A desire for a neighborhood school that children could walk to and the site’s connection to conservancy land were two big reasons behind the Port Washington-Saukville School District’s decision to purchase land at 2803 Orchard Lane in the Town of Saukville for its new elementary school.
The district purchased 10 acres July 1 from the Elda V. Bunk Living Trust for $552,000. The property abuts the Village of Saukville and will be paid for with referendum money voters approved earlier this year.
The district’s next step is to work with the Village of Saukville to annex the land into the village; that would enable the new Saukville Elementary School to access the village’s sewer and water utilities.
The land was part of a 100-acre tract. The remaining 90 acres will be purchased by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District through its conservation easement, said Port Washington-Saukville Superintendent Michael McMahon.
McMahon said the site and its connection to conservancy land “strongly appealed to both the board and, ultimately, our voters.”
“We believed that identifying a potential site up front allowed the community to weigh in not only on the cost of the referendum but also on the proposed location. In the end, 63.24% of voters in the Port Washington and Saukville communities supported the referendum. Support was even higher in the Village of Saukville, where 67.2% of residents approved both the price and the site,” he said.
Voters approved a $59.4 million referendum for the district in April; the new school will account for about $45.8 million. The remaining $13.6 million will go toward maintenance projects districtwide.
The new school will host students in 3-year-old kindergarten through fourth grade and will have up to three sections, or classrooms, for each grade level.
The new building will replace the existing Saukville Elementary School building at 333 N. Mill St. The district said the school is small and outdated, with failing plumbing, fire and safety systems.
The district anticipates selling the old building, but is uncertain what use it might ultimately be put to, according to Port Washington-Saukville School District director of finance and human resources Mel Nettesheim.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for spring 2026. The district anticipates opening the school in fall 2027.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at@AlecJohnson12.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Port Washington-Saukville purchases land for new Saukville Elementary School
Reporting by Alec Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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