Rocket Academy to start at the high school

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

A temporary home has been found for the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District’s newly formed charter school, the Rocket Academy, slated to open this fall.

Supt. Chad Brakke and Rocket Academy Director David Friend had sought a building with lab and office space and had at least one seemingly viable option fall through, so they had to go with their fallback plan.

“The school will be opening at the high school,” Friends said.

“Even if someone would gift us something at this point, we’d probably not have the time needed to properly open anywhere else.”

The academy may not be at Cedar Grove-Belgium High School for long.

“That’s not to say that we’ll finish the year though. The potential exists for us to move during the year if the opportunity presents itself,” Friend said.

The academy is focused on technical education with the goal of filling holes in the employment market and the training required for those jobs.

Programming will focus on computer numerical controlled machining, welding, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and maintenance technician skills.

Students graduating from the academy would have a Lakeshore Technical College certificate, apprenticeship experience and a work ethic proficiency certificate. Some would even earn technical diplomas.

The school is open to juniors and seniors from any district, not just Cedar Grove-Belgium.

Support for the academy was never an issue.

A meeting in September that area industry leaders were invited to drew more than 30 people who are behind the school’s concept.

A parent meeting in November drew about a dozen families who are interested in their children enrolling.

Where to put the students has been a question from the beginning.

While the academy received an $800,000 noncompetitive federal grant that allowed it to hire a director, it did not get a competitive Workforce Innovation Grant for about $2 million in two rounds of awards.

The $800,000 may not be used to secure a facility, so the academy has been  looking for one or more places to house its programs. A building would need to be at least 10,000 square feet and ideally have offices and a workspace.

The building has to be within the school district boundaries if it is to be run through the Cedar Grove-Belgium District, which includes the villages of Cedar Grove and Belgium and the towns of Holland and Belgium.

The academy has found locations in the district, but it either doesn’t have the money to rent them or they won’t be ready by fall.

A new location has been identified but may not be revealed per the owner’s request, Friend said.

“We’d need a very successful capital campaign and/or huge enrollment numbers to be able to seriously have further conversations about any of the potential buildings or sites,” he said. “One of the board’s pressing projects is the capital campaign.”

Students may sign up for the school from Feb. 7 through April.

The idea for the school developed after Brakke joined the district in fall 2020. He talked to educators and industry leaders and heard the need for workers in the trades.

When the district started examining its facilities in preparation for a referendum, Brakke said he wanted to “reimagine” the technical education space.

Brakke had been principal of Saukville Elementary School, and a Port Washington High School technical education teacher told him Charter Steel had been asking for a welding academy to train its employees.

Brakke thought that was a good idea, and he contacted Lakeshore Technical College about offering high school students college credit.

Brakke talked to other industry professionals and developed a plan to create a charter school that would teach teens the trades and feed the need for employees in those fields while also serving as a regional training center for companies from Sheboygan to Milwaukee.

A board of governance — essentially the school board for the academy — was formed from a group of supporters.

Mike Dietrich, vice president of ATS-LAB Midwest, which provides science and technical education materials, is the board president. The vice president is Jonathan Feld, vice president of enrollment management for Lakeland University.

The Board of Governance’s next meeting is at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Belgium Village Hall, 104 Peter Thein Ave.