EDITORIAL: A small school with a huge classroom

It would not be wrong to say the story of the Sugar Maple Outdoor School is sweet, but a better word would be refreshing. Like a crisp breeze blowing over a winter landscape, the success of this little school stands out in the murky atmosphere of K-12 education in Wisconsin.

Education in this state is so fraught with controversy and angst over the Legislature’s failure to adequately fund public schools while being increasingly generous to private voucher schools, the pressure on local taxpayers to fund the operating and capital costs of their schools and dissatisfaction with schools’ education results that it is sometimes hard to find a spark of optimism.

But that spark can be found in, of all unlikely places, a 70-by-120-foot one-story building in Hawthorne Hills County Park in the Town of Saukville, the home of Sugar Maple Outdoor School. The modest building has a few classrooms, but the school’s main classroom consists of the 57-acre park, the adjacent 67-acre Shady Lane Natural Area and the Milwaukee River.

About 120 students in kindergarten through seventh grade are learning in that mix of basic elementary education and the benefits of a stimulating outdoor learning lab where nature abounds. 

Two measures indicate they are thriving in this unconventional education environment: Parents are so impressed by the school’s performance that there is an enrollment waiting list and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is so impressed that it awarded Sugar Maple its five-star Significantly Exceeds Expectation rating, the highest achievement in the state accountability system.

Sugar Maple Nature School is a charter school operating under the aegis of the Northern Ozaukee School District of Fredonia. It owes much of its success to the good work of its education director and teachers and the guidance of NOSD, but it was set up for that success by Wisconsin’s excellent Charter School Program that allows schools to take an innovative approach to education free of some of the structure and regulation of traditional public schools but with strict standards of accountability.

Charter schools are public schools that operate under a contract with a sponsoring organization, usually a school distract, as in the Sugar Maple-NOSD arrangement. The schools get the same er-pupil state funding as other public schools. No tuition is charged and the schools are required to accept any student whose parents apply subject to capacity limits. A lottery system is used to accept students from a waiting list.

Charter schools are an element of the school choice movement, but they should not be confused with private schools that get state funding through vouchers given to parents but do not have to meet state accountability standards. Charter schools, in exchange for the flexibility allowed in their curriculums, are required to meet achievement levels enforced through state standardized testing and performance goals specified in their contracts. In addition to state per-pupil funding, which is not adequate to cover Sugar Maple’s operating costs, the school last year received a $1 million U.S. Department of Education grant awarded through the state Charter School Program. Such grants are essential to the success of charter schools, and it is fortunate, and perhaps a bit surprising, that the federal grant program remains in effect, even as other federal education grants have been canceled and President Trump has said he plans to abolish the education department.

The connection with the Fredonia-area school district is essential to Sugar Maple’s existence, but the school also benefits from its relationship with another local government entity—Ozaukee County.

The school was founded as the Riveredge Outdoor Learning Elementary School and operated at the Riveredge Nature Center near Newburg. In 2024, it moved to Hawthorne Hills County Park, where it leases five acres of parkland. The leased area accommodates the school’s facilities, but the agreement with the county comes with a significant bonus—access to the natural features of the park and the adjacent Shady Lane Natural Area. The latter is a county-owned nature preserve where diverse woodlands, spectacular springtime displays of wildflowers, some of the prettiest shoreline of the Milwaukee River and terrestrial and aquatic wildlife abide.

Sugar Maple students must surely graduate as nature lovers.

The relationship with the county was a bit rocky at first, with some disagreement over payment for county services and improvements, but the issues have been ironed out and there is now talk by school and county representatives that the school could have a permanent presence in the park. 

It should.

The Hawthorne Hills site is appropriate for more reasons than its proximity to nature. It is also the home of Ozaukee County Historical Society’s Pioneer Village and society members and the school’s teachers and parents work together on events and projects. The school’s plan to build a nature-themed playground that will be open to the public, and possibly create a community garden, will add value to the park. 

Beyond that, its presence adds another admirable dimension to a splendid Ozaukee County park system that is a leader in Wisconsin in providing public access to nature.