Timeline
Summer of 2023
- Board to approve a vendor to conduct a boundary study and facilitate a task force to assess the impact to the community, educational pathways, and student safety regarding Task Force’s recommendations regarding additions of K-8s and the subsequent closing of schools, and modifying high school boundaries that would move students west.
November 1, 2023 (or prior)
- Board to receive from District administration a recommendation for a potential Spring 2024 referendum, which would include building a new elementary school on the west side to consolidate selected west side schools; security upgrades, modify West to include JDAL and/or District offices, and other high priority facility projects.
- District to initiate planning activities and present to the Board a plan to effectuate the closing of Wequiock Elementary School, relocate that student population to Red Smith Community School (4K-8), and explore the viability of moving the environmental programming to Red Smith Community School (4K-8) for grades 4K- 5 for the 2024-2025 school year.
January 2024
- Potential Board to vote on referendum question for spring election ballot
Background
Since 2016, the Green Bay Area Public School District has been working to address enrollment and facilities inequities across the District. The 2017 referendum enabled the District to relocate 4K and 5K students back to their neighborhood schools and to replace the Baird Elementary School. In 2019, the Board approved repurposing Jefferson Elementary School into the Jefferson Head Start Learning Center. This provided a westside Head Start location, and removed the operational costs from the District’s budget, as Head Start is federally funded. Jefferson Elementary students’ were relocated to Fort Howard Elementary, which allowed the District to fully utilize the school, which previously had unused classrooms on the third floor.
In 2021, under the leadership of Superintendent Stephen Murley, the District contracted with ATS&R to conduct a Facilities Master Plan. During the 2021-22 school year, ATS&R evaluated each of the District’s facilities to create documentation regarding the building’s current and future structural/systems repairs and improvements, and an assessment of the school’s ability to meet today’s instructional needs.
During the fall of 2022, ATS&R presented their findings to the Board of Education. In January of 2023, a citizen Task Force was convened to provide input on various scenarios that ATS&R developed to address three significant issues the District is facing: aging facilities, declining enrollment, and upcoming budget deficits.
Learn more about the facility analysis, task force work, and Board motions from June 5, 2023, by visiting the links below.