Posted: Jan. 27, 2010

The Tosa School of Health Science and Technology will add 5-year-old kindergarten starting next school year, but a long-term plan tied to the charter school's expansion has some worried.

Charter school officials sought Wauwatosa School Board approval Monday to add 5-year-old kindergarten to the program, which currently includes first- through fifth-graders. The school, housed in three rooms at Wilson Elementary School, opened in September 2007.

Adding the younger grade will make the charter a "complete elementary school," said Kristy Casey, president of the charter's governing board, adding that starting students earlier will improve the effectiveness of the school's curriculum.

"It allows the children to enter in and to experience and start engaging in self-directed, investigative learning (and start being) self-motivated learners," Casey said. "It gives an introduction to the technology and science that is infused throughout the curriculum."

 

Worries of slippery slope

But some School Board members and district parents opposed the school's plans to add kindergarten, seeing it as the first step toward commitment to a still-unapproved plan to expand the charter school and shrink Wilson.

That plan, created by the charter board and district Superintendent Phil Ertl, shows Wilson shrinking from 12 sections in the 2011-12 school year to seven sections in 2016-17. Over that same period, the charter school would expand from three sections to seven, essentially splitting the Wilson building between the charter and the traditional elementary schools.

Milwaukee resident Brian Boeding has one child who attends Wilson through Open Enrollment, but said he is concerned that his other two children won't get that chance if the school shrinks.

Board member Michael Meier said he opposed the plan, but for different reasons. Meier said the plan starts a premature move beyond the charter's experimental phase.

"We're investing in a curriculum model and a teaching model that I don't think has shown itself to be financially sustainable," he said. "The curriculum is based on purchases of expensive equipment. It has not been shown that those expenditures can be sustained as the years go by."

Casey disputed Meier's claims, saying the charter is viable, has a high rate of parent satisfaction and has enough interest to expand. Equipment was carefully and appropriately purchased using federal grant dollars, she said.

Kindergarten only change

Ertl said the plan to expand the charter school maximizes the use of the Wilson building while ensuring long-term stability and viability for both schools.

However, Ertl said he would find a way to keep Wilson open, even if the board decides not to renew the charter's contract in 2012.

"I think it's been clear: This community wants their schools open, and it's my job to make sure that there are viable options for parents and their students," he said.

Despite all the discussion about the future of the charter school and Wilson, the board was only voting on whether to allow the charter to add K5 - not the long-term plan. The expansion to include kindergarten required a formal amendment to the five-year contract between the district's School Board and the charter's governing board.

The board passed the contract change 4-3, with Meier, Phil Kroner and Sharon Muehlfeld voting in opposition.