Good column Adam!

One question I have: Back before there was an intermediate school in Shorewood (I'm guessing mid-70s and back) were the 7th and 8th grades taught at Lake Bluff and Atwater?

I would hate to see SIS close.
Leaving The 7th graders at Lake bluff and Atwater is a WAY better idea than seperating schools. I really feel if you don't give the people a choice of schools for K4-6, the kids will be shipped else where.
In the past, as well as now, older siblings are expected to walk younger kids home. This is not going to happen if the schools seperate and reorganize. Right now SIS gets out at 3:08 and Lake Bluff gets out at 3:15. 7th& 8th graders have barely enough time to get to the elementary schools to get their sibs. Will there be an area where the little kids can stay until 3:30 so those kids have a chance to be picked up by their siblings? (NOT A PAID service)
Many parents work and count on the "big kids" to watch their siblings until mom and dad get home from work. Now that people will need to work 2 jobs to make ends meet, being home at 3:00 to pick up a K5 child when a 5th grader could easily walk with him home, I feel is a diservice to the district as well as working parents.

But what about the buildings...
Will the district then fix all of the restrooms in the buildings to be the proper size and enough for the number of children? What about locker rooms? Will they need to build another track? What about the safety of the walkers? (Shorewood has MANY uncontrolled intersections, like Lawnwood and Woodburn for example) Will we hire more crossing guards? What about the music rooms? Does the DPI or State of Wisconsin require a specific number of squrare footage per student in a room?Where will that money come from? Did anyone try to ask alumni to help or explain to them whats going on?
Some parents I have spoken with would rather see their children attending St. Robert's as a choice student, or put in for open enrollment in another district, than to see their kids seperated.
We can't lose anymore kids.
Having a choice of schools in the district is important.

I also don't understand why numbers are low, if the current sixth grade class at Lake Bluff was so big this year they needed to hire another teacher. The incomming K4 class is also already much larger than expected ...I really think we need to open up enrollment and look at numbers......

Great article Adam! Thanks!

Adam, there are no REAL paid afterschool supervisors. They are only there for the lunch hour. I believe the ones you see, are through Milestones which most parents can't afford. A Supervised 3:15-3:45 service might be a good suggestion when the transition takes place.
I also would like to know where all of the teachers are going to park? Will the district release some street parking? Or mark the street for proper parking?
Many of the SIS staff have gotten tickets for being 2.5 inches to close to drive ways because they have very few spaces to park their cars. I would hope the village would work with the schools by giving teachers on street passes or marking spots properly.

Thanks Adam :o)

Adam: That may be one of the best articles I have read in Patch on the basis of providing facts to a story. Congratulations.

Adam - you are getting good questions. Could you answer some of them with a more expert answer, like "We will ask XYZ this question and come back with an answer on cost, feasibility, etc." I know there is research on things like cost of supervised playground time - an answer like "I think so" really doesn't help the conversation as much (though I'm glad we're having it, it could be more informed).

Adam - I appreciated your article too; nice job. I grew up in a different city at a different time. I went to a K-7 elementary school and an 8-12 high school, and I don't believe that the experience scarred me for life!

Here's what I think: it's just generally tough to be a 7th or 8th grader, regardless of what kind of school you attend. While I hate to see us closing schools, I'd much rather we take that step than cut teachers and programs.

The School Board is expected to open up discussion on the issue of a school closure again, very soon. For a quick recap on the issue, read a story Patch ran a few months ago.

http://patch.com/A-cC48

Perfect, thank you!

This is definitely a subject for discussion--it's a big leap to make. Would doing K-7 mean that seventh grade would be like 5th and 6th in that the students have 3 teachers or one for each subject area? I can envision how you'd logistically split up the intermediate school teachers. By 7th grade, students really should have specialize in their topics, no?

Prior to September 1970, 7th and 8th grade classes were held at SHS. I spent grades 7 through 12 at the high school campus, and we thought it was a fine arrangement. Jr. High Language Arts, Social Studies and homeroom were housed on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building (the Library was on the north side only, with a hallway running through it). Science, Math, Art, Applied Arts, Drama, Phy. Ed. were held in the same buildings as the rest of the students. Half the 7th and 8th graders had Lang. Arts/Social Studies in the morning, with the other subjects in the p.m. Then, we swapped classes for the afternoon. We never shared classes with the high schoolers, just passed them in the hall. We enjoyed being part of the high school activities.

I have concerns with the 7/8 graders going to dances or late night activities with high schoolers. It does seem that with sexual predators on the rise, many parents would not feel comfortable letting their 8th grader go to a dance with a senior. There have been cases of older students “dating” younger students in the middle school and it becomes illegal as things progress, obviously. If you combine schools, you really need to lay out the “laws of the land” to older and younger students . You can separate them all you want in the halls and classes, but when it comes down to it, they will all see each other at school pep assemblies, dances and other school functions. If we move them in , we need to educate them SOONER than later. Times they are a changin'.

I just feel like I should clarify:

I only meant for a school closing to be a last ditch effort that should only occur once--and hopefully this shall never happen--resident enrollment is so low that SIS needs to be closed. (And hopefully, that won't occur until at least 5 to 10 years into the future. I can't foresee the future, so I have no idea what's in store for the District.) I don't think that point was made within the article.

Obviously, many things would have to be considered--like after-school supervision, like Kati pointed out. Once the School Board reopens discussions regarding grade reorganization, your concerns should be addressed to them.

I see some folks have you backpedaling furiously, Adam. Sorry to see that you've lost your journalistic backbone and are now only a tool, a little finger puppet.

Adam: Your much too intelligent to have forgotten items that completely change the tone of the entire article. Somebody got to you.

Adam, thanks for taking the time to give us your perspective on this subject. It was a good read and well written. One comment you made struck me though, and I hope you could elaborate on that a bit. It was about bullying and how you experienced that from your peers. Was it the bullying that primarily caused your 4 years at Atwater to be a terrible? What was your experience with, whether that be a councelor, teacher or principal, in addressing those issues - if any? I'll understand if you don't want to relive those days, but this issue is important to us as we have one in the school system now and another entering soon and have already seen signs of what you wrote about. Thanks :)

Thanks Adam. I am a parent of a in comming K4 and 4th grader at Lake Bluff. I'm also grad from lake bluff k4->12. I own a home in the village, and I am an educator :o). I never really put in my 2 cents and I have been feeling like I should. :o)
The idea of reorganization just makes me nervous.

Completely hilarious Katfish. Try some yoga or meditation and maybe you won't be so nervous.

I'm good thanks.
I just would like to still have a job and see my co workers have jobs.
Its relaxing and rewarding enough just to love going to work everyday.......... which I REALLY do.
I will chill out eventually.

I have heard talk about closing the "Tuna Can" for several years. I would hate to see that happen, but the plan offered--that of splitting the elementary schools is awful. Sending the seventh and eighth graders to the high school makes more sense. They already use the field, and some go to advanced classes. A seventh grader is closer to high school than to elementary school in many ways. Many districts have the 7-12 configuration and function smoothly. To move the 7th and 8th graders, you are moving only about 300 students. By splitting the elementary schools, Lake Bluff moves 300 kids and Atwater moves 300. That's 600 kids--smaller and younger, too. Aren't some of the children in NW Shorewood closer to a Whitefish Bay elementary school--maybe they could be choice students there! By the way, this wouldn't mean teacher cuts--we still would have the same number of students--but with one less building cost--we could hire more!

Adam; well done article.
Under utilization of the school facilities is a costly problem. Couple that with high maintenance costs of older buildings and it is time to take a serious look at closing one of the facilities. In my opinion the SIS building is the only correct choice. Of the combinations that I have seen proposed, the high school should remain as it is. The mixing of students younger than freshmen is putting younger students at risk, unprepared for more mature students. I want to suggest that we combine 6th, 7th, and 8th grades into a single facility. Because of the busy street represented by Capital, Atwater would be my choice for the Intermediate school. K - 5 would attend Lake Bluff, a safer facility. I would propose selling the SIS property and put the funds into an investment account to be used later for upgrades to the remaining facilities.

Now that the census numbers have been out for more than a week--or perhaps they only released some of the numbers--is there any word on the average age of Shorewoodians? That was supposed to determine whether SIS would be closed.