A school for the ages

The last time the Port Washington-Saukville School District began building a new school was in 1965, so it was with some fanfare that school and village officials, teachers, students and parents broke ground for a new Saukville Elementary School last week.

“Today is a big day, I would say a historic day,” Supt. Michael McMahon said while standing on the site of the school at Orchard Lane and Bucktrout Street on Saukville’s west side during a May 15 ceremony.

“Today marks the first time in more than 60 years that our district will put shovels in the ground for a brand new building,” he said. “To put that in perspective, Lyndon Johnson was president the last time we built a brand new school. Students, the last time we built a new school, iPads, iPhones and personal computers didn’t exist. YouTube didn’t even exist.”

The $45.8 million, 91,000-square-foot school is part of a $59.4 million school improvement referendum approved by voters last year. That approval, McMahon said, reflects the community’s commitment to its children and public education.

“Events like this do not happen often, and they certainly don’t happen without a community that believes deeply in its children, its teachers and its schools,” he said. “This milestone reminds us of the profound value of public education. Our public schools are the heart of our community. They are the gathering places and spaces where every single child, no matter their background, is given the tools to build a bright future.”

The new Saukville Elementary School will replace the current one on Mill Street, which, built in 1955, is the district’s second oldest school. Although it underwent significant renovation in the 1980s, the current school is showing its age and has been plagued by its open-concept design, which teachers and school officials say compromises learning in a modern era of education and complicates security in an age when keeping students and teachers safe is a paramount concern.

“Our current open concept building has created challenges with distractions and safety, and this new school will give students the secure, focused learning environment they all deserve,” Shay Morton, an alumna of Saukville Elementary School and teacher there today, said during the groundbreaking ceremony. “It will provide spaces where they can learn, grow, collaborate and truly thrive.

“This building is more than just a new school. It’s an investment in our students and our staff in this community for generations to come.”

Saukville Elementary School student Braelyn Husting said, “I can’t wait for myself and other students to enjoy our new school. We will be very happy to have a better school to learn and grow in.”

Not only will the modern school with state-of-the-art features be an improvement over the current facility, but its location on 10 acres that was in the Town of Saukville when it was purchased by the district for $552,000 last year will set it apart from other schools. The land has since been annexed into the village and has a new address of 309 Orchard La.

The school will be flanked to the east by a residential area, and to the west is a 90-acre nature conservancy owned by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. The building will sit on a small rise on the property and has been designed to maximize the sweeping views of the nature area, which remains in the town.

The building will appear as a long, slightly curved one-story structure from the front, but the west-facing back of the building, accented by abundant windows, will have an exposed lower level.

Describing it last year to the Village of Saukville Plan Commission, Mike McGraw, a partner and director of construction administration for Groth Design Group, the architectural firm hired by the district, said the school will have a “two-story look from the back” with a “full exposure of windows looking out to the conservancy.”

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

The north end of the building, where a full-sized gym and cafeteria will be located, has been designed with community use in mind and can be secured from the remainder of the school. The area will also include what the district is calling a community classroom.

“This essentially will be a space the community can rent out, maybe for something like the village’s winter farmers market,” McMahon said earlier this year.

It will also be used for before and after-school child care.

“Right now we’re using elementary school gyms for before and after-school care, and those sometimes aren’t the ideal spaces for that,” he said.

Classrooms, which will be grouped primarily in the south end of the building, will be organized in grade-level pods, with three classrooms and an open shared collaborative space in each pod.

Key to the traffic plan for the school is the improvement of Orchard Lane, which is currently a gravel road, to provide primary access to the school from Hillcrest Road to the north. Orchard Lane will remain in the town but the district will pay to improve the road and create a pedestrian and bike path along it.

The school will also be accessible from Bucktrout Street, but the Orchard Lane project is intended to reduce school traffic on the residential street.

The school is to be completed in summer 2027.

And school officials have reason to hope that when it is finished, the project will be under budget and remaining money can be added to the $13.6 million in referendum funding earmarked for maintenance projects at the district’s other schools. Although little more than site preparation has been done, bids for the Saukville Elementary School project have come in under budget, school officials said.

The maintenance projects, McMahon said, are in keeping with the district’s commitment to caring for and getting the most out of their buildings.

“Over the last 75 years, our custodians, maintenance staff, teachers, students and community have been responsible stewards of school and taxpayer investment,” he said. “Through ongoing care and maintenance and pride in our facilities, our buildings have been well-loved, well-maintained and thoughtfully cared for.”

A new school, however, which in the Port Washington-Saukville School District is built only about once every half-century, is a completely different level of investment in the district’s future, McMahon said during the May 15 groundbreaking.

“So today, I sincerely want to thank our community for its continued support of public education and for its investment in future generations of students, who in just 476 days from today will walk through the main entrance to the new Saukville Elementary School,” he said.