Milwaukee Excellence charter school downsizing, plans to drop high school building

Milwaukee Excellence, an independently run charter school, plans to drop one of its buildings and downsize into its original location this fall, as enrollment at the school has fallen.

The school is asking to terminate the lease on its high school campus, which is a Milwaukee Public Schools building known as the former Happy Hill school, 7171 W. Brown Deer Road. School board members will consider the request at a meeting Thursday night.

Milwaukee Excellence CEO Rodney Lynk Jr. said in an email to the Journal Sentinel that the high school students will move into unused classrooms at the school's original location, 4950 N. 24th St., which is also leased from MPS and has continued serving the school's younger grades.

"Our decision to consolidate to one location is centered around our students and driven by the opportunity to maximize the work of our teacher and leadership teams," Lynk said in an email to the Journal Sentinel.

Milwaukee Excellence is a non-instrumentality charter school of MPS, meaning it is run by non-MPS employees but is granted status as a public school by authorization from the district. Non-instrumentality charter schools must sign a lease with MPS in order to use MPS buildings.

The school has had a bumpy couple years. Former CEO Maurice Thomas was ousted in 2021 amid allegations he had violated the school's code of conduct. The school has uprooted high school students twice in the last two school years in search of the right building, and enrollment has dropped.

More: Here's what charter schools are and how they work in Wisconsin

Milwaukee Excellence looks to make third move in three years

Milwaukee Excellence had been growing consistently since its beginning in 2016 serving sixth-graders. The school added a grade level each year, finally adding 12th grade this past fall.

In 2021, school leaders said they had outgrown their first building and asked MPS for another space for about 300 high school students.

For the 2021-22 school year, MPS Superintendent Keith Posley rushed to get Milwaukee Excellence a lease to use the third floor of Andrew S. Douglas, a MPS middle school where MPS students continued using the other floors.

Going into this school year, Milwaukee Excellence secured a four-year lease with MPS for the vacant Happy Hill campus, where it had its own space for its high school students.

But enrollment stalled this school year, dropping from 591 students to 544, despite the addition of 12th-graders, according to state data.

The school is expecting to have just 400-500 students next school year in all its grades, six through 12, Lynk said.

Lynk, who didn't respond to an interview request, said in an email to the Journal Sentinel that moving the high school students back with the other students will allow for more program options.

"This also allows Milwaukee Excellence to provide additional instruction in the form of academic tutoring and a wider array of after-school extracurriculars, while addressing concerns from families about the far west side location of our high school in 2022-2023," Lynk wrote.

Milwaukee Excellence will save money on lease change, if approved

Under Milwaukee Excellence's current lease for the high school building, the school had to pay about $318,000 this school year and was set to pay about $325,000 next school year.

While the school is asking to terminate that lease, it has agreed with administrators to pay more for its original building as students will use more of the building. If approved by the school board, the school will pay about $387,000 for the building next school year, up about $99,000 from what it had previously planned to pay for less space.

According to the most recent lease, the school was using only about 40,000 square feet of its original building. It is asking to amend the lease to include about 53,000 square feet. Lynk said the school will open an unused wing that has at least 12 classrooms.

Milwaukee Excellence's lease for the high school was supposed to extend into 2026 but it allowed for either party to terminate it with 60 days notice before July 1 each year. Milwaukee Excellence made the request in March, according to school board materials.

Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @RoryLinnane. 

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Excellence charter school to close Happy Hill high school