Unfortunately, this column is going to sound like a second obituary for the former UW campus in West Bend.
The first obituary was written when UW President Jay Rothman began closing six two-year campuses out of 13 across the state starting in 2023. At his direction, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone closed both of his satellite campuses in West Bend and Waukesha.
The second obituary was written last week when the executive committee of the Washington County Board and the West Bend Common Council met jointly and agreed unanimously to sell the UW building on the campus and 20 acres to the Ozaukee Christian School (OCS), a tiny grades three through eight evangelical school in the Town of Trenton. It has enrolled about 150 students each year.
The school has limited financial and managerial capacity, but has ambitions to open a high school starting in 2026 with a ninth grade and adding one grade each year through 2029.
OCS is undoubtedly a fine little school dating back three decades, but it has had limited visibility and impact on the community. Most local people have never heard of it. OCS will be taking over a building with 200,000 square feet, far more than it needs in its present makeup. It may rent out parts of the building, like the theater, cafeteria and gym, but who knows?
Other options for the two governing bodies that were left on the cutting room floor in their joint decision:
- A national for-profit private charter school that would have rented a big portion of the building.
- A very general proposal from the West Bend School District (WBSD) in collaboration with four other K-12 districts that serve Washington County. It centered on a “Smart Start Academy,” a public charter high school. It would have offered local students an enhanced opportunity for college credits while still in high school – dual credits taught by professors from universities in the region, advanced placement credits and online credits from those universities. The high school would have launched in the fall of 2026.
- A cluster of special education services for students in the five districts.
- A daycare center.
- A community recreation center in the northern part of the building.
- A transfer of the acreage not used for community purposes, more than 50-acres, to the city’s Ridge Run Park.
The intense debate and drama over the future of the campus drew 278 citizens to a public hearing Aug. 14. The preponderance of opinion at the jam-packed meeting was in favor of keeping the campus in the hands of the community.
Josh Schoemann
The major decision-maker in the decision to sell to OCS was Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann. He announced at the joint meeting that he was in favor of selling to OCS. He ruled out working with the West Bend School District because it had not come forward with a monetary price for leasing or buying the building.
Schoemann created a task force four months ago to bring forward options for what he described as a “Social Capital” for the campus. The task force recommended 4-0 the school district’s general proposition and an exchange of the city’s 26% ownership of the campus for two elements: the northern third of the building for a community recreation center, including the gym, cafeteria and theater; and a transfer of the excess acreage to the adjacent Ridge Run Park.
Joel Ongert
Mayor Ongert, who was on the task force, stated that the city did not have the money for a recreation center, even though the city’s Park and Recreation Department is entirely self-funded through fees. Similar fees would gave supported the recreation center.
He complained that he didn’t have city funds for three additional workers in his public works department, irrelevant to the campus decision.
The lack of strong leadership and vision was also apparent in the school board’s posture toward the Smart Start Academy. Superintendent Jennifer Wimmer and the board took a “wait and see” position on its own concept for the campus.
Their hesitancy makes some sense because the school had recently won a referendum for more than $100 million to downsize the footprint of the district and to build a new elementary school in Jackson. Adding educational space on the campus could have seemed at odds with downsizing, even though the academy and the special education cluster makes strategic sense.
Note that there was a consensus to sell about 60 unused acres to the Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation. That would preserve precious Kettle Moraine topography.
Figuring into the background for Schoemann’s push for the sale to OCS are the following factors:
- He has been a proponent of downsizing government, similar to what President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has done at the federal level, during his tenure as county executive. He has divested of the Samaritan Health Center and the Washington County historical museum housed the Old Court House.
- Schoemann is running for the Republican nomination for governor, and the Republican Party generally supports charter and choice schools as competition for public K-12 schools. He did serve as president of a Hartford school district board.
- Schoemann belongs to an evangelical church in Hartford, and OCS is an evangelical school.
- Schoemann personally negotiated the $3 million deal with OCS. After the joint meeting, he said he knows of several major OCS donors for the deal. They have not been disclosed.
In fairness, both the mayor and county executive have to win elections to stay in office, so it took some political backbone to run against a groundswell of public opinion for keeping the campus in some kind of a “social capital” as originally proposed by Schoemann and against the majority recommendation of Schoemann’s task force, on which Ongert served.
The deliberations Monday by the city alderpersons and county board supervisors was devoid of discussion about local students headed for college and the needs of employers for a steady stream of college graduates. All in all, they opted for an expedient, short-sighted sale to OCS and not for a long-term vision for the benefit of the community.
The final decision on the future of the campus will be made at upcoming meetings of the common council and the county board.
Schoemann has listening sessions scheduled for Monday and Tuesday and will undoubtedly hear pro and con statements on the sale to OCS from citizens.
(Torinus served on two county task forces on the future of the former UWWC campus.)
