Our Kids Deserve Better

Why The School Board Seeks To Improve Our Facilities

Since our November 8, 2016 referendum, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many District stakeholders regarding the status of our facilities.  This is not a new conversation to me.  It’s one that I’ve been honored and humbled to participate in since I co-chaired the Citizens High School Design Team ten years ago.  Many significant needs were identified then but a challenged global economy caused us, understandably, to postpone addressing them.  Those needs have not magically gone away nor have they become any less expensive to fix.

While the Board of Education members and I are extremely grateful for all the tremendous support we receive for our schools, including the recent passage of a $2.5 million dollar operational referendum to maintain and expand existing programs, we remain at a point where “Our Kids Deserve Better”.

Speaking with students, staff members, parents, and many other District stakeholders, has given clarity to these issues. Here are some of my beliefs that are shared by many of us on our school board and many others throughout our community:

 Our Kids Deserve Better Classrooms; classrooms that have enough room to accommodate modern, flexible learning spaces.

Our High School Science Students Deserve Better Labs; labs where they are not hampered by extremely limited space and 50 year old lab fixtures & equipment. How many of us use a 50 year old phone or television?

Our High School Students Deserve Better Learning Space Options; options other than seeking space in hallways to complete group work because their classrooms are inadequately sized. This happens in nearly every type of class.  There are no free classroom or other spaces available.

Our High School and Middle School Students Deserve Better Than Closets; students attend some classes in what were storage rooms or closets.

Our Middle School Foreign Language & Band Students Deserve Better Than Sharing Space; causing them to use instructional time to assemble or disassemble furniture to use the only room available (band set-up & classroom set-up are very different configurations).

Our High School Students Deserve Better Corridors; student traffic when classes pass cause our kids to be herded through very narrow hallways that were designed for a student body half the size of our current 1,100.

East Elementary Students Deserve Better Than A Small Basement Room With Limited Accessibility; where learning to play an instrument means they have to kneel on a carpet as the room isn’t large enough for chairs.

Our High School Track Participants Deserve Better Than Always Having To Travel To Events;  track team members have no option but to use a track in such disrepair that they cannot host even one track meet this year.

Our Students & Staff Deserve Better Than To Be Denied; many are denied opportunities to learn, practice, play, or perform because of the status of our current school facilities.

Our School & Community Swim Participants Deserve Better than for us to have to consider eliminating a vibrant & robust school and community swimming program because the current 50 year old pool can no longer be repaired.

Our Students, Staff Members, and Visitors with Compromised Physical Abilities Deserve Better than to be challenged in using our bathrooms because they are not handicap accessible.

Our Students, Parents, & Families Deserve Better than to always have no option but to travel when students are competing at conference and regional events because our pool and gymnasium lack the required space.

Because Our Students Deserve Better, the Board of Education and I are continuing our conversations regarding a potential future facilities referendum.  Our goal is to continue to explore partnerships and solutions that would make our facilities better at a cost that would be as affordable as possible for all.  We believe Milton’s students, staff, and all District stakeholders throughout our community deserve that consideration.  We continue to seek ways that, together, we can right some of these issues because Milton Kids Deserve Better.

If you have thoughts on how we may be able to best accomplish that, my fellow Board members and I would love to hear from you. Our e-mail addresses and phone numbers are at: http://www.milton.k12.wi.us/

OPPORTUNITY, ACHIEVEMENT, COMMUNITY – together we can make it happen.

Jon Cruzan

President, School District of Milton Board of Education