A legal memorandum says that Tosa schools cannot separate territory from MPS

A recently released legal opinion said it is not possible under current state law for the Wauwatosa School District to partially merge with Milwaukee Public Schools.

On Aug. 27, the Wauwatosa School Board voted in a quick special meeting to release the opinion of the law firm Buelow Vetter Buikema Olson & Vliet on a proposal by the Wauwatosa School District to separate territory from Milwaukee Public Schools and unite that territory with itself.

Here’s what you need to know about the legal opinion.

What did the legal opinion say?

In a memo, the company said MPS is the only class-one urban school district in Wisconsin and as such is not subject to the general school district reorganization provisions for most school districts.

In the case of state statutes governing school districts in first-class cities, there is no mechanism to allow for the reorganization of those districts. Instead, those statutes provide that the boundaries of those districts conform to the municipal boundaries of the first-class city. In this case, MPS conforms to the municipal boundaries of Milwaukee.

The only way MPS territory separation could occur would be if the state Legislature changed the law or if the Milwaukee Common Council changed the city boundaries.

How did the idea come about?

The idea came up during a Wauwatosa School Board public retreat in February. Board members were discussing ideas on how to increase resident enrollment while maintaining all of the district’s elementary schools, according to a message posted on the Wauwatosa School District website.

One of those ideas was to explore what requirements would need to be met to incorporate neighborhoods adjacent to Wauwatosa into the boundaries of the Wauwatosa School District. The board sought legal advice on this idea.

The law firm shared its views with the board on Aug. 21. The board has not had any further discussions on the matter since the February retreat.

At the Aug. 26 council meeting, council member Michael Meier referenced the legal opinion and asked that the council make it public before the November referendum vote. Meier said there had been “rumors over the years” about that proposal.

“So, we have a capital referendum to keep nine elementary schools while someone on the board wants to know — for some reason, we don’t know because there’s no transparency here — why we would want to bring part of MPS to Wauwatosa,” Meier said.

Because the opinion was protected by attorney-client privilege, the board voted at a special meeting Tuesday on whether to make it public.

Did MPS know about the proposal?

Both during and after a Milwaukee Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday, Milwaukee Public Schools Interim Superintendent Eduardo Galvan said the Wauwatosa School District had not reached out to MPS and that MPS had not spoken to the Wauwatosa School District about the matter.

Asked after the meeting if he would be open to the idea, Galvan told reporters he could not comment and did not know what the Wauwatosa School District had said about it.

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.

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A legal memorandum says that Tosa schools cannot separate territory from MPS

ByS. Jacob

What did the legal opinion say?

How did the idea come about?

Did MPS know about the proposal?

By S. Jacob

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