Oshkosh High School Realignment

Posted October 2, 2007

School board reaches consensus, Lakeside area students could go to Merrill, North
By Jeff Bollier
of The Northwestern

The Oshkosh school board on Monday agreed to continue work on a redistricting proposal that would send students from the southeast corner of the district to Oshkosh North High School as part of a redistricting plan to balance high school enrollment levels into the future.


OshKonversation: Is sending Lakeside kids to Merrill, North the best school district solution?


Board members agreed at the end of a full-day retreat Monday to support a plan to have students living in the area bordered by 25th Avenue on the north, the Canadian National railroad tracks to the west, Lone Elm Avenue to the south and Lake Winnebago to the east go to Merrill Intermediate and Oshkosh North High School. Those students now attend Lakeside Elementary, South Park Middle School and Oshkosh West High School.

Board members selected the plan over another option, developed during the retreat that would have moved students living in an area along the Fox River east of U.S. Highway 41 and north of Coolidge Avenue into the North attendance area.

While the students are the farthest away from North geographically, board members noted the students already have a long bus ride and that the move plan would keep a large group of students together.

"Arguably, we’re picking on someone no matter what, but those students are the farthest away regardless," board member Wayne Traska said.

The new proposal must be further developed before the board’s Oct. 10 meeting to include a way to shift attendance boundaries to ensure Oakwood Elementary School remains below capacity. Once the fleshed-out plan is presented at the Oct. 10 meeting, the board intends to hold an Oct. 17 special meeting to allow public comment on the proposal before formal consideration by the board at its Oct. 24 meeting.

The plan replaces the last redistricting plan the board moved forward, known as Option E, which would have balanced out attendance levels at North and Oshkosh West High School by transferring some students who attend Oakwood, Franklin and Roosevelt elementary schools into the Oshkosh North attendance area.

The board soured on that proposal following vocal opposition from the Oakwood families impacted by the proposal.

Board member Tom McDermott said while it could appear the board caved in to pressure from those families, the new proposal solves problems beyond those raised by the opposition.

"There was truly a concern we were moving too small of groups of students (with Op¬tion E)," McDermott said. "Our one object today was to decrease the gap in the enroll¬ments (at West and North) without increasing the percentage of low-income students at North. We’re trying to accomplish multiple things here at once."

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Professor Dale Feinauer, who facilitated the retreat, repeatedly kept the board members and school district staff members focused on the main goal of the redistricting plan: to reduce the gap in attendance at North, where attendance levels are expected to wane over the next 10 years, and at West, where attendance levels are expected to hold steady or grow.

North is just under its capacity of 1,488 students while West is just above its capacity of 1,819 students.

Feinauer said the board did good work Monday.

"I was impressed by the board’s willingness to collaborate and work together for the good of the district," Feinauer said.