Five Milwaukee comprehensive high schools have some sort of entrance requirement, and thus, naturally, have higher scores on the state test, Wisconsin Knowledge Concepts Examination (WKCE). Those schools are King, Reagan, Riverside, Milwaukee HS of the Arts, and Milwaukee School of Languages.
A really successful school does not rely on sorting students but takes the students it is given and provides them with the best education possible.
Until recently, Hamilton High School called itself “the best of the rest” having the highest scores on the WKCE of the high schools not screening its incoming students. This year Bay View High School passed Hamilton on the WKCE. Hamilton did not slip so much as Bay View moved ahead being the only MPS high school to show measurable gains on the WKCE.
A merger of Fritsche Middle School with Bay View High School has been controversial. Two years ago the merger began with the Bay View ninth graders entering the Fritsche building instead of going directly to Bay View. This year all students moved into the Bay View building setting up a merger, a grade 6-12 school known as Bay View Middle and High School.
Many parents and teachers at Fritsche disapproved of the merger. They believe the merger has contributed to the decline in the middle school program. Fewer sixth graders entered the middle school program and few eighth graders at Fritsche picked Bay View has their high school option.
Just how good or bad Bay View High School may be is terribly complex. For middle class families in the neighborhood, Bay View High School was seen as a dumping ground of unwanted students. But for many blacks in the central city, Bay View was the shinning high school on the hill offering programs and academic standards not seen in many central city high schools.
Bay View Middle and High School is nowhere near the quality we want it to be. The WKCE test scores are unacceptably too low. Large numbers of neighborhood parents are still shying away from sending their children to this program.
But there are glimmers of hope. Sixth grade enrollment may be stabilizing with a hundred new sixth graders registered for next school year. A much higher percentage of eighth graders are staying right there in the Bay View building for their high school education. Many of the incoming freshmen come from Roosevelt and Lincoln School of the Arts because of Bay View’s band and orchestra programs. Although still small in numbers, more neighborhood children are picking Bay View as the school to attend. And at least test scores are headed in the right direction.
While neighboring businesses used to complain of unruly students causing trouble in the area, most of those complaints have greatly decreased as the Bay View school administration took a more active role in the neighborhood.
Much of the credit goes to the staff and the two principals: middle school principal, Karen Nastulski, and high school principal, Robin Kitzrow. I want to single out Ms. Kitzrow because she is retiring at the end of this school year, and made a major positive impact at Bay View even before the merger.
School reform usually means one step back before taking two steps ahead. I warned Fritsche staff members over two years ago that the first year would be difficult because it almost always is. That first year was tough, but I believe Bay View Middle and High School is headed in the right direction.
