EDUCATION

Borsuk: How a Wisconsin school district found new life after a financial crisis

Alan J. Borsuk

Special to the Journal Sentinel

The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Recreation Center

Declining student achievement. Declining enrollment. Really big financial problems. A whole new team of school district leaders.

Milwaukee Public Schools now?

Could be, but the description is of the West Allis-West Milwaukee school district three years ago.

At that time, the problems in that district got some wider attention, especially the financial crisis that included some really bad money decisions and inexplicable, reckless over-spending. For the schools and the community, it was a crisis that called for strong and painful decisions.

So how are things now? The district held four community meetings in the last couple of weeks to give some answers. I went to one at Nathan Hale High School.

Overshadowed in size by its next-door neighbor, MPS, West Allis-West Milwaukee doesn’t make the news often. But it’s worth attention. It’s the 12th largest school district in Wisconsin, with more than 8,000 students, and the dynamics of the district put it, so to speak, closer to Milwaukee than it used to be.

Just over half the district’s students this year are white, a quarter Hispanic, more than 10 percent black. A bit over half are considered “economically disadvantaged.” The district, which includes a bit of New Berlin and Greenfield, includes well-to-do areas and areas that are decidedly less so.

Digging out of a mess

Stephanie Emons, president of the school board, opened the session at Hale with references to the problems of several years ago. It’s a happier time now, she said.

Indeed, the district has regained a large degree of its stability, but not without pain.

The shocking financial mess was followed in 2017 by defeat of a referendum to give the district more money for operations.

“It was tough,” Marty Lexmond, superintendent since 2015, said of that period. Over the last several years, steps have included reductions in staff, increases in class sizes overall, reductions in benefits for teachers, and downsizing of the central administration.

On the happier side are improving scores on the state report card. The overall score for the district in the recently released round was 72.2, up 7 points from two years earlier. That is rated as “meets expectations.”

Test scores have generally remained stable. In English language arts, 38 percent of students districtwide were proficient or advanced in 2017-'18, and 35 percent in math. Could be worse, but as district leaders agree, plenty of need for improvement.

The district is involved in a lot of the things you find most everywhere now. Greater emphasis on meeting social needs of students, including increased mental health and counseling services. A lot of promotion of “deeper learning” for students and increased career preparation. Achievement gaps by race and ethnicity and by income that are so persistent.

'A self-control outbreak'

The session at Hale, attended by about three dozen people, included a video done in the manner of a television news report in which students at Walker Elementary, 900 S. 119th St., reported on “a self-control outbreak” at the school. Concern with student behavior is a district-wide issue.

The Walker emphasis on “self-control” brought to mind a visit I paid to the school six years ago when it was a model of “next generation” learning that emphasized individualized and often self-directed learning for students even in earlier grades.

Was that a fad? Did it get dropped after it hit resistance and amid the subsequent financial cuts? Lexmond and Deidre Roemer, the director of leadership and learning, said in an interview that individualized learning remains important, but schools are being given more latitude to choose their programs. My translation: The next generation isn’t coming quite so fast.

What about another column I wrote in 2015 on how “mindfulness” was being used in daily life in some West Allis-West Milwaukee schools to help both students and staff stay focused and calm. Spending on that was reduced as grants ended, but it is still promoted. Every teacher has been trained in it, Lexmond and Roemer said.

There are still signs of community dissatisfaction with the schools. Satisfaction ratings in parent surveys by the district dropped a bit in the last year. And there are 755 children who live in the district who have used the state’s open enrollment option to go to schools elsewhere. That’s about 9 percent of total enrollment. Of those, 554 are attending MPS schools and 332 have never attended a West Allis-West Milwaukee school.

At the same time, the district is a good example of suburban districts that have reduced the number of incoming open enrollment students, largely for financial reasons. This trend has reduced the outflow of city of Milwaukee kids to suburban public schools in recent years. West Allis accepted just over 1,400 open enrollment students in 2014-'15. This year, the number is under 800. That is one factor in the overall decline in the district’s enrollment, from 9,890 in 2014-'15 to about 8,250 this year.

Facilities are a big looming issue. Half the 18 buildings being used for schools are more than 75 years old. The district is forming a facilities commission. One person at the Hale meeting asked unhappily if this was going to lead to a referendum on buildings. Lexmond responded that it was too early to say.

Overall, the district weathered its crisis and now shows the strengths and challenges of a lot of school districts, especially ones in older communities with areas of poverty.

What’s the moral of the story? “When you focus and make the hard decisions, when people stay committed to the work and focus on the kids, you get better,” Lexmond said. “We’re pleased with the work so far, but we’re not satisfied. There’s a lot of work we have to do on behalf of kids, and we’re going to keep pushing.”

Alan J. Borsuk issenior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.