MENASHA, Wis. (WFRV) – Some community members are pushing back on a Menasha Joint School District plan to potentially buy the soon-to-be-closed UWO Fox Cities campus and turn it into childcare services.
On Monday night, Superintendent Matt Zimmerman debriefed the district’s Board of Education about the potential plan, saying they’re currently negotiating terms with Winnebago and Outagamie County officials.
The UWO Fox Cities campus will close at the end of June.
“We want to make Menasha the No. 1 place to raise a family and I think this goes a long way in that direction,” Superintendent Zimmerman said. “We really see this as an opportunity for us to meet a community need.”
He said the childcare services would help Menasha retain and attract families to move to the area. Declining enrollment has been an issue at many public school districts in Northeast Wisconsin.
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Zimmerman said that because they were negotiating terms with county officials, he couldn’t reveal the cost of buying the campus facilities from the county or operating daycare services there. He also wouldn’t say if doing this project would raise taxes for people in the county.
“I think again we’re early on in the discussion and any talk of costs would be premature and (discussing) how we would pay for that would be premature,” Zimmerman told Local 5 News ahead of the meeting. “Any tax increase we would ever do for anything there would be a long conversation with the community before we engage in that.”
Residents who spoke during the public comment section of the meeting said they were highly skeptical that the school district would be able to pull off a project like this without tax payer help.
“I think it’s a problem the counties have that they want to dump on you (figuring out what to do with and how to pay for the building),” said Stan Sevenich who is also on Menasha’s city council.
“I thought they were out of their mind (when I heard about the project),” said Fox Crossing resident Steve Krueger. “The school district just closed Jefferson (Elementary School) they had a budget deficit they said they were going to use it (Jefferson Elementary School) as a daycare and now they want to take on a huge campus?”
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Just over a year ago, Menasha’s school board chose to shutter Jefferson Elementary School to help close a $3.5 million budget deficit. There have been talks about using elementary schools for childcare.
Zimmerman said that Jefferson Elementary School wasn’t big enough to provide the volume of childcare services they could offer on the UWO Fox Cities campus. He also addressed questions about why they are now potentially doing a huge daycare project after having to shut down an elementary school to save money just a year earlier.
“How can you close Jefferson and then do this, the reality of it is it’s two different pots (of funding for the two projects),” Zimmerman said.
In a press release, district officials said that they remained committed to preserving the community assets housed on the UWO Fox Cities campus. A Winnebago County official told Local 5 News that the Barlow Planetarium will remain operational and will stay on campus. He said the Outagamie County Historical Society will operate the Weis Earth Science Museum at a new location.
Kathy Ceman lives in Fox Crossing near the UWO Fox Cities campus. She said three of her children attended the university and that she’s excited to see a potential plan that would continue to allow the campus to benefit the community.
“I see it as a win-win for the Menasha school district and Winnebago and Outagamie Counties,” she told Local 5 News. “I think that childcare is a huge need right now, accessible and lower cost childcare. I think it would be an asset not just to the Menasha community but to all our surrounding communities as well.”
She said she’s also glad that the Barlow Planetarium and Weis Earth Science Center will remain operational.
Superintendent Zimmerman said they would take into consideration feedback from community members before implementing this daycare project. Winnebago County supervisors, Outagamie County supervisors, and the Menasha Joint School District Board of Education must all approve any daycare plan before it can be finalized.
“I think we’re early on in the discussion and I reject the notion that we’re spending significantly,” Zimmerman said. “We have to have all options on the table and work with private and public partners.”
