Racine community reaction to reopening of Winslow building

I have read the online comments about the reopening of the former Winslow building with much interest this morning. I thought I would share a few insights – first of all deciding to close that building was a difficult one. The closing of the building was due in part to the district needing an immediate increase to their cash flow. Because of the lopsidedness of the schools’ enrollments, this school was very much underutilized. If you partner that with the decaying facility, Winslow was the school that drew the short straw.

At the time of the closing, Administration did not state it would be closed forever; they suggested once the facility plan needs were addressed and the redistricting done, Winslow (and Caddy Vista) COULD be reopened. I guess we assumed that the school would be reopened for elementary school kids. (I guess you should never ASSUME anything.) The lack of bathroom facilities has made the Winslow building not an attractive choice for the expanded 4-K program.

Secondly, everyone is complaining that the district needs to address the growing problem of drop-outs and children with behavior issues. According to the JT story, the Mack Achievement Center has outgrown its facilities. When the district finally begins to addresses this problem, there is a prevailing NIMBY attitude. Would you just rather have these “children” roam the streets, or would you rather they stay in their "home school" ? The big high schools cannot serve this students as well as a smaller environment can.

I think that bashing Unified for every decision has become the norm for this community. I have a litany of gripes with some of the decisions made in the past – the decision to transform the Winslow building to a school for at-risk students is just not one of them.