PW-S panel gets first look at plans for new school

A Port Washington-Saukville School Board committee got its first look Monday at a preliminary site plan for a new $45.8 million Saukville Elementary School that will be flanked to the east by a residential area on the west side of the Village of Saukville and a nature conservancy in the Town of Saukville to the west. 

The long, 91,000-square-foot building, which has a subtle curve and matches the shape of the five-sided, 10 acre parcel at 2803 Orchard La., will appear as a one-story school from the front but have an exposed lower level on the west side of the building 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, Nathan Schieve, education studio director for Groth Design Group, the architectural firm designing the school, told the Finance and Human Resources Committee.

“We go from a two-story building on the back side to a single story building in front,” he said. 

The site plan, developed in conjunction with Kapur, a consulting engineering firm, envisions Orchard Lane, which extends from Hillcrest Road south to the school property, serving as the primary access road. Traffic and pedestrians would also be able to access the school from Bucktrout Street, a residential road extending west to the school property. 

Orchard Lane is a Town of Saukville road that would need to be paved and perhaps further improved to serve the school. Port Washington-Saukville School Supt. Michael McMahon said the district is in discussions with the town about using the road, although unlike the school property, the district is not seeking to annex Orchard Lane into the village. 

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. 

“Kapur is not suggesting the path run under the transmission towers,” Schieve said.

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, he said. 

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 far north end of the property that would also serve as a hard-surface play area for games like four square and hopscotch.

Parents would access the property via a long drive extending from the intersection of Orchard Land and Bucktrout Street that would loop around a parking lot in the front of the school.

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 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 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.” 

The academic space in the school will have pods arranged by grade level consisting of three individual classrooms with collaborative spaces, special education facilities and storage.

Early childhood through first-grade classrooms will be on the first floor of the building to facilitate easy access for the school’s youngest students while second through fourth-grade classrooms will be on the lower level, Schieve said. 

The school grounds include a small wetlands area on the southwest side of the property and a bioretention area has been proposed for an area south of the school.

“It’s related to stormwater, but it’s not planned to be a wet pond,” Schieve said. “It’s designed as a bioretention area, so it would have some standing water during a really, really heavy rain event, but that would dry off and largely look like a rain garden 95 to 96-plus percent of the time.”

The site plan was developed after school officials and teachers toured three new and remodeled elementary schools in the Wauwatosa School District. Those schools were chosen because the recent projects there were managed by VJS Construction Services, the Pewaukee firm hired by the district to serve as the general contractor for the Saukville Elementary School project.

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.

On Tuesday, the Saukville Village Board and Finance Committee were scheduled to consider a preannexation agreement with the School District. McMahon said the district expects to present school plans to the village’s Plan Commission on Oct. 6 and finalize an annexation agreement by the end of October.

That 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 Street 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.”