Wausau School District. MWC file photo.
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – School consolidations are never popular. No one likes to hear that their neighborhood school is closing.
I’ve been a reluctant supporter of school consolidation in Wausau. The school board – any school board – needs to be a good steward of public money. Having half-empty schools is a waste of tax dollars. But I also think circumstances have changed, and Wausau school consolidation should be scaled back.
The problem is this: there won’t be enough science lab space if Wausau East and Wausau West are combined into one school. More science lab space is expensive, about $6-million. An amount that large might have go to referendum, where it is almost certain to be voted down. And, with that, the school consolidation debate would come to an end.
My concern is this: such a crash-and-burn on this issue would be felt at the ballot box. And I don’t want to see today’s conservative school board be swept away. The last time we had a liberal school board in Wausau, it was a disaster. If you recall, Wausau was the last school district in the area to open after the COVID shutdowns. At-home learning was a failure, and Wausau had students transferring to neighboring school district that had resumed in-person learning . Those students took their state aid, which is based on enrollment, with them.
School board member Pat McKee’s proposal on school consolidation seems reasonable enough. The school district would continue to have two high schools and two middle schools. Elementary schools that are no longer viable would be consolidated. The Longfellow Administration Building might be closed and sold off. And, most importantly, I think it’s a plan the public could support. I’m fairly certain that voters would give a resounding ‘no’ to the current consolidation plan, with a surprise $6-million expense.
Are we willing to change course and capture some consolidation savings at the elementary school level, or will the entire process collapse? I’m in favor of the former, not the latter.
Chris Conley
Comments