After sitting vacant for more than a year after UW President Jay Rothman closed the campus, which operated for the prior 56 years as liberal arts education for students in the region, a task force has come up with a vision for the abandoned UW-Milwaukee Washington County campus.
Josh Schoemann
The vision follows the broad concept of a “Social Capital,” as articulated by Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, who created the five-person task force four months ago. That advisory group listened to needs in the community and came up with a variety of building blocks that would have the campus serve as a community asset for future generations.
Here are the needs that surfaced in the community and the potential building blocks for the campus going forward:
- A Smart Start Academy – Because Washington County has no local pathway to four-year baccalaureate degrees that are necessary for professional careers, the West Bend School District, in collaboration with the four other K-12 districts serving the county, would create a public charter high school where students could get a jump start on earning college credits.
- Collaborative Special Education Services — The school districts would bring together some special education services on the campus starting as early as this fall. This center would save big costs for special education now being incurred separately by each district.
- Addition to Ridge Run Park –The unused land on the 80-acre campus, 55-acres or more, were recommended as an addition to the city-owned Ridge Run Park. The land comprises pristine Kettle Moraine topography and is contiguous with the park. West Bend Mayor Joel Ongert seconded an amendment to the task
Joel Ongert
force’s report to trade the city’s 26% ownership of the campus in part for the transfer of those lands.
- A Community Recreation Center – The task force listened to the community and concluded that the northern portion of the physical facilities should be converted to a community recreation center managed by the city. Again, Mayor Ongert seconded an amendment to the report to make that recommendation. The northern part of the building includes a gymnasium for basketball, volleyball and pickleball; a theater much in demand by local performing troupes; a workout room; classrooms that could be used for continuing adult education; and a cafeteria and dining room that could be rented out. Usage fees are expected to cover the expenses of operating that portion of the building.
- Additional Daycare – Families are having a hard time finding affordable daycare in the community. The school districts envision a center for early childhood care, in which students could be used to help staff the daycare.
- Four-year University Presence – The charter high school would work with the emerging “university center” at Moraine Park Technical College. MPTC is collaborating with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and other UW campuses for the delivery of dual credits, advanced placement credits and online credits. The task force explored articulating with two private colleges that have shown an interest in delivering Smart Start credits for students – Concordia University and Lakeland University. So, local students would have multiple pathways to their education/professional career plans.
A crowd of about 30 citizens attended what was the final meeting of the Schoemann task force. It was not a public hearing, but a handful of citizens applauded the amended vision for the campus and demanded that public hearings be held on the strategic plan when it is forwarded to Washington County, which owns 74% of the campus, and to the city, which owns 26%.
Scott Henke
Task force chairman Scott Henke, Washington County treasurer, assured the attendees that public input would be welcome when the vision is deliberated by the two governing bodies. The task force was advisory only.
The two amendment motions were successful by a vote of 3-1, with Adam Williquette, a commercial real estate broker, voting no. The final vote to forward the twice amended carried by a unanimous 4-0 vote. (Disclosure: I was a member of the task force and moved the two amendments).
Also on the table for the task force were two other proposals: one from the Ozaukee Christian School, an evangelical grades 3-8 school in Trenton, for the campus building and 27 acres for $3 million; the other offer to lease much of the building was from Accel Charter, a national for-profit charter based in Ohio. They were not voted on.
Other possible offerings from the universities affiliated with the campus could be customized training for businesses and employee certificates earned by returning adults.
The report was strategic in nature, with many of the functions on the campuses needing to be fleshed out by educators and the city and county.
Remaining questions to be addressed would be issues like: lease rates for the space used by the Smart Start Academy, rental rates for the theater and gym, management of the physical operation, use of the $2 million transition money offered by the state for the UW closure and use of the campus offices and library.
City council and county board approvals will be necessary for implementations.
The twice-amended task force report will go next to Schoemann. He and Ongert have had preliminary discussions.
