WAUKESHA, Wis. — Many school districts across the country are facing the challenge of declining enrollment.

In Wisconsin, it’s leading to budget shortfalls, prompting districts like the School District of Waukesha (SDW) to close or consolidate school buildings.


What You Need To Know

  • School District of Waukesha leaders developed the Optimizing Our Future plan that lays out building capacity reduction that meets current enrollment trends
  • The district plans to close or consolidate more school buildings to meet the drop in student enrollment and reduce the annual deficit
  • The district has seen a 2% drop in students each year since 2012. Enrollment went from roughly 13,000 to 10,500
  • The goal is to reduce building capacity by 10 to 15%. The focus is the district's K-8 schools

  • District leaders said this is a proactive approach that will help reduce the annual deficit and make sure resources are used most efficiently and in the best interest of students

SDW leaders developed a three-phase plan called Optimizing Our Future that looks at reducing building capacity to meet current enrollment trends.

Superintendent of Schools, Jim Sebert said, since 2012, Waukesha’s student enrollment has dropped by roughly 2,500 students and is expected to keep declining.

“We think the time is right for us to take a proactive approach to looking at how many schools do we truly need in our district footprint,” said Sebert.

The district currently operates 23 buildings: 12 elementary schools, four middle schools, four high schools, one administration building, one services building and one leased building.

This is not the first time SDW has closed other schools. The district’s administration building used to be Blair Elementary School.

In 2010, Pleasant Hill Elementary closed and is now being leased to The Richardson School, which serves students with disabilities. In 2022, Whittier Elementary closed and reopened as STEM Elementary.

“Ultimately, the goal is not to have vacant buildings throughout the Waukesha community. We work with the city. The city works with developers. Developers contact us,” said Sebert.

The other goal is to make sure resources are being used most efficiently and in the best interest of students.

The district’s total student capacity holds 14,232 students, while enrollment this year is 9,675. That means the district has 4,557 open seats.

“That's the world we're living in,” said SDW Chief Financial Officer, Darren Clark. “But we're not alone in that. I think most districts in the state are having that same struggle right now.”

Clark said state funding for public education, in part, is based on a per-student amount. Fewer students mean less money coming in to help pay operational costs.

“We finally came to the conclusion that there's a cost to operating all this excess capital or seats,” said Clark.

Sebert wants to stress that the district is not doing this because it’s in crisis, but a proactive approach to help reduce the annual deficit.

Through public information sessions and meetings with staff, Sebert said they’ve included community input to help draft a proposal.

That will be finalized and put before the board of education this fall.