Milwaukee’s Sherman Elementary Kicks Off School Year With Focus On Children, Moving Forward

Milwaukee’s Sherman Elementary Multicultural Arts School sits less a mile from the site of a recent police shooting that set off two nights of violent unrest in the neighborhood. But on Thursday morning, students of the north side school — just like many kids across the state — were focused on heading back to class.

Six-year-old Chloii Bronner could not get to the first day of school fast enough. She loves school for two reasons — “You get to learn new stuff in school, and you get to play on the playground,” she said.

Her favorite thing to learn? “New words in Spanish.”

Kandice Dangerfield, an eighth grader, said she was ready to get back to class and the things she loves about Sherman Elementary.

“They do (things) like dance and drum and art,” Kandice said.

Christopher Jones’s son in first grade was feeling shy about the first day of school Wednesday night. But he was excited when he woke up. As a dad, Jones is happy to have the arts-focused school in the neighborhood.

“It’s a very good school,” Jones said, “It’s very family-oriented, and community wise, as you can see, they do a lot of stuff for the community.”

Milwaukee Schools Superintendent Darienne Driver, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and State Schools Superintendent Tony Evers were among those on hand to kick off the school year. Sherman Elementary is one of four city schools joining the federal Turnaround Arts Program this year. The program supports arts programming to boost academics, attendance and behavior.

Driver said the school year kick-off was planned for Sherman long before August. But she said what schools do everyday lays the groundwork for rebuilding.

“A lot of the time spent in the schools is giving our students the safe spaces to have conversations around what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling and also how we move forward,” Driver said.

Evers echoed her remarks, saying educators work to make schools places of refuge across the state before students can get down to the work of academics.

“They really work with students to understand the issues that are going on in their neighborhood, and, frankly, I think schools are part and parcel of rebuilding and reconnecting people to each other,” Evers said. “It’s just a really important part of what we do as schools.”