WAUKESHA, Wis. — Waukesha parents are fighting to save Lowell Elementary School as the district considers closing it along with two other schools to address declining enrollment and budget deficits. The Waukesha School District has been weighing school closures for months, and the plan that is now considered to be the frontrunner in the options is "Option E," which would, among other things, “…close or repurpose Lowell, Hawthorne and Whittier elementary schools.”
Parents say Lowell Elementary serves a large number of special education students. The Lowell Parent Teacher Organization president, Angela Stapleton, says approximately one in three students receives special education services. Many families specifically chose the school for its Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) program and specialized resources.
"We don't know what to do. Our kids are worried, our kids are scared. They don't know where they are going to go next year," said Kristen Haessly from the Lowell Elementary PTO.
Jeremy Zimdars’ daughter Annabelle was sent to Lowell when she was 3 years old for the DHH program. She couldn't speak when she started, and she wears specially implanted hearing devices that teachers are trained to work with.
Watch: Waukesha parents fight to save Lowell Elementary as district considers closure
"My daughter is in 2nd grade, and she is deaf and hard of hearing," Zimdars said.
After about a year in the program, Zimdars said his daughter's speech development took off.
"It took about a year, and suddenly her speech exploded," Zimdars said.
Jennifer Klemm also enrolled her child at Lowell when he was 3 years old, calling the experience life-changing.
"Probably without Lowell and their speech program, he would probably struggle," Klemm said.
Parents argue that Lowell's specialized infrastructure would be expensive to replicate elsewhere. The school recently installed a $200,000 accessible playground and updated its gymnasium with Bluetooth technology to assist deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
"We have a brand new gym that was recently equipped with Bluetooth technology to assist with kids who are deaf and hard of hearing. We also have a recently redone library," Haessly said.
Stapleton questioned the cost savings of closing the school.
"If the overall goal is to save money by closing our school, we would have to put millions of dollars into another school to make it equal," Stapleton said.
Zimdars worries about his daughter's continued progress if she's forced to change schools.
"She would not have the same support and same amenities available. I'm afraid she would go backwards," Zimdars said.
The school board will discuss the closures at its next meeting on Wednesday, November 12. There is a petition asking for Lowell to be saved. You can view it here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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