GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Green Bay School board is continuing to wrestle with the details of plans to close and consolidate buildings across the district.
Although no final decisions have been made, the Green Bay school board is still looking ahead to the future as the district faces a $20 million budget deficit. The question now is how to do that in a fair way.
“The reason why this committee was created was to make sure the boundaries were equitable and did not impact one population more than the other,” School Board Member James Lyerly said.
The board voted back in June to further evaluate the impact of closing these 11 schools and the district office building. But the board first wanted to take a deeper dive into any consolidation.
“They will be getting data associated with maps that would support the new k-8s and other consolidation that’s addressed in the scope of the resolution, and make decisions whether or not we can pull that off and have an equitable distribution of resources, whatever,” Lyerly said.
Much of Monday night’s discussion centered around a future committee dedicated to studying the potential impacts.
“We’re going to need to look at the diversity of the building, we’re going to need to look at our socioeconomic status,” School Board Member Bryan Milz said. “Recognizing that we are a majority-minority district in a lot of our buildings, which is one of the things that makes our district great.”
As Lyerly said, the committee’s job is to find the best way to move ahead with the previous recommendation given by a separate task force.
“This was not commissioned as an exploratory committee to look for the alternatives outlined,” Lyerly said. “So I don’t think the membership would be in the position or have the information necessary to make those recommendations.”
But Milz believes that work, and the necessary research, isn’t complete.
“If it comes down to we have a building that is half full, and we can provide better programming and still have students in the general big footprint of it, we need to look at that,” Milz said. “If it’s a building that’s a third full, it does not make sense to keep it open.”
The board was provided with a document detailing the new committee and its functions. They will individually review it and discuss next steps at their next meeting.
At the same meeting, new Superintendent Claude Tiller developed a 17-page document to begin his tenure.
“As the new school superintendent, it is critical that I establish a formal entry plan to expedite my understanding of the successes and challenges we face. This listening and learning phase will quickly turn to leading, but establishing a solid understanding of the district is crucial before thinking about the ways to improve,” he wrote.
