For school project, South Milwaukee students come up with plans for former Everbrite site

Did you know about hydroelectric power in third grade?

What about urban planning?

Students at Lakeview Elementary in South Milwaukee are already learning about these concepts and applying them to a real-world plot of land outside their classroom window.

Lakeview Principal Chris Sepersky contacted the city of South Milwaukee in March with an idea for a schoolwide project where students would come up with ideas for the former Everbrite property at 315 Marion Ave.

Both city and school staff were instantly interested in the idea.

Everbrite, LLC, which manufactured signage and LED lighting, closed its South Milwaukee facility in 2020. A proposal for nearly 600 residential units, including multifamily and single-family homes, was proposed by Fresh Coast Development in November 2022 but has not moved forward.

“This plot of land is a beautiful plot of land,” Sepersky said. “There’s probably not too many 33-acre parcels left along the lakefront in Milwaukee County.”

Lakeview has classes in 4K through fifth grade.

Discussions began the way many would’ve expected, with kids wanting to open another McDonald’s, possibly a skate park or even a water park. However, soon something interesting happened.

“Eventually you get the kids talking about homeless shelters, clinics and community colleges,” Sepersky said, saying students quickly got interested in what is important, valued and needed in a community. “Part of this is allowing kids to follow their passions a little bit.”

One third grade student is all in on hydroelectric power and has been working with his dad on designs. Other kids in higher grades are focused on what community organizations could be part of a development such as a homeless shelter or community college. Kindergarteners are mostly focused on food options.

Sepersky said Everbrite was there for 60 years and this project has students thinking about what they might want to see there when they’re in their 70s.

“This is clearly not something elementary kids are (typically) thinking about,” he said.

The parcel owners, who requested they not be directly mentioned, have been very supportive and will allow students to take a bus tour of the property to experience what it’s like inside the fences, Sepersky said.

Both students and teachers are learning from this project

While students learn about urban planning, the teachers are learning how to support inquiry-based learning ― a student-centric teaching strategy that “encourages students to ask questions and investigate real-world problems," according to SplashLearn.

“What’s interesting when you’re doing a whole school project like this, the adults are learning as much as the kids are learning,” Sepersky said.

The project is additional to the usual coursework, but Sepersky said it makes connections with social studies, science and writing.

“It’s just dreaming about what is possible,” he said. “I think it’s important we make choices about what’s really important in kids' lives. When we think about the next generation of citizens and leaders, this kind of work is really what’s impactful and meaningful and memorable to students and families.”

The city has been supportive of the project, too

While South Milwaukee has an idea of what types of developments would be the best fit for the space, Sepersky said city staff have been very supportive of the students’ vision.

“I think our students realize their ideas aren’t there to be wholesale adopted by the city, it’s about the learning process,” Sepersky said. “You can propose anything you want to, but you’ve got to be able to get people to say yes to your ideas and that’s part of learning as well.”

City Administrator Patrick Brever and Assistant Administrator Katie Crosby spoke with the second and fifth graders in April “about the Everbrite site and all the city does when we are considering redevelopment projects,” Brever said.

Students are still in the design process, but an exhibition will be held in early June where the community can come and see what the school has been working to create.

Sepersky said students may even make a presentation to South Milwaukee’s plan commission.

In the end, he said the lasting benefit of this project is “letting kids just dream big.”

Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on X @Redheadliner.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: South Milwaukee students come up with plans for former Everbrite site