Vote To Merge Waukesha Elementary School Closes In; Low Income Families Affected: Parents

WAUKESHA, WI — A proposal to combine two elementary schools is on the agenda for the Waukesha Board of Education Wednesday, but parents said the board should assess the effects of the merger on the community first.

The board will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday to vote on whether to combine Whittier Elementary School and Hadfield Elementary School, the school district agenda showed.

If the board votes to take action on the proposal, Whittier Elementary School would be closed and students in the area would be sent to Hadfield Elementary School instead. The proposal was announced in a letter to parents on Jan. 24.

"Low income children already begin school behind children who have better opportunities," petition organizer Kelsey Draves said in place of another parent at a committee meeting Tuesday. Closing Whittier would affect the low-income families that make up most of the school's enrollment, Draves added.

"I've never seen anything move as fast as this action. Why are you pushing so hard so fast?" Monica Whaley, a Waukesha school teacher, asked at the meeting. The district should slow down and examine all the solutions for its financial problems, Whaley added.

The school district expects to lose $7 million in the 2022-23 school year, and student enrollment is down by 1,827 since September 2021, data from the district showed. Enrollment is expected to decline through 2030, according to the district.

At Whittier, 79.5 percent of families were categorized as low income, and 77.3 percent of families at Hadfield were categorized as low income, according to a Department of Public Instruction 2020-21 school report card.

Combining two schools would increase class sizes, create a walk of up to 2 miles for some students, and charge families up to $260 to transport their kids to Hadfield, the Alliance for Education for Waukesha said in a statement. The district hadn't provided a plan to increase or improve staff to keep up with the influx of students, the group said.

The district should pause the merger until it addresses parents' concerns about transportation, staffing and class size, the group said. The group also recommended an independent audit for attendance in the Whittier and Hadfield area.

Draves, a Whittier parent herself, marched with other parents and community members between the two schools Saturday. She said that merging the schools would affect a "fragile community."

See Also: Parents To Protest Against Merging Of Whittier, Hadfield Schools