MPS eyes shifting 7th, 8th graders to high schools in facilities plan

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Public Schools’ Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is floating a major shift that could move seventh and eighth grades onto high school campuses. 

Right now, many MPS schools are kindergarten through eighth grade. But as the district finalizes a 10-year master plan for facilities, Cassellius said new approaches are on the table.

What we know:

"It’s going to be critical that we start making some pretty significant decisions here about those mergers," Cassellius said. "As we look at our facilities plan, we’re looking at all options."

Before MPS hired Cassellius, the district hired consulting firm Perkins Eastman, which identified 13 schools as candidates for possible closure or merger:

• Brown Street Academy (elementary school)
• Clarke Street Academy (K-8)
• Siefert School (elementary school)
• Starms Discovery Learning Center (K-8)
• Auer Avenue School (elementary school)
• Hopkins Lloyd Community School (elementary school)
• Jackson Elementary School (elementary school)
• Dr. George Washington Carver Academy (K-8)
• Oliver Wendell Holmes School (K-8)
• Andrew S. Douglas Middle School (middle school)
• Keefe Avenue School (elementary school)
• Robert M. LaFollette School (K-8)
• William T. Sherman School (K-8)

What they're saying:

District data shows about one-quarter of MPS schools are underutilized, while another quarter are overcrowded.

"You have some [high schools] that have very low enrollment, and they have very large campuses; many of them, their stadiums have been redone, new baseball fields, new tennis courts, new gymnasiums, they have swimming pools, they have full libraries, they have tech labs and career stem labs," Cassellius told FOX6. "They have technology and they [students] just have an opportunity to take more advanced courses as well, and then more co-curricular activities and athletics, and debate and forensics classes and all of those types of things that are great for the young adolescent, the curious mind. So we want to make sure that students are engaged and that they have those great opportunities across all of our schools within the district."

Cassellius first shared the grade reconfiguration idea in an interview with former MPS communications director Denise Callaway.

FOX6 asked Cassellius about possible parental concerns about younger and older students sharing campuses.

"Yeah, I can imagine that they are. The wonderful thing is, when you do it really smartly, and we have the space for them, you can have the Junior High in a completely different part of the building, or on a different level and different floor, they can even have different entrances," she said. "So, you have those opportunities, but then they can have all these shared space together and all these really great opportunities, but they may not work in some environments."

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She added that the long-range planning, which may include closures, mergers and grade reconfiguration, is not all about finances.

"It's really to create better opportunities, to have more teachers in our classrooms, to have adherence to our class sizes, to give better opportunities to the students for extracurricular activities and academics and advanced coursework. Those are the reasons why we need to make this, make these really tough decisions," Cassellius said.

"This will be working with each and every community and looking at what makes sense. So it may not make sense in some school communities, some programs that might not make sense in might make sense to have an upper and lower campus in different facilities, and it might make sense to have a 7-12 in another facility. So this is going to be facility by facility, and what the opportunities are for our students."

Dig deeper:

Enrollment in MPS has dropped 32% over the last two decades. The average school building is 82 years old, compared to a national average of 49 years.

The MPS school board would need to approve any closures, mergers or grade reconfigurations. Parents and community members will also get a chance to share their thoughts, again. Cassellius said she didn't have a firm timeline for the board to act, but it could be in the spring of 2026.