The Appleton Area School District Board of Education met 02/17/2022. Most of the meeting was taken up with a discussion and vote on masking protocols within the schools, but they did also review some of their future needs and the potential referendum. Due to timing constraint, they spent less time on this than they had originally intended, but they did discuss the possibility of consolidating Columbus Elementary with Edison elementary.
Chief Finance Officer Greg Hartjes told the board that as part of the referendum planning, they looked at all of the challenges they were experiencing with school facilities. The first step in that process was to figure out if the problems were solvable by some type of renovation or addition of space. The second step was to determine if they could afford to make those renovations or build an addition. If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then the next step is to have discussions about it.
One of the ideas that came up a lot in the Future Needs Advisory Committee and in their focus groups was the idea of equity of spaces, equity of schools, and making sure that all students were impacted positively by a potential referendum.
One challenging area was Columbus Elementary.
The school sits on a 1.3-acre city lot. It was built in the late 1800s and has been added onto twice, and they have maxed out what they can do in terms of additions.
The challenges at Columbus are tied to the facilities.
- They don’t have a 6th grade. The District is looking at moving 6th grade students to the middle school level to free up space at the elementary level, but since Columbus already doesn’t have a 6th grade that won’t affect them.
- The District wants to add STEM spaces to their elementary schools but Columbus doesn’t have a good place to add a STEM room
- They don’t have the space for all the AASD’s special education programs, so students who live in the Columbus attendance area have to go to different schools to receive those services.
- There are challenges with the size of the classrooms.
- The school has very narrow hallways and stairwells so, from a safety standpoint, they struggle with security camera placement and there are a lot of dead spots.
- There is limited access to a playground and a grass area.
They don’t believe that these challenges can be solved with a referendum. Mr. Hartjes said they felt that there’s not much they can do for Columbus that would keep it equitable to other District elementary schools.
They have been looking for solutions, and one solution would be to have Columbus students attend a different school, one that has special education programs, wider hallways and stairwells, and room for a STEM lab and a larger playground.
They were specifically looking at moving Columbus students to Edison.
Columbus currently has 113 students from kindergarten through first grade. They have a kindergarten class, a first-grade class, and a combined kindergarten and first grade class. There’s one second grade classroom, one third grade classroom, a combined third and fourth grade classroom, and one fifth grade classroom. There aren’t enough fourth grade students to support a solo fourth grade classroom, nor are there enough students to warrant running a sixth-grade class.
Edison has also lost some enrollment and also runs some combination classes including a second/third grade combo class and a fourth/fifth grade combo class.
If Columbus and Edison were combined, they would end up with no combination classes and would also have a healthy enrollment of about 300 or more students which would give them at least two classes at each grade level. Right now, all of Columbus’ teachers and several at Edison do not have grade level colleagues to work and collaborate with. There is not a professional learning community at their grade levels, which poses some challenges for teachers. At a school with 300 or more students, there would be 2 or 3 sections at each grade level which is important for teacher planning and collaboration. Putting the two schools together would make sense from a numbers standpoint.
Edison’s capacity is 279, so if they combined the two schools, they would be at 90% capacity which is where they want to be. They would still be under-capacity if Columbus students were added there.
He reviewed the historical enrollments for Columbus and Edison. Columbus saw a decrease of 25% from the 2014-15 school year to the 2021-22 school year. Edison also had a decrease, though not as dramatic.
He said that they had looked at whether they could solve these issues first through a referendum, but they don’t believe they can. The only way they could solve the issues would be to move students over to Edison. Doing this would result in an annual savings of approximately $350,000.
In reviewing the school boundaries, it was reasonable to think that Columbus students and the Columbus neighborhood could be consolidated with Edison. The neighborhoods are located right next to each other, and the size of the boundaries are significantly smaller than schools like Huntley, Houdini, Badger, or McKinley. Combining the two neighborhoods would result in a boundary similar to Jefferson, Janet Berry, or Johnston.
He mentioned again that the concept of equity and the need to not forget some schools that have challenges had been brought up and talked about all the time by the Future Needs Committee. “So, again, we don’t think a referendum can solve Columbus’ challenges. The only thing that could, would be a consolidation.”
The consolidation, however, would be independent from the referendum. It could happen at any time and didn’t have anything to do with the referendum. He suggested they may want to wait and see if, over the next couple years, enrollment increases at Columbus and Edison.
He opened things up for questions.
Board President Kay Eggert wanted to clarify that there were no imminent plans to close Columbus.
Superintendent Judy Baseman confirmed that was correct.
Kay said that sometimes in a district of AASD’s size when they start talking about projects that may happen it’s hard to make sure that communication happens in the order that they want it to happen and. She felt like she wanted to have some more discussion about this because she knew it was something that the community, particularly the Columbus community, cared about.
Superintended Baseman said that they went into this particular phase of their planning by looking at their facility needs. That was the charge they had been given so the focus groups had been asked to give their reactions regarding several different topics, the consolidation of Columbus and Edison being one of them.
Before moving forward, there would be an entire set of things that they would want to engage with the community about. They would also want to engage with Edison and Columbus families particularly. What they were looking for from the Board was clarity as to whether this was something they wanted to pursue at this time, which was why it had been put on the agenda.
Board member Deb Truyman was glad to hear the possibility. One of the people who made public comment had mentioned apartment building going up and how that would affect Columbus’ population. Regarding the aim of the referendum to create smaller class sizes and add STEM spaces, she wondered if they could just go ahead and make those changes with the schools that they could and then switch Columbus and Edison when they had to.
Superintendent Baseman said that she and the leadership team had talked about the need to look individually at each school regarding the STEM space. Principals use facilities in different ways and create STEM space didn’t necessarily just depend on moving 6th graders out. The schools might be using certain spaces right now for different reasons that might make an ideal STEM space. They were planning to individualize how they look at that for each school, but they want to make sure that they have the opportunity to make a STEM space at each school.
Board member James Bacon said that his understanding based on what had just been shared was that there wasn’t that space available at Columbus due to physical constraints.
Superintendent Baseman said that she heard Financial Officer Hartjes say they didn’t have an “ideal space”, not that they couldn’t find “a” space.
Mr. Hartjes said that every room is being used as Columbus right now so they would have to take space away from something else to create a STEM lab. That meant they would have to move one other program out of the building. That was why they were looking at moving the 6th graders out of the elementary schools and into the middle school. They were going to prioritize the rooms that were freed up for STEM labs, but Columbus didn’t have any 6th graders so no space would be freed up.
James Bacon said that was helpful and asked if he could share more about the conversations they had regarding the impact from the referendum on current facilities and the tradeoffs. “Equity doesn’t always mean equal ’cause every building and community has some differences inherently.”
Mr. Hartjes answered that for almost all of their elementary schools and, in general, for all of their schools, when they talk to school staff about their facility needs, they constantly are told that they need space. They need space for small group meetings where a teacher or interventionist can work with 3-5 students. They need more flexible furniture within a more flexible teaching room. But those spaces are a challenge.
By moving 6th grade students out of elementary schools, they are trying to create spaces in schools that can be remodeled.
They had talked often to the principal at Columbus about the challenges Columbus presents. That principal is also the principal of Appleton Bilingual School which is housed in Zion Evangelical Lutheran School. ABS’s lease is up in June, so they’ve been having conversations over the years both those buildings. Zion and Columbus are both over 100 years old.
From the standpoint of trying to keep those schools somewhat equitable with AASDs other schools, they feel like they are at the point where there really isn’t much more they can do for that space.
Regarding the process by which this potential merger had been brought forward he said, “We didn’t want to go to the school community and talk to them and have them generate ideas of some solutions that we couldn’t afford or they weren’t feasible from a facilities standpoint.” They purposefully wanted to make sure that any project they brought forward was something they could complete. They’ve made sure that, from a facilities standpoint, all of their plans are functional and feasible and that the cost is affordable.
Board member Ed Ruffolo said they were looking at holding a referendum either in November or perhaps April of 2023. Was there any concern with the Columbus facility that would lead them to believe they had to move quickly on making changes to Columbus or could they wait until after the referendum?
Financial Officer Hartjes answered that it could wait and there was no urgency on it. They’ve added on to the building twice, and both of those spaces are very functional. They do their best to keep the building up to the best quality they can. The question is do they want to put money into Columbus at this time? Maybe not, but if enrollment at both Columbus and Edison bounces back then this merger idea would be off the table.
Kay asked if they could address why there was currently not a 6th grade class at Columbus and only one at Edison. Were a lot of Edison families choosing to do 6th grade at Kaleidoscope?
Financial Officer Hartjes said that was exactly what was happening. Franklin Elementary also only has one 6th grade class because many students move over to Kaleidoscope. Columbus only has 21 5th graders, so if 10 go to Kaleidoscope then they would only have 11 students left for a 6th grade. At that point they would work with those students and families to see what the best option for them would be. Ultimately, they haven’t run a 6th grade class at Columbus for about 5 years because those families have decided that it makes more sense to transition to Kaleidoscope as 6th graders rather than being in a very small class at Columbus which would probably end up being combined with 5th grade.
Board member Jim Bowman wanted to comment on the value of neighborhood development. He knew that Columbus had an active neighborhood development program and that the school was a key part of it. He believed that neighborhood development helped kids that live in that area learn, particularly in low-income areas. He also understood the value of the consolidation that was being proposed. It would save $350,000 annually which would let them add staff and educators and bring down class sies. There was definitely an argument on both sides. He would like to hear conversation at some point on what they could do the preserve and maybe enhance the current neighborhood development effort that was in place at Columbus.
View full meeting video here: https://youtu.be/pvYHS_B7h0g
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