It’s a little late to be dissecting the deal approved by the Washington County Board last week to sell the facilities of the old UW campus to the Ozaukee Christian School (OCS) for $3 million, but it’s still of public interest to understand some of the dynamics of the deal.
Josh Schoemann
The supervisors voted almost unanimously for the sale of the building and 20 acres of the 80-acre campus to the tiny school with about 150 students in the town of Trenton. The level of due diligence preceding the sale done by Washington Count Executive Josh Schoemann and his staff was well below what business managers would have done for a similar size deal.
I did some digging as a member of the task force created by Schoemann to find options for the future use of the campus, but only scratched the surface on the financial and managerial capacity of OCS.
Its capacities or incapacities are relevant to both the county and the city, which share ownership of the campus at 76% and 24%.
The price tag needs to be cleared up. OCS created the impression that the $300,000 offered by Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation was part of its $3 million offer. That is not the case.
CLCF offered the $300,000 separately for any of the Kettle Moraine land not sold or leased of the developed part of the campus, not exclusively to OCS.
There are several areas of due diligence that were not brought out in the open by Schoemann, who negotiated the deal:
LEADERSHIP
Who is going to run the school on the large campus? The credentials of OCS leaders were not presented to the public. OSC was led for 35 years by Chris Austin, an exemplary educator, who retired at the end of the last school year.
FINANCIAL CAPACITY
Can a small school gear up to run a high school and cover the expenses of owning a 200,000 square foot building? Operating and maintenance expenses have been running as much as $600,000 per year.
To my knowledge, OCS has never provided its financial statements. I asked for them as a task force member. According to its financial filings with the Internal Revenue Service, OCS had a remarkable turnaround of its financial strength starting in 2020. During the five years from 2020 through 2024 it averaged $736,000 in revenues and $296,000 in net profits, a 40% return.
Photo of Ozaukee Christian School. (Google earth image)
Consider the previous five years from 2015 through 2019 when it averaged $467,000 in revenue and $7,000 net profit. In short, it turned from about breaking even to a money-making machine.
Its large profit margin must have come from a jump in vouchers from the state. They appear to be listed as “program services” on its IRS filing.
The current level of voucher support from parental choice schools — aka voucher schools – is $10,237 for K-8 students and $12,731 for high school students. That comes on top of the $6,700 tuition paid by OCS parents.
It wasn’t fundraising that made the difference. OCS averaged about $34,000 a year in donations from 2020 through 2024.
There have been hints of major donors in the wings, but they have not been made public.
Has OCS arranged for a bank loan? No one outside OCS knows. The school did just buy a big chunk of land around its Trenton school, which could be sold.
OCS at one point had $1.6 million in assets on its balance sheet.
ASSESSMENT OF COMPETITION
Washington County is flush with parochial high schools: Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School in Jackson with more than 500 students, and Living Word Lutheran High School also in Jackson with more than 300 students.
In addition, North Shore Classical Academy, a nonprofit school, is expected to open in fall of 2026 in Saukville with a ninth grade and will add an additional class each year. It will use the conservative Hillsdale College curriculum and says it will not take state or federal money. It is 22 miles from West Bend.
In addition, the Ramirez family, owner of Husco International, will be opening a second campus of St. Augustine Preparatory Academy on the former Cardinal Stritch University campus in Fox Point. The high school will educate “Christian gentlemen” grades 9-12. It already operates a successful Catholic high school in south side Milwaukee.
With an investment of an estimated $100 million, it plans to grow the north campus to more than 1,000 boys, starting in fall of 2026. It preliminary strategy includes STEM labs, music, fine arts, a new field house, a turf soccer field and outdoor track.
Long and short, the new OCS high school is going to have plenty of competition.
Even though the financing of these voucher schools looks highly profitable, national studies show that one in four of those schools go under in the first five years.
Schoemann mentioned the possibility of a reversionary clause if for some reason OCS goes under. In that case, the clause would send the property back to the county and city.
(Torinus has managed 10 companies over a 60-year business career.)
