WEST ALLIS, WI — The last day of class Thursday at Lincoln Intermediate School in West Allis was nothing short of bittersweet.
“[It’s] sad,” Elaina Tobias said.
“I don’t want to go to a new school,” she continued.
Tobias just finished her first year at Lincoln Intermediate, and it’s also her last. She and the other 265 students who currently attend the school will not be allowed to return in the fall. Instead, they’ll have to enroll somewhere else.
“I’m kind of nervous,” Tobias said.
“It’s not easy to make friends places for me,” she continued.
Tobias may be nervous, but others in the neighborhood, like Mary Priewe, are annoyed. Not only has Priewe spent time volunteering at Lincoln through her Heritage Assisted Living community, but her granddaughter attends the school most Lincoln students will transfer to in the fall.
“I just think that the school, Frank Lloyd Wright is going to be overcrowded,” Priewe said.
“Education for the kids is so important, and it’s rotten that they’re closing that school,” she continued.
In a statement, the West Allis-West Milwaukee school district confirmed:
Current Lincoln 6th and 7th graders may attend Frank Lloyd Wright Intermediate school in the fall OR their neighborhood school. All students have made their selection. FLW hosted an Open House for students and an orientation program will be held in August.
“They’re closing all these schools in West Allis,” Priewe said.
“Where are they putting the kids? The kids are being left out in the dark,” she continued.
According to the district, the school closing is in response to district-wide fiscal concerns and overall declining enrollment within the district as well. All Lincoln intermediate staff, teachers, and administrators have been placed in other district schools, and the school building will now be used for district administration purposes.
