District buys school site for $552,000

The Port Washington-Saukville School District paid $552,000 last week for a new Saukville Elementary School site — 10 acres of farmland described as a diamond in the rough.

The land at 2803 Orchard La., which abuts Bucktrout Street on the Village of Saukville’s west side, was purchased from the Elda V. Bunk estate on July 1. The property includes a house.

“Obviously we didn’t want a house, but we ended up with one,” Supt. Michael McMahon said. “It hasn’t been lived in for a while, and it smells like it.”

He said the house could be used as an on-site office for the company managing construction of the school, “but ultimately it will have to come down.”

The district was fortunate, McMahon said, to find a site that meets all its essential criteria — a 10 to 15-acre parcel in the village that, like the district’s other school sites, will be home to a neighborhood school that children can walk and bike to safely.

“More students will be able to walk to this Saukville Elementary School than the current Saukville Elementary School,” McMahon said, referring to the 70-year-old school at 333 N. Mill St.

The land, which is currently in the Town of Saukville, is in the process of being annexed into the village. It abuts a residential area of the village and water and sewer services are at its doorstep, which means the district will avoid the cost of having to extend those utilities over a significant distance.

Such a school site wasn’t easy to find, McMahon said.

“We were looking for a 10 to 15-acre site that wasn’t out in the middle of nowhere and we were running out of options,” he said.

The 10 acres the district purchased was part of a 100-acre parcel listed for more than $1 million when McMahon approached the seller with the idea of dividing 10 acres for a school site.

As an added bonus, most or all of the other 90 acres is to be preserved through a Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District conservation easement, meaning that land to the west of the school will remain undeveloped, McMahon said.

The $552,000 price of the land was slightly lower than the $597,400 that the seller said he would have listed the property for and is well within the district’s $1.2 million land acquisition budget.

The budget also includes money for related expenses and may be used to improve Orchard Lane to provide access from West Hillcrest Road to the school, McMahon said. The district is in early discussions with the Town of Saukville about turning Orchard Lane, which is unpaved, into an improved town road or private School District drive, he said.

Preliminary plans for the $45.8 million school by Groth Design Group of Cedarburg show a modern building set back on the west end of the property overlooking the conservation area. It would be served by a long, looping drive designed to prevent traffic backups on nearby streets.

More complete plans could be presented to the School Board later this year, McMahon said.

Construction of the school is to begin in spring 2026 and be completed in time for the beginning of the 2027-28 school year.

Demolition of the current school is slated to begin in summer 2027 and be completed in the fall of that year.

A new Saukville Elementary School was the focus of a $59.4 million referendum approved by voters in April that also provides funding for major maintenance projects at the district’s other schools. Those projects are scheduled to begin in spring 2026 and be completed in fall of that year.

The replacement of Saukville Elementary School 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, but beyond its age, its space limitations and open concept create a noisy, distracting environment that is being blamed for compromising the academic achievement of students, especially those who struggle to learn, as well as the school’s performance on key indicators such as the state report card issued by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for all schools that receive public funding.

The district will borrow the $59.4 million for the new school and maintenance projects over two years — roughly $49 million this year and $10 million next year — to extend the pay-back period to 21 years and deliver on a promise to keep the tax impact of the borrowing to 26 cents per $1,000 of equalized valuation. That will cost the owner of a $300,000 home an additional $78 in school taxes annually.

The district has locked in an interest rate of 4.59% on the $49 million it is borrowing this year, which is lower than the estimated 4.75% rate, McMahon said.