Parent groups oppose plan for charter school at former UW campus in Washington County

Several parent groups say plans to put a charter school at the former UW-Milwaukee Washington County campus is prioritizing profit over community.

In a letter to Washington County leaders, groups from West Bend, Slinger, Germantown and Hartford said a proposal by Accel Schools to manage The Wisconsin Classical Arts and Sciences Academy, a K-12 public charter school, would take money away from the local public school districts. 

“As residents and taxpayers of Washington County, we are alarmed that the University Campus Task Force would entertain a proposal from an out-of-state company seeking to profit from our community,” the letter states.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Washington County campus was permanently closed in June 2024. 

It’s one of six two-year campuses in the Universities of Wisconsin system to close or announce closure plans due to declining enrollment and budget shortfalls. 

The buildings and land where these campuses are located are typically owned by the counties, leaving elected officials with the task of deciding what’s next. 

Scott Henke, Washington County treasurer and chair of the University Campus Task Force, said it costs $750,000 a year to maintain the 200,000-square-foot former campus building and 80 acres it sits on.

Henke said the plan is to create a “social capital” campus, where each of the building’s four corners has an anchor tenant that would benefit the community. 

In addition to the charter school, a theater group, a day care and a senior citizen group are interested in the campus, Henke said. 

“Kind of a diapers-to-depends type of campus,” Henke said. 

Superintendents from the five public school districts in Washington County are also looking at leasing about 5,000 square feet that the districts would use as collaborative space.

As far as the charter school, Henke said the discussions are just beginning. 

“We’re about one inch on a 12-inch ruler,” Henke said.

The Wisconsin Classical Arts and Sciences Academy is being chartered by UW-Milwaukee. Accel Learning is the parent company of the charter school.

Accel was founded in 2014 as a public charter school management organization. It now manages 92 brick-and-mortar and virtual schools across the country serving 32,000 students, according to its website.

The Wisconsin Classical Arts and Sciences Academy would be the first Accel school in the state.

The Wisconsin Classical Arts and Sciences Academy is estimating it would enroll 700 students by the fifth year of operation. Washington County has about 18,000 public school students, Henke said. 

The Wisconsin Classical Arts and Sciences Academy’s curriculum will “embrace the pillars of classical education, provide hands-on arts and sciences experiences, deploy research-based resources and promote virtue,” according to documents submitted to the county.

Kristina Mueller, with the Slinger Parents Supporting Education, said Washington County is looking for tenants that can pay the bills rather than the best use for the space. 

“Why does Washington County feel the need to bring in this not just a charter school, but a for-profit charter school that is going to take away funding to our thriving public schools,” Mueller said. “It doesn’t sit right with us, and it just, it really doesn’t make sense, to be quite honest.”

UW-Oshkosh Fox Cities campus sale moves forward

Beyond Washington County, UW-Oskosh at Fond du Lac, UW-Platteville at Richland, UW-Oshkosh Fox Cities, UW-Green Bay at Marinette and UW-Milwaukee at Waukesha are closing or have been closed. 

Last week, the Winnebago County board approved the proposed sale of the UW-Fox Cities property.

According to a resolution approved April 15, Winnebago County will give Outagamie County Weis Earth Science Museum artifacts in exchange for full ownership of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at Fox Cities campus. 

The two year campus will close at the end of June. 

In March, a plan to sell the campus to the Menasha Joint School District fell through. 

The school district hoped to open child care centers on the 40-acre campus, while preserving the facility’s planetarium, communication arts center and Weis Earth Science Museum. 

Under the agreement approved April 15, Outagamie County will sell its share of the campus’s ownership to Winnebago County for a single dollar.

The agreement also compels Winnebago County to operate the property “for the benefit of the public” for two years before owning the campus outright.

The proposal now heads to the Outagamie County board for final action.

County Executive Tom Nelson said the agreement best serves the people of Winnebago and Outagamie. 

“It affords Winnebago the time to develop the campus for a public purpose on their terms and it ensures the Weis collection will remain in our community,” Nelson said in a statement. “We are fortunate to be part of such a warm and caring community that puts the public interest above all else.”