Four Milwaukee Middle Schools Want to Merge into Two

By Alan J. Borsuk, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 11–The shrinking roster of middle schools in Milwaukee could shrink even further before September, Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William Andrekopoulos indicated this week. Andrekopoulos told members of a School Board committee that leaders of four middle schools had come to him in recent weeks to discuss the possibility of merging those schools into two. He said one pair was Walker International Middle School, 1712 S. 32nd St., and Bell Middle School, 6506 W. Warnimont Ave. He later told a reporter the other pair was Edison Middle School, 5372 N. 37th St., and Muir Middle School, 5496 N. 72nd St. Edison, which was previously a middle school, now offers sixth-through-12th-grade classes. Andrekopoulos emphasized that the talks were preliminary and that there were no firm plans. If the mergers came to pass, it would probably mean that the current Bell and Muir buildings would continue to be used, the Edison building would be closed and the Walker building would be used by other MPS programs, he said. In each of the last two years, pairs of MPS elementary schools have proposed merging as they approached budgeting for the following school year. Low enrollment, which means increased budget problems, has led to the mergers. MPS schools are beginning to work on budgeting. With the rapid rise in recent years of the number of MPS schools offering kindergarten-through-eighth-grade programs — there are now more than 50 — middle school enrollment has fallen sharply. In September 1998, there were 17,199 students in middle schools. In September 2006, the number was 9,651. The K-8 schools were called for in the Neighborhood Schools Initiative adopted in MPS in 2000. Since then, at least five MPS middle school programs have closed — Sholes, Steuben, Jackie Robinson, Webster and Andrew Douglas. A sixth, Malcolm X Academy, was converted to an eighth-through-12th-grade program, and the building is set to close at the end of this year. The School Board committee gave a green light to moving a charter elementary school known as ALBA from the South Division High School building to Walker next September. The school, in its third year now, has been seeking a different home, but testimony at the board meeting indicated that at least some teachers at Walker were concerned about moving ALBA into the Walker building and about what they considered to be late notice of the plan. Andrekopoulos said during the discussion that “in the interest of full disclosure,” board members should know that there was talk about a possible Walker merger. Walker had 534 students and Bell had 501 in the official attendance counts in September. Edison had 327 sixth- to eighth-graders and 371 ninth- to 12th-graders, while Muir had 571 middle schoolers in those counts. There were 17 middle schools listed in the MPS attendance report for this year. Buy a link here

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