Green Bay school board may propose new plan for future of facilities

GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- Another version of plans to consolidate, close and build Green Bay public schools, particularly at the elementary level, could be ordered by the school board on Monday.

In the wake of declining enrollments and tightening budgets, the district has been reviewing plans which could result in about a dozen schools being closed, others being expanded, and new schools built.

After reviewing results of a conceptual boundary survey and other feedback, which showed little support for Scenario A and Scenario B, interim superintendent Vicki Bayer is asking the school board to create a Scenario C.

Among the findings:

• 66.1% supported making boundary changes to address declining enrollment
  
  
• Adding K-8s wherever possible on the east side had 57.4% support
  
  
• Scenario A had 28.2% support (supportive or very supportive)
  
  
• Scenario B had 24.4% support (supportive or very supportive)

This new scenario would be created based on the following criteria:

• Use the Facility Task Force recommendations, which focused on building education adequacy, enrollment, and short- and long-term maintenance needs.
  
  
• Continue to address the budget deficit through school closures/consolidations.
  
  
• Reduce overall District capacity to address declining enrollment.
  
  
• Currently the District is at 76% capacity (1 in 4 seats empty) and in 10-years the District is projected to be at 67% capacity (1 in 3 seats empty).
  
  
• Minimize student movement and feeder pattern disruptions, with a focus on elementary schools.

"The facilities work has been a long, ongoing process, where ideas are developed and shared, and then the community has an opportunity to provide feedback," Bayer said in a statement. "Throughout this process we have been in conversation with our community and responded to the concerns. This is the next step in that process as we continue to narrow the scope, while still working to provide our students improved and appropriate learning spaces and use our limited financial resources towards support for students versus operational overhead."

If the board moves forward with this process, at some point additional public meetings will take place, but have not been scheduled.

The goal is for the recommendations to be presented to the school board by June 10. The district is anticipating a November referendum on some parts of the plan.

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Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the figures in the first two bullet points.)