New Berlin district decides to close Glen Park School

New Berlin - The first among numerous speakers pleading with the New Berlin School Board not to close Glen Park Elementary School predicted that the writing was on the wall. And she was right.

The board Monday night voted unanimously to close Glen Park, whose nearly 300 students will be parceled out to Orchard Lane, Elmwood and Ronald Reagan elementary schools this fall.

Ultimately, the school district will save an estimated $429,000 a year to either put toward $25 million in either maintenance costs - for deferred or new projects - in schools elsewhere in the jurisdiction.

Evident emotion

But regardless of the benefits, the 90 or so Glen Park parents plus many Glen Park students were devastated by the decision. At least five children left the meeting in tears, as did some of the parents.

The meeting was charged with emotion.

At one point, the board's discussion was suddenly interrupted by an angry shout from a man in the audience who disagreed with something that was said, and soon others were speaking out of order in the audience, eventually prompting the board to take a brief recess.

Three New Berlin police officers soon were on the scene and monitored the meeting from outside the New Berlin Middle/High School idea center.

All about money

Bill Adams, a parent who has been fighting the closure for months, said after the meeting was that the board's need for extra money is at the heart of the issue and that problem hasn't been fixed.

"There's an unwillingness in the community and an inability of the board to convince the community that the schools need much greater financial support than they've been given," Adams said.

Indeed, Director of Finances Roger Dickson said last month that the schools have a structural deficit, meaning they cannot adequately keep up with maintenance.

But to School Board member Art Marquardt, a strong advocate of the closing, the question is more one of simply having too much capacity and consequently too much staff.

"This is the last step in getting the right number of buildings and the right number of administrators," Marquardt said after the meeting, noting that the closing will make it possible to start catching up on maintenance.

Rich Tadych, another parent who also fought hard for Glen Park, worried that the estimated $429,000 in annual savings might be eaten away significantly by necessary adaptations at the three receiving schools.

Further, he worried that a savings of whatever size might get lost in the district's annual budget, which currently totals about $60 million.