Sharing school buildings

An article in this morning’s Journal Sentinel describes several buildings that are shared by different schools.

This represents a huge cultural shift for MPS. Schools were always synonymous with their buildings at MPS. In fact, the school’s union representative is called the “building” representative, not the school representative.

By sharing buildings, schools can better respond to a variety of student needs. They can grow, and they can shrink. Extra space can serve as incubators for new schools.

But in the past MPS sharing efforts were notably unsuccessful. The dominant school often made life miserable for the tenant schools. The difference today is budgets. As school control over budgets has grown, schools have become more concerned about sources of revenue. If other schools can help share the building expenses than there is more money for education, a strong motivator for cooperation..