Nature school in county park growing fast

ee Press staff

Sugar Maple Nature School, the outdoor nature school that uses Hawthorne Hills County Park as its outdoor classroom, is already almost full for next fall, even after expanding its enrollment by another 20 students.

After conducting its annual enrollment lottery earlier this month, only one second-grade seat remained available among its enrollment of 124, Director of Education Cindy Raimer said.

That enrollment is up from 104 this past school year because the kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school is adding a seventh grade this next year.

Plans call for eventually expanding it to a maximum of 180 students, Raimer said.

Sugar Maple Nature School is a tuition-free, public K-7th grade charter school authorized by the Northern Ozaukee School District.

It was originally formed as Riveredge Outdoor Learning Elementary School and held classes outdoors at Riveredge Nature Center.

It moved to Hawthorne Hills and changed its name last year as both the school and nature center outgrew the facilities there.

Last year, the school received a $1 million Wisconsin Charter School Program grant to fund the operational expenses for the creation of sixth, seventh and eighth- grade classes.

In April, Raimer said the school is gearing up for a fundraising push to finance the expansion of the school’s new facilities for the new classes.

The school has exclusive access to five acres of the park but also can use the 57-acre Hawthorne Hills Park and 67-acre Shady Lane Natural Area as an outdoor classroom and learning lab, including the park’s nearby pond and the Milwaukee River.

The school, which conducts classes outdoors in all kinds of weather, consists of a 70-by-120-foot one-story building containing eight classrooms, one of which is used for offices for an administrator, nurse, counselor and speech pathologist.

The school makes annual payments to Ozaukee County totaling $375,666 through 2029.

To accommodate the school at the Ozaukee County-owned park located just north of Hawthorne Hills Golf Course, the county has made a number of improvements including road grading, snow removal, improved electrical service and a new well with heated pump house. The school can also share in the use of a nearby maintenance building, bathrooms and showers and parking lot and, in case of severe weather, offices and other rooms.

School and county officials recently had a disagreement over about $63,000 in improvements.

But officials with both organizations said earlier this month that those differences have been ironed out or nearly so.

That includes amending the agreement between the school and county that the school will pay for the testing of the well that serves the school.

The well that supplies water to the school is still waiting for testing required by the state Department of Natural Resources, which has more stringent standards for schools than the county has to provide for its wells.

The DNR testing can cost up to $2,750, according to a memo to the county Natural Resources Committee.