Briefing:  History of Efforts to Address High School Facility Needs
     The school district began a formal study of all school facilities needs over a decade ago. The Board of Education developed and adopted a four-stage plan. Phases one and two have been completed. The high schools are by far the largest and most complex part of the long term facilities plan and constitute "phase three."
     Six years ago, a community-based facilities study team, focusing just on the high schools, did extensive analysis. After months of work, its members made a unanimous recommendation that the best use of funds was to build two new high schools on the existing sites, move students into them, then raze the existing structures. The School Board then embarked upon three years of due diligence, going back over the findings and conclusions of that team.
     The School Board arrived at the same majority conclusion. Some in the community were skeptical that such a plan could pass in a referendum. A poll was commissioned two years ago to measure public sentiment of Elmbrook School District likely voters. Those poll findings convinced the School Board that such a plan would fail if taken to referendum. Work began on a different approach.
     An analysis of poll findings showed that many residents believed portions of the two high schools still had useful life and should be renovated to modern standards, then added onto in order to gain the additional space believed needed. 
    Such a plan was developed and fine-tuned based on the input gained at forty focus group meetings in the fall to mid-winter of 2006. The meetings were held at locations around the District and were an unprecedented effort by the Elmbrook Schools to reach out to the community and engage both proponents and opponents in discussions to gain their feedback.
    In addition to the outreach meetings, the district provided over a hundred public and parent tours of the two buildings at different times of the day and evening, and on both weekdays and weekends.
    The referendum of April 2007 failed 60%-to-40%. The High School Facilities Next Steps Steering Team (HSST) is now YOUR OPPORTUNITY to influence what potential solutions to high school facility needs are brought to the Board of Education for consideration toward a future referendum.