? It’s not something that anyone wants to do,” Davis said. “I don’t love standing up here and proposing (closing schools). But if we understand that the core of what we’re trying to do is improve the experience of students, it makes it a little bit easier.”

Davis is planning to give the MPS school board an update at the end of October but doesn’t anticipate having a list of schools that could be slated for closure. 

That will likely come in November. 

The community conversations center on explaining that only 21 of MPS schools were built after 1970. A quarter of them are underutilized and another quarter are overcrowded. Both scenarios are bad for students. 

Programming is limited in both instances, Davis said. 

MPS parent Jen Nepper attended the community information meeting Wednesday at Hamilton High School. She said the district needs to merge and close schools. 

“We have way too many schools that aren’t full and some schools, like Fairview, that are bursting at the seams,” Nepper said. 

Fairview is a K-8 school on the city’s southwest side. It was recently expanded but before that, Nepper’s daughter, who receives special education services, had to have most of her instruction in the hallways.

Statewide school districts have turned to closures, mergers

The Green Bay School District will close six of its 25 elementary schools before the start of the 2026 school year. Like MPS, the closures are an attempt to combat declining enrollment and aging buildings.

The district voted to close Wequiock , Keller and Tank elementary schools starting this school year. In the next two years, it plans to also close Elmore, Langlade and MacArthur elementary schools.

Six of the oldest school buildings in Kenosha Unified Schools were closed last year and are being repurposed for affordable housing.

The Kenosha Unified School District board approved a district consolidation and downsizing plan in December 2023 to tackle a $15 million deficit, closing Stocker, Vernon, McKinley, Jefferson, Edward Bain School of Language and Art-Creative Arts and Lincoln Middle School.

Racine Unified School District is in the midst of a 10-year facilities plan that includes closing nine elementary schools and combining them with middle schools.

This year, Roosevelt and West Ridge elementary schools will close.