Manitowoc committee launches "Build Your Own District" exercise to address declining enrollment and aging buildings

The Finance & Facilities Committee of the Manito(w)oc School District heard an update May 1 on a community-led facilities planning process intended to align referendum spending with long-term enrollment and learning-space trends.

The update, delivered by Mike Hacker, the district's facilities and advisory committee facilitator, outlined a four-step roadmap that moves the group from defining problems to developing recommendations. Hacker said the group is now entering a participatory phase called "Build Your Own District," and the committees are targeting November to present recommendations to the full board.

Hacker told the committee the district faces three linked challenges: inadequate state funding tied to per-pupil formulas, declining enrollment and aging facilities. He said the district currently counts roughly 4,400 students and presented projections showing a drop of “a little over 900” students over the next 10 years as one scenario discussed with committee members.

Committee sessions use small-group exercises and visual surveys to gather community input, Hacker said, including a pegboard that maps where participants live and which schools they are affiliated with. The sessions have asked participants to identify district strengths, challenges and a vision for a “thriving district,” and to react to images of contemporary school design so the group develops a shared vocabulary about facility priorities.

Hacker described takeaways from early sessions: community and staff responses aligned on strengths such as staff quality and arts programs, and on challenges including aging buildings and staffing. He said the facilitator team will run multiple exercises this summer and present draft recommendations in September–October before the November board update.

Committee members asked about local development and potential housing projects that might affect enrollment. During the meeting, a committee speaker reported meeting with the city planner and noted larger residential projects under discussion, including a planned apartment project connected to an EPA-funded mural-area redevelopment; specifics on projected pupil counts from those projects were not provided to the committee.

Hacker cautioned participants that the exercise could surface options ranging from reconfiguration of grades to school consolidations, and that the goal is to develop options (the facilitator expects dozens) before attaching school names to plans to reduce emotional resistance during deliberations.

The committee was also shown a district classroom "takeoff" inventory and by-building metrics. Hacker said the inventory counts a large number of rooms designated as classrooms across elementary and middle schools and said that classroom-per-student ratios in some buildings are well above contemporary targets, which supports evaluating smaller configurations or consolidations. He emphasized that classroom counts and utilization figures are an early part of the diagnostic work rather than final recommendations.

Committee members and staff agreed on the need for transparency and recommended limiting premature public leaks so the community deliberations remain productive. The facilitator said additional sessions this summer will flesh out concrete configuration options and trade-offs for board consideration in the fall.

The committee did not take formal action on building closures or reassignments at the meeting; the process remains in the discussion and option-development phase.