‘Destination school’ passes a test

Plans for a new $45.8 million Saukville Elementary School on the west side of the village that would be flanked on the east by a residential area and a nature conservancy in the Town of Saukville on the west received conceptual approval last week from the Village of Saukville Plan Commission.

Commission members didn’t have much to say about the plans but voted unanimously to approve the concept of a 91,000-square-foot school built on 10 acres at 2803 Orchard La. — land that is currently in the town but would be annexed into the village.

The building will appear as a one-story school from the front, east-facing side but have an exposed lower level on most of the west side that will provide views from classrooms of the largely undeveloped remainder of the school grounds and the 90-acre nature area surrounding it on three sides.

The school will have a “two-story look from the back” with a “full exposure of windows looking out to the conservancy,” Mike McGraw, a partner and director of construction administration for Groth Design Group, the architectural firm designing the school, told the Plan Commission.

“The views are going to be spectacular,” he said. 

Traffic flow appears to be the primary concern for the village, which wants to minimize the impact of an increased number of vehicles in the area on residential streets near the school.

To address that, the site plan for the school property, developed in conjunction with the engineering firm Kapur, calls for primary access to the school to be provided by an improved Orchard Lane, which runs from Hillcrest Road south to the school property.

Orchard Lane, which is a gravel town road, would remain in the town but be improved by the district and serve as a school-specific drive, officials said. 

Traffic would also be able to access the school from Bucktrout Street, a residential village road extending west to the school property. 

Pedestrian access to the school would be provided by an extension of the sidewalk on the south side of Bucktrout Street as well as a pedestrian and bike path along Orchard Lane, although plans for the path are complicated by power line transmission towers, which go from the west to the east side of the road. 

Solutions include routing Orchard Lane farther to the east or negotiating with a property owner in order to move the pedestrian and bike path to the west, Nathan Schieve, education studio director for Groth Design Group, told a Port Washington-Saukville School Board committee last month.  

While traffic congestion during drop-off and pickup times is a problem at the current Saukville Elementary School on Mill Street, the plan for the new school seeks to avoid that with dedicated bus access on the north end of the property.

Parents would access the property via a long drive extending from the intersection of Orchard Lane and Bucktrout Street that would loop around a parking lot in front of the school and is designed to keep traffic off nearby residential streets.

“The idea is that the main bus traffic would come in and out on Orchard,” McGraw said, adding that the pickup and drop-off area is designed to keep traffic on the school property.

“We’re doing everything in our power to keep it (traffic) out of the neighborhood,” he said.

Plan Commission member Pete Janus questioned the paved area created by the bus drop-off zone.

“Why such a large asphalt area?” he asked.

School Supt. Michael McMahon said the dual-purpose area would provide dedicated bus access to the school at drop-off and pickup times and serve the rest of the time as a hardscape playground for activities such as basketball and four-square.

McGraw noted there is ample green space west of the bus drop-off.

The building, in addition to being designed for academic use, features a layout intended to encourage community use of the school and grounds outside of the school day.

The cafeteria, kitchen and gym — facilities that could be used by outside groups — will be in the north end of the building, while classrooms and offices that are not intended for community use will be isolated in the central and southern end of the facility. 

“Security was very much a hot topic in our conversations,” McGraw said. “We’re looking to use the north side (of the school) as our public space — a gym use, community use type area — and be able to secure the rest of the building.”

The gym will feature a regulation-size basketball court with telescoping, motorized bleachers so it can be used by club, high school and adult teams.

Playgrounds have also been designed with community use in mind. When asked last month by School Board member Kierstin Cira if a playground on the north side of the building would better serve the needs of the school if it were in the back of the building closer to classrooms, Schieve said, “One thing we were cautious about as a design team was placing a playground in a location that very much preferenced school use and not community use.

“We wanted to place playgrounds in areas where they could be dual purpose.”

McMahon said the school is being designed to meet not just the needs of the School District.

“We truly see this as a community space,” he said. “We continually hear from groups like Port Hoops and others about the need for gym space, and we believe the new Saukville Elementary School can help meet those needs.” 

Saukville Elementary School has a current enrollment of about 300 students. The new school is designed to accommodate a maximum of 425 students.

The new school would feature pods of three classrooms per grade level, with “breakout spaces” that can be used for collaborative activities or converted into classrooms to accommodate a fourth section of each grade level, McMahon said.

“If you get to 425 (students), what then?” Janus asked.

Although the School District predicts that residential development in Saukville and Port Washington will result in a moderate increase in enrollment, it has for years been grappling with declining enrollment.

McMahon noted that while the new school will be designed to accommodate a minimum of three sections of each grade level, there are currently only two classes of some grades at Saukville Elementary School. Exceeding the capacity of the new school is not a problem the district anticipates in the foreseeable future.

A key next step is the annexation of the school property, which the village is scheduled to consider next month. An agreement between the village and School District governing the land transfer deals in large part with traffic flow and the improvement of Orchard Lane.

“Obviously there’s going to be more discussion from the standpoint of traffic,” Village Administrator Dawn Wagner said.

The School District purchased the 10 acres for the school from the Elda V. Bunk estate in July for $552,000. The land was part of a larger parcel, and the 90 acres of primarily farmland that was divided from it were purchased by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District for conservation purposes.

Annexation approval next month would keep the project on track for a groundbreaking in spring 2026 and completion of the school in summer 2027.

A new Saukville Elementary School was the focus of a $59.4 million referendum approved by voters in April, which also provides funding for maintenance projects at the district’s other four schools.

The replacement of the current school at 333 N. Mill St. is a priority for the district because of its age, maintenance needs, design and location in a floodplain on a parcel that includes wetlands.

The school was built in 1955 and last underwent a major remodeling in 1989.Beyond its age, its space limitations and open concept create a noisy, distracting environment that is being blamed for compromising academic achievement and an exodus of students from the district through open enrollment. 

The new school, McMahon said, will be a “gem” for the district and Village of Saukville.

“I think this is a really exciting opportunity for Saukville that will showcase the community,” he said. “I would say it will be a destination elementary school, and with open enrollment it will keep students in our district and attract others from outside of it.”