Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tippecanoe, Fritsche, and Bay View

UPDATE, October 13, 2008: Parents resist changes among Bay View schools
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From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A major shuffling of the locations of schools near downtown and in Bay View is expected to be considered by the Milwaukee School Board in the next few weeks.

...[T]he board will be presented in coming weeks with proposals developed by a group of MPS officials, parents and others involved in schools in Bay View that would, in effect, close the current Bay View High School program and merge the school with the nearby Fritsche Middle School. Tippecanoe School for the Arts and Humanities, an elementary program, would also be merged into Dover Street Elementary School.

...The Bay View plan was developed in recent months after School Board member Terry Falk, who represents the area, called for school leaders and community members to work on what to do about low enrollment and financial problems in some of the schools in the area.

One recommendation that came out of the series of meetings calls for Bay View High School to stop enrolling ninth-graders and for Fritsche to begin adding high school grades. According to the plan, Fritsche would move into the Bay View building, 2751 S. Lenox St., to create a sixth- through 12th-grade program in the fall of 2011.

The group’s second proposal would merge Tippecanoe, a kindergarten through eighth-grade program that’s at capacity, with Dover, a K-5 program, in the Dover building at 619 E. Dover St. The new school would have an arts focus and offer kindergarten through fifth grade.

The proposed changes for these schools signify more than a plan to deal with enrollment and financial challenges in MPS.

This is a concrete indication of how dramatically Milwaukee has changed.

The once thriving neighborhoods brimming with kids attending these once vibrant neighborhood schools are no more. It's a bygone era.


That's no longer Milwaukee.

2 comments:

jimspice said...

I attended the school board committee meeting last night. The Fristche BVHS melding plan was approved, but the Tippe/Dover merger was sent to the full committee with no recommendation after 50+ Tippe parents, teachers and community member voiced their strong opposition, even after certain board members stated their likely support for the plan. It was really quite something to see.

spice

Mary said...

Good for the Tippe parents!

It could be that the board is just delaying the inevitable. I hope that's not the case. Why bury such a successful school?

I think the Fritsche-Bay View merger plan is a disaster.