On Thursday, November 19, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors approved by a vote of 6-3 a motion that indicates Fritsche Middle School will likely be housed within Bay View High School for the 2010-2011 school year. The move is contingent upon a revision to the school’s charter contract being approved by the Fritsche Middle School Governance Council by January.

Approval seems certain, as Fritsche Principal Karen Nastulski presented a letter from the Governance Council in which nine of 11 members supported the move.

Minutes of the Bay View High School Governance Council’s November 17 meeting also show support for the move.

In October 2008, the board approved a plan that would merge Fritsche and Bay View into a single program located in the current Bay View High School building starting in 2011-2012. That original plan included housing Bay View’s 9th and 10th grade students in the Fritsche building.

Concerns over space at the middle school facility and budget problems related to traveling Bay View teachers, among other issues, led the two schools’ principals to ask for the accelerated move. The schools will remain separate programs until the merger in 2011.

Two earlier meetings, a public forum at Bay View High School on November 5 and the Board’s Innovation/School Reform committee meeting on November 10, featured a number of concerned Fritsche parents and teachers opposing the move.

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POSTED November 12, 2009

MPS Committee punts on early move of Fritsche to BVHS building

By Jay Bullock

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors’ Innovation/School Reform Committee met Tuesday, November 10, to consider among other items moving Fritsche Middle School’s 6-8 program into Bay View High School at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year. The committee voted to send the proposal to the full Board, which meets Thursday, November 19, without a recommendation.

A year ago, the Board approved a merger of the Fritsche and Bay View programs into a single 6-12 school starting in 2011-2012, housed entirely in the Bay View building. In the intervening years, the Fritsche building was supposed to hold Bay View’s ninth and tenth grade students.

Concerns about the ability of the Fritsche facilities to accommodate so many students led school leaders to ask the Board to accelerate the move. Costs related to sharing teachers and students between the two buildings, including daily bus service back and forth for students in the construction program, added financial impetus to the request.

Both at the ISR Committee meeting and at a public forum held Thursday, November 5, Fritsche staff and parents passionately raised significant objections both to the early move and to the idea of merging the two schools in general. However, none of the members of the committee were willing to reconsider the merger.

Opinion on the committee seemed split, on the other hand, about whether to make the move ahead of schedule. Director David Voeltner, for example, said he would vote no. “We made this bed when we made this original timeline, and if it’s screwed up this is our problem, not theirs,” referring to the unforseen crowding of Fritsche. About abandoning the original timeline, he added, “That’s called breaking a promise.”

Directors Larry Miller and Tim Petersons also hinted that they were inclined to reject the proposal and stick to the original timeline.

Director Bruce Thompson, the Board’s city-wide representative, was concerned that school communities had not been given enough time to consider the crowding and cost problems, and to discuss possible solutions. He suggested delaying the vote for a month.

But Terry Falk, whose district includes both schools, was persistent. “I don’t see a viable alternative,” he said. “The reality is we have to move forward next year.” Rather than delay or face a likely defeat for the proposal, Falk suggested that the committee send the item to the full Board for discussion and a vote with no recommendation one way or the other. That won unanimous approval from the committee.

The proposal now moves to the full Board on November 19, where it faces an uncertain future.