Hillside Parents Rally Elmbrook to 'Stick with 6' Schools

With a decision closing in on whether to shutter , parents unleashed their anger and frustration Tuesday on Elmbrook School Board members and the superintendent.

Residents started the meeting shouting and interrupting the speakers. "Answer our questions!" many yelled.

"Your minds were made up two years ago," Barb Meialejohn said, echoing a belief shared by many residents.

"I don't want to pit Hillside against against ," she added. "We need to find a way to keep them all open."

About 200 people filled the cafeteria at Tuesday night for the second of two community information meetings on a recommendation to close Hillside at the end of this school year.

The Board plans to discuss the recommendation Oct. 11 and could vote on it Oct. 25. Both are regular board meetings starting at 6 p.m. but will be held in the Central High cafeteria rather than district administrative offices to accommodate a larger audience.

Support for Hillside was strong Tuesday, with many wearing red "Save Hillside" T-shirts, including entire families of adults and young children. Some waved signs that read "Stick with 6," meaning the district's existing six elementary schools, and there were large yard signs for Hillside.

Parents challenged the district's financial and enrollment numbers — the estimated $1.2 million savings from closing Hillside and the budget deficits and declining to stable enrollment the district cites as reasons for closure.

One woman pointed to a report that said the district could save as much as $4 million a year by switching from its self-funded health insurance plan to a fully insured plan. Keith Brightman, Elmbrook's assistant superintendent for finance and operations, and School Board member Meg Wartman challenged the report's findings as inaccurate.

Former School Board member Bruce Nattinger urged the district to think of creative ways to save money, including making Hillside a K-2 school and a grades 3-5 school. He said a Madison consultant who prepared Elmbrook's enrollment projections had used faulty assumptions.

Nattinger urged the board to channel the "positive energy" from district families who are passionate about keeping all six schools open into broad support for a successful referendum to override tax limits. He said he believed more savings could be found and a referendum could be limited to a request for about $500,000.

School Board member Glen Allgaier said a referendum that would seek $1.2 million in additional taxes to keep Hillside open would translate to about $2.20 per $1,000 of home value — or about an extra $60 a year for the owner of a $300,000 home.

But one resident, Grant Thomas, stood to say he represented taxpayers who do not want to pay for unneeded school space or to add 4-year-old kindergarten, which he called "taxpayer day care." Thomas said his children had attended Hillside.

Several residents, including others who described themselves as "senior citizens," said they gladly would pay the extra taxes to keep Hillside open.

Superintendent Matt Gibson said he would "love" to advocate for that but after 17 years in the district and winning passage of several building referendums, he believed the district would not support an override referendum.

"I believe we have to close an elementary school and experience some pain" before the community majority would vote to exceed state-imposed revenue caps, Gibson said.

Gibson said it was unfortunate that the state continued to reject requests by residents in the Town and City of Brookfield to leave the Waukesha School District and join Elmbrook. Those homes are on the west side where Hillside is located.

Some criticized the School Board for ending a previous pilot 4K program, saying had it been in place in recent years, the $1.2 million savings might not be needed. The board now plans to re-entertain the idea of adding 4K, although the issue will not be discussed until after the closure decision.

That angered some parents who questioned why there wasn't a more global vote on ways to meet an estimated $8.7 million five-year budget deficit. They asked why the budget solutions were being handled individually, with school closure preceding other ideas.

Brightman, the assistant superintendent, acknowledged many moves would be needed to close the gap.

"No one idea is going to close our budget deficit," he said. "There is no one silver bullet."