Citizens of Washington County have no clear idea about the end game for the former University of Wisconsin – Washington County campus. But a few things have become clear:
- The City of West Bend is out of the picture. It sold its 26% of the campus to Washington County. That share of the appraised value of $5 million is $1.3 million. What the city is going to do with that windfall has not been made clear.
- At the end of the divestiture, the city and county may get much less than what they bargained for. That’s because the Washington County Charitable Foundation (WCCF) has filed a lawsuit to recover a $1.2 donation of the Collins family for the science wing in the 1960s. The donation specified that it would be used for public education. How long the lawsuit will take to get through the courts is anyone’s guess. The essential issue is whether donor intent has been followed or not.
- The Ozaukee Christian School is small, private, non-profit evangelical Christian entity. It is not public education. Whether that transaction will ever be completed is somewhat uncertain. OCS is a choice school that accepts state voucher money, so it relies partly on public funding for its about 150 students.
Josh Schoemann
The one part of the deal put together by Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann is the proposed divestiture of 60 acres of Kettle Moraine topography to the Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation (CLCF). There was the option of adding those acres to the city’s Ridge Run Park, but the donation to CLCF is an acceptable alternative. CLCF welcomes public access to the lands it owns outright. It recently enabled the Ice Age Trail Alliance access to build trail for hikers to use a 1.7 mile corridor bypassing Five Corners near its “Polk Kames” property. It added a short connector trail on its Fox Hill property.
- The county’s share of the $3 million sale price will be diminished when it spends more than a half million dollars to upgrade the building’s electrical systems. That’s part of the deal with OCS.
- Further diminishing the county’s take-home money has been a deal hold-back of $2 million from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. That transition money was supposed to be for economic development for other community purposes. Does the OCS plan meet that requirement?
- After UW President Jay Rothman and UWM Chancellor Mark Mone abruptly shut down the two-year college at the end of the 2024 school year, Schoemann’s concept of a multipurpose “social capital” went by the wayside. It had been recommended by a Schoemann task force, which he ignored. He and Mayor Joel Ongert also ignored the multi-purpose concept despite a strong show of public support for a higher and better public use.
Jay Rothman
Mark Mone
What will be the final outcome for the beautiful campus? It is so complicated at this point that nobody really knows. The county may choose to fight the foundation’s lawsuit and plow ahead with the sale to OCS. But, again, who knows?
Note: Mone has since retired and Rothman has since been fired by the UW Board of Regents.
Torinus served on two task forces that dealt with the future use of the former UWWC campus.
