MADISON, Wis. — A day after One City Schools announced it was ending operations for ninth- and tenth-graders due to staffing issues, the Madison Metropolitan School District has set up an emergency enrollment center to help students affected by the news.
In a news release Friday afternoon, the district said it opened the enrollment center at the Doyle Administration Building on West Dayton Street at 9 a.m. Friday to help provide a seamless transition for students leaving the charter school and heading to MMSD schools. It will also provide orientations to help students and families get familiar with their new schools and counselors to support them during the transition process.
“The One City Schools’ announcement was unexpected and undoubtedly stressful for the families impacted. We felt compelled to respond very quickly by providing all the support necessary to assist these families,” MMSD Superintendent Carlton Jenkins said in the release. “We are committed to providing these families all the support and services necessary to ensure a smooth transition and a quick enrollment process to prevent any loss of instruction time. We are all looking forward to welcoming these scholars to the MMSD family.”
The enrollment center, the release said, “will remain open until all scholars impacted by the closure are enrolled.”
One City Schools founder and CEO Kaleem Caire told News 3 Now on Thursday the decision was made due to a staffing shortage at the charter school.
RELATED: One City Schools shutting down for students in grades 9, 10 due to staffing shortages
“We could see our staff was getting tired, people weren’t complaining because we do have a lot of committed people here,” Caire said. “They’re working their tails off and doing a great job, but we just knew we couldn’t sustain that.”
Roughly 60 students are affected by the partial closure; of those, 51 are expected to move to schools within MMSD.
Caire said he hopes the school can resume ninth- and tenth-grade operations in 2025.
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