MPS unveils ambitious plan to transform education in one of Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods

Beginning this school year, two mobile teams of psychologists, social workers, nurses and others will be dispatched to serve students in crisis in one of the poorest areas of Milwaukee.

That $2 million initiative is one piece of a broader plan by interim Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Keith Posley aimed at turning around North Division High School and reimagining public education in the city's 53206 ZIP code — where the vast majority of residents are poor and black and nearly every school is considered failing on its state report card.

The proposal has the backing of the School Board, many staff and alumni. But it can't be fully implemented without outside financial support, Posley told board members when he rolled out the plan in late July.

"If we’re going to turn this area around, it's going to have to be a community effort," said Posley, who is reaching out to state and local officials for additional funds and support in developing programs that go beyond the schools. "We’re doing everything as MPS to do our part. And we have asked others to come to the table."

Posley's plan is the latest in decades of proposals intended to stem academic and enrollment declines at North Division, 1011 W. Center St., now considered among the poorest-performing schools in the state. It would, among other things:

• Hire a consultant at $25,000 to begin the process of "re-envisioning North Division as a flagship high school" that would draw students from a feeder system of elementary and middle schools in the surrounding neighborhoods.
• Remodel Andrew S. Douglas School at 3620 N. 18th St. into a "state of the art" middle school at a cost of $3.1 million. Douglas' current K-8 students will be co-located during this school year at Keefe Avenue School, 1618 W. Keefe Ave. And Douglas will re-open as a middle school in the fall of 2019.
• Franklin and LaFollette elementary schools will remain K-8. And Auer Avenue, Hopkins-Lloyd, Keefe Avenue and Jackson will be K-5 schools that will serve as feeders into the new Douglas middle school. All of the K-5 schools will expand their early childhood offerings.
• Strengthen instruction in the early years in reading and math; enhance its STEAM offerings — in science, technology, engineering, the arts and math — in the middle years; and create pathways to increase opportunities in the health sciences.
• And operate Green Bay Avenue school as a citywide "success center," modeled after a Cincinnati program that offers short-term academic and support services to students struggling in their regular school.  
• Base the two mobile services teams at North Division and Auer Avenue School.

Posley said all costs for the 2018-'19 school year have already been budgeted, except funds for additional substitute teachers to ensure all schools in the area are fully staffed.

The district had announced earlier that North Division would become a "community school" this year, a partnership with the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County and the Milwaukee Urban League, that would bring additional resources.

The proposal drew support from the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, which has long argued that the schools in the 53206 ZIP code have been starved of resources. 

"We think it's really exciting ... and something students and families in the neighborhood have long deserved," said union President Amy Mizialko.

Among the goals of the reorganization is to draw more neighborhood families to the nine schools, which are significantly under capacity, according to data supplied by the district. Of the 4,833 K3-12 students who lived in the ZIP code during the 2017-'18 school year, only 52% attended a school there, it said. And the schools, overall, are at about 43 percent capacity.

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North Division has struggled for years to boost its enrollment, now at about 350, hampered by poor academic performance, deteriorated athletic facilities and the perception that it is disorderly and unsafe.

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Millions of dollars have been spent on reforms over the years as it evolved from a comprehensive high school to a collection of smaller schools, back to a single school with a short-lived focus on African-American history and culture. But little progress has been made.

Earlier this year, former superintendent and school choice advocate Howard Fuller, a North Division alumni, proposed moving his charter school, Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, into North Division, but withdrew after blowback from the teachers union and others who saw it as an attempted takeover.

Alumni, many of whom have maintained strong ties with the school, have grown frustrated and divided by the lack of progress. This summer, a group of community members and alumni urged Fuller to reconsider his withdrawal, believing he had the political clout and financial connections needed to turn the school around.

But the official North Division Alumni Association has endorsed Posley's plan, which President Yvonne McCaskill called "radical."

"We need something radical and different. We need something that will address the needs of these children," she said.

All of the district board members endorsed the proposal. But member Tony Baez said it was unlikely to succeed unless the city steps up to address many of the issues beyond the reach of the schools, including poverty, segregation, lack of jobs and crime.

"I do not accept school-only-based solutions for that area," said Baez, who argues that it is racism, not "the culture" of residents, that has created the "despair, violence (and) trauma" seen in the neighborhoods and schools in the 53206 ZIP code.

"If the city, foundations and other organizations do not make major investments in that community and create REAL job opportunities ... we can rest assured that the achievements promised by MPS will not happen as expected," he said in an email.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the YMCA as a partner in the North Division community school initiative.