MPS could force Carmen charter schools to move in 2026

Two campuses of the Carmen Schools of Science and Technology charter network might have to move in 2026, under a resolution proposed Tuesday by Milwaukee Public Schools board member Missy Zombor.

The South and Southeast high schools, which each share a building with a MPS-run school, would not be able to renew their leases with the school district when the current leases end after the 2025-26 school year, if the resolution is approved by the school board.

Zombor said she made the proposal because the MPS school populations in each building are growing, and the buildings have become overcrowded. She also said it doesn't work well for students in independently run charter schools to share buildings with MPS schools because of conflicting schedules, policies and goals.

Dozens of students, parents and staff from the Carmen schools donned school T-shirts and packed the front rows of the school board meeting Tuesday to make a visual statement against the proposal. A public comment period wasn't held at the organizational meeting, which was a time for assigning resolutions to committees for future meetings.

The Carmen schools are independently run charter schools, overseen by their own nonprofit board of directors. Their five Milwaukee campuses are considered public schools, and they receive tax funding through charter contracts mostly with Milwaukee Public Schools. They are not run or staffed by the school district, which runs its own array of charter schools.

More: Here's what charter schools are and how they work in Wisconsin

If Zombor's resolution is approved, it would only impact MPS' lease with Carmen, which is separate from the charter contracts that allow Carmen schools to receive public funding. The schools could continue to operate in another location, possibly in other MPS buildings.

Why would MPS force Carmen schools to move out?

The Carmen high schools in question both share buildings with growing MPS-run schools.

Carmen South High School leases space at Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes, a MPS-run charter school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade at 1712 S. 32nd St. Carmen paid MPS $265,500 this school year to use the space.

Carmen Southeast High School leases part of Pulaski High School, a MPS high school that offers an International Baccalaureate program at 2500 W. Oklahoma Ave. Carmen paid MPS $510,666 this school year for that space.

Zombor said she has heard about overcrowding from family and staff at the MPS schools. She said students at ALBA are using the auditorium balcony and cafeteria for music lessons. She said a staff member at Pulaski told her there are some teachers who don't have their own classrooms and have to use other teachers' classrooms during the other teachers' prep periods.

"They're out of room," Zombor said. "They're not only turning away students, they're scrunched into spaces that are just not adequate for the number of students."

With a capacity to serve 800 students, according to a 2023 MPS report, the ALBA building is serving over 1,000. According to state data, ALBA started this school year with 620 students and Carmen South had 399. Zombor said there are 68 students on a waitlist for ALBA.

At Pulaski, a building with a capacity listed as 1,457 students, there are over 1,600 students, state data show: 945 Pulaski students and 676 Carmen students. Zombor said the current enrollment for Pulaski is actually higher, at 1,055 students, with 39 students on a waitlist.

What would happen to the Carmen schools?

Zombor's resolution calls on MPS to look for alternative locations for the Carmen schools in other MPS buildings, but she said the district should avoid moving the charter schools into buildings that already house other MPS schools — a practice called "co-location."

Zombor opposed co-locations of charter schools with MPS schools when she ran for her board position last year and called for closer scrutiny of all charter school contracts.

The Carmen co-location has come up as an issue before, with a dispute over the use of Room 11 at ALBA escalating into protests at MPS' central offices in 2019. Additionally, a 2020 analysis by the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative found the Carmen co-location with Pulaski had "fallen considerably short of its intended outcomes," noting tensions between school leaders and differences in policies preventing cohesion between the schools.

Ivan Gamboa, chair of the board of directors that runs Carmen, said he wasn't sure what the network would do if MPS does end the leases for the two campuses.

"If that is the case, we'll work hard to make sure we minimize disruption for the hundreds of families and kids that would be affected," Gamboa said. "We would work really hard."

Gamboa didn't say whether the schools would look to move to another MPS building or other location, but he said Carmen would "welcome dialogue" with MPS.

Why doesn't Carmen want to move?

Gamboa said he doesn't want to move the schools and he hopes the school board lets the resolution die. He said he found out about the proposal after it was posted Friday with Tuesday's school board agenda.

"The arbitrary action proposed by Director Zombor will disrupt the lives of hundreds of families, and jeopardize the educational stability and academic progress of our students," Gamboa said.

Gamboa said overcrowding hasn't been a problem for the Carmen schools but he would "welcome conversations" with MPS about the future to "keep the partnership strong."

Two Carmen South High School students at the meeting Tuesday, 16-year-old America Perez and 17-year-old Tatiana Serna, said they haven't noticed issues with crowding or sharing a building with ALBA students.

"Space-wise, I think it'll always be an issue just in the sense that I know that Carmen has a lot of enrollment, a lot of people want to go there," Perez said. "But I see that as a good thing. It's never been a problem; I've never minded sharing a building with another school."

The students said they felt like their building and location was important to their school community, noting they've noticed ALBA parents sending their kids to Carmen for high school without having to move buildings.

"I think it's comforting to parents knowing that it's not a huge adjustment and they're already familiar with the area," Serna said.

What are the next steps?

At the board meeting Tuesday, school board members referred Zombor's resolution the Accountability, Finance, and Personnel committee.

The next meeting of that committee is scheduled for May 21. The agenda will be posted at milwaukeepublic.ic-board.com. Those meetings do allow for members of the public to speak.

If the resolution is approved by the committee, it will go before the full board for final approval at a separate meeting. If it is approved as written, Carmen will be given notice that MPS will not be renewing its leases for the South and Southeast high school campuses after the 2025-26 school year.

Carmen's other campuses — the Northwest campus, South Middle School and Stellar Elementary — are in other buildings and wouldn't be affected by the resolution.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS could make Carmen charter schools move from Pulaski, Alba in 2026