A year after moving its high school students to a new campus at the former Happy Hill Elementary School at 7171 W. Brown Deer Road, Milwaukee Excellence Charter School started the 2023-24 school year with all of its students back in one building.
A high-performing public charter school serving middle and high school students, Milwaukee Excellence had received permission in February 2022 from the Milwaukee Public Schools board of directors to lease the MPS owned school on the city’s far northwest side for about four years.
Back then, during the 2021-22 school year, the school’s enrollment was steadily growing, reaching a peak of 591 students, and the Brown Deer Road building offered more space to educate the growing number of high school students, who had been receiving instruction in a dedicated space at the Andrew S. Douglas Middle School, a traditional MPS school at 3620 N. 18th St. Third St.
The Brown Deer Road building offered more classrooms, a dedicated library and computer lab, college planning office, ground-floor office, green space and spaces for key electives, the school had said in a February 2022 announcement. But head counts taken at the start of the 2022-23 school year indicate the school’s enrollment had fallen to 544 students. This year, Rodney Lynk, Jr., chief executive officer of Milwaukee Excellence, said he expects enrollment to be around 400 students.
The decision to return all instruction to the school’s flagship campus at 4950 N. 24th St. – formerly Ronald McNair Elementary School – where middle and high school students have received instruction since the school’s 2016 inception, was made due to lower enrollment numbers and because having all classes and activities on one campus is better for students, families, and staff, Lynk said in an interview.
Big gains, post-pandemic drains
“If you know the history of Milwaukee Excellence: We were growing rapidly and outgrowing space we have at 4950 N. 24th St. Then COVID happened and we grew (even more) via virtual learning. When we came back (to in-school instruction) we were at about 590 students, so we sent our freshmen, sophomores and juniors to Andrew Douglas,” Lynk said. “And then from there we had to go out to Happy Hill, which was not ideal. It was super far away from our families. Our decision to consolidate back to one location was centered around our students and driven by the opportunity to maximize the work of our teacher and leadership teams.”
“Our student enrollment? We will see what level it comes back to this year, but we fit back into this building. Last year we ended the year with about 400 students, and we are expecting about 400 students this year,” Lynk said.
The goal now, he said, is to begin rebuilding the school’s enrollment, which he said has been hurt by families moving away from Milwaukee following the pandemic or choosing to enroll their students in online schools.
“There are a lot of alternative options that the educational industry has created for parents. There are a lot of other options of places to raise young, Black men,” Lynk said. “A lot of people are moving to North Carolina, Texas, and Arizona. We have seen lots of families move to other states, because they see the city as not being for them. And the reason that Milwaukee Excellence exists is to try and fight that narrative and build great citizens, particularly great Black citizens to make Milwaukee excellent again.”
Single campus synergy
In addition to the ability to maximize leadership and teaching teams, having a single campus again has helped provide better, more centralized after-school activities, like peer-to-peer tutoring, and other extra-curricular activities.
Students at Milwaukee Excellence also got the opportunity to sign up for MATC dual enrollment courses this school year, which for Milwaukee Excellence students, began on Monday, Aug. 15.
“Obviously if we’re not paying double-rent we can put that money into elevating the academic experience of students,” Lynk said.
Other programs the school is excited about this year include Leadership Links, where students can play a round of golf on the simulator at The Avenue in downtown Milwaukee with someone who is a local leader and learn about their leadership perspective.
“One of the things we care deeply about at Milwaukee Excellence is leadership development, especially youth leadership development,” Lynk said. “We had our first graduating class last spring; we are to be visiting some our graduates at their college campuses this fall.”
Those students are attending school across Wisconsin and the country at large, including Alabama State, University of Colorado-Boulder, and Tuskegee University.
In the meantime, Milwaukee Excellence has hired about eight of its graduates attending college closer to home at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee or Alverno College, as tutors.
“Instead of working in a mess hall, we said, ‘come back here and tutor and pay it forward,’” Lynk said. “We believe this will be a magical experience for our students.”
