Auer Avenue School shows signs of improved culture, achievement

Alan Borsuk:

There’s a surge of new programs at Auer Avenue Community School, and there are some positive results. People within the school, in the Milwaukee Public Schools administration, in the immediate neighborhood, and in the broader community are joining together to support the school and improve the lives and academic success of the children who go there.

Is there a long way to go? Yes. Is it going to take sustained and well-executed work to make big progress? Yes.

But, in a morning at the school one day last week, what I believe I saw growing there was the kind of school culture — energized, focused, positive, committed — that, even in demanding circumstances, can move a school and its students forward in big ways.

Auer Avenue, near N. 24th and W. Burleigh St., is one of four schools in MPS that was designated last year as a “community school.” What does that mean? Answering that question was one of the reasons I wanted to visit the school.

The other reason was simply this: The way things had been going at Auer Avenue for years had made it somewhat symbolic of central city schools with poor results. Last year, a rumor gained currency that Auer Avenue would be an early target of a new law that gives the Milwaukee County executive power to take schools away from MPS and turn them over to outside operators. Teachers and others held hands while surrounding the school to protest the idea (which has not come to pass, at least so far).