Milwaukee’s brand new school superintendent has inherited an old problem. What should MPS do, with its shuttered school buildings?
The question arose about a year ago when private schools wanted to move into a few unused MPS properties. In one case, a private, voucher school, St. Marcus, offered to buy the former Malcolm X Academy on Milwaukee’s near north side. Enrollment at St. Marcus was soaring, so it needed an additional campus.
But MPS said it had plans to turn the property into a mixed-use development, including a school that would offer an international baccalaureate program. Republican state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo questioned the district’s intentions.
“The whole thing was a scam right from the start,” Sanfelippo says.
Sanfelippo claims MPS wanted to hamstring a competitor, so the district rushed to put together a proposal.
“The building sat empty for six years with no interest whatsoever until St. Marcus said that they wanted to do it, and then all the sudden MPS has to roll out these grand ideas of all the things that they’re going to do there,” Sanfelippo says.
Sanfelippo co-authored state legislation that would require MPS to sell shuttered schools to interested educational institutions. The bill did not clear the Legislature before it adjourned, so he plans to reintroduce it early next year.
While the MPS project has been slow to get off the ground, new Superintendent Darienne Driver says her goal is to open the new school in fall of 2016.
“The project is truly underway and that has to be our primary focus, making sure that the vision that we have for that building and the community comes to fruition,” Driver says.
Driver rejects the claim that the district is intentionally blocking property sales to private schools.
“For us, competition is here to stay and we understand that. What’s more of our focus and what’s more important is that we’re building high quality programs for the students in our communities,” Driver says.
Ultimately, what happens to vacant MPS schools is in the hands of the city, because it owns the properties. Common Council members could weigh in on the issue Thursday. Council President Michael murphy is sponsoring a plan. It would require the city to solicit proposals for unused MPS properties within 30 days of being designated as surplus. Murphy says there are 14 right now.
“Disposing of them through the past process with MPS just hasn’t really worked, in terms of getting these properties out into the community as quickly as possible,” Murphy says.
The plan would also set criteria for evaluating potential sales, such as neighborhood needs.
“The reality is, many of the other properties, there is no interest in developing them as a school. What I want to see is how we can repurpose these buildings for affordable housing, or for perhaps housing for the elderly, there’s a great need for that in our community,” Murphy says.
Murphy says he would rather have local people decide what to do with MPS buildings than have the state mandate a plan.
