Waukesha Bethesda, Hawthorne schools close; last day Thursday
Bethesda School, Hawthorne Elementary close in Waukesha
WAUKESHA, Wis. - Two Waukesha schools dismissed students for the final time on Thursday, June 11.
Bethesda Elementary and Hawthorne Elementary had their last day of school ever, following a school board decision in November to close them at the end of the year.
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The backstory:
The School District of Waukesha Board of Education voted in November to close, repurpose or sell three schools: Bethesda, Hawthorne and Whittier at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Additionally, the plan included the district selling its Pleasant Hill, Saratoga and White Rock campuses and converting Horning Middle into a K-8 STEM school.
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Superintendent Jim Sebert said at the time that the plan would save the school district up to $3.7 million a year and reduce overall district capacity by 15%. It would impact where roughly 50% of students go to school.
"Those buildings [Horning and Hawthorne] have been closed more from the quality of the building perspective than based on the students that are served in the buildings," Sebert said when the decision was made.
"Parents are pissed," Meghan Eigenbrod, a Bethesda Elementary parent, said after the November decision. "A lot of people feel very blindsided. They feel like the rug was swept right underneath them."
The Source: FOX6 News went to Bethesda and Hawthorne on Thursday. Details about the schools' closure is from prior coverage.