MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — For more than 30 years, the Bruce-Guadalupe Community School has served children from six weeks to eighth grade through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the halls of the United Community Center.
“We have been here for 53 years, the school has been with us since 1991,” said Laura Gutierrez, CEO, United Community Center. “We did not have plans to expand the school. But, given what we've seen from our students, the regression that COVID had, the toll COVID had on our students, we knew we needed to act now. We could wait three years, but that would not be fair for our students.”
That need to support is particularly at the top of mind of Bruce-Guadalupe’s faculty, like Lucinda Cardenas.
A second-grade teacher and former student, Lucinda attended the school as a child before coming back to join its staff eight years ago.
“The reason that I decided to come back was, one, I wanted to give back to my community, the school that built me up. Two, I was excited to see how the building was growing, the number of students was growing. How can I give back to my community? I was excited to see the changes from when I was a kid and now as a teacher,” said Cardenas.
Some of those changes include the recent announcement adding a third-floor expansion at its 9th and Mineral campus.
The Raise the Roof for Kids campaign hopes to garner $6 million to fund an 11,000-square-foot addition to its campus, with the hope of reducing class sizes and offering even more services for its students and families.
“It makes a big difference, that lower class size. I'm able to pay attention more to the students, meet their needs a lot better because it's a smaller class size so I can meet in smaller groups. 28 students, 8 seems like ‘oh, it's just eight students.’ It's a big difference,” said Cardenas.
“For us, it is instrumental that any opportunity we have to educate our children that they are in some type of an educational program, whether academic, whether extracurricular activities, fitness, whatever it is that they need so that they are in a safe environment while their parents are working,” said Gutierrez.
For more information on how you can get involved, click here.
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