GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Members of the Latino community have outlined their concerns with the Green Bay school district’s schema 12 plan. It includes the closure of 12 district buildings.
The recently formed Northeast Wisconsin Latino Educational Task Force gathered outside Washington Middle School Friday afternoon. There they expressed their displeasure with the Green Bay School District’s plan to consolidate schools.
“NEWLET and the parents request that the vote be postponed and that all the different impacts that Schema 12 will have on our communities and the students- be considered and disseminated to the community to allow a full and active participation,” NEWLET Vice Chair Gabriella Parra said.
The changes are needed, because the district is facing declining enrollment and a $20 million budget deficit. But NEWLET feels they weren’t being considered during the major change. Parra wants the district to provide more transparency.
“All the parents I had met with were unaware of Schema 12 or had a very vague idea from information received by their children,” Parra said.
For months, a task force met to discuss the future of Green Bay schools. The district is 60% minority students, including 31.5% Hispanic. But only three of 26 task force members were minority. Latino and other minority parents say their communities will be most impacted.
“The school that he currently goes to is less than a mile away. And then going to Eisenhower is more than two miles,” District Parent Cynthia Martinez said. “That means he’ll have to take a bus which will mean he’ll be less involved in school. I’m really concerned about this.”
“We’d like to see a lot of K through eights in the Latina neighborhoods because there are several k through eights in other areas,” Another District Parent said.
In response to NEWLET’s announcement, the district issued the following statement.
On June 5, the Board of Education will vote during a Special Board meeting on which recommendations they would like the administration to explore further. The next step will be to consider boundary changes, programming and school demographics, with a focus on equity in any potential future school closings or movement of students.
Both sides say productive conversations took place during a meeting this past week. But NEWLET says, the language barriers are a huge hurdle, and not enough Latino parents understand the true implications of the plan.
There will be a final public forum next Wednesday 4:00 p.m. at Washington Middle School.
