Neighborhood vs. Magnet Schools in Racine Unified?

School Board Member Don Nielsen wants the Racine Unified School District Board of Education to examine whether cost savings are possible by displacing the district’s magnet schools with what he calls “walk-in neighborhood schools.”

Nielsen’s host of suggestions also include redrawing middle and high school boundaries, maximizing use of the city of Racine’s bus system, constructing two replacement elementary schools, examining the costs of expanding career/technical education, eliminating sibling preference at magnet schools and expanding the district’s present magnet school offerings at other locations. He has asked that the School Board on Monday, June 21, to refer his suggestions to a future work session.

“A lot of it is stuff that I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” says Nielsen, who chairs the board’s audit committee. “After the referendum was defeated, I promised myself to discuss every option available.”

Among the RUSD magnet elementary schools that Nielsen would like the School Board to consider transforming into neighborhood schools are:

• Red Apple, 914 St. Patrick St. (438 students), emphasizes science and the environment.
• Jefferson Lighthouse, 1722 W. Sixth St. (565 students) emphasizes academics and is an International Baccalaureate candidate school.
• Bull Fine Arts, 815 DeKoven Ave. (313 students), emphasizes art and music.

 The three magnet schools are very popular with parents and have waiting lists.

 Nielsen also proposes that these elementary schools, which currently attract students from several areas of the city, become neighborhood schools:

• Julian Thomas, 930 Martin Luther King Dr. (471 students)
• Janes Year Round, 1425 N. Wisconsin Ave. (422 students), which is RUSD’s only school that operates on a year-round calendar.

Nielsen concedes that his suggestions tied to RUSD’s magnet school programs may be controversial. But, he wants School Board members to look at cost savings—particularly related to busing—and to consider how neighborhood-oriented schools can generate greater family involvement and improved student performance.

 “I think there are good reasons to consider this. If students can walk across the street or down the block to school and their parents can more easily get to the schools and get involved, we can improve our chances of student performance.

Nielsen also emphasizes that he’s not abandoning the magnet schools, but wants to consider alternate sites and even add at least one more magnet elementary school to give parents more options.

But, Nielsen also cautions that amid an environment of state school aid reductions and publicly subsidized vouchers for private schools, RUSD will need to rethink the way it delivers services.

“It won’t be pretty, but we’ll make it this year,” he says. “But next year will be really tough and the year after that, even worse.”