Aug. 24, 2023 8:30p
(WGTD)---Questions and concerns on two levels were raised at a Kenosha Plan Commission meeting Thursday night on a proposal to build a private high school on vacant land directly across the street from Gateway Technical College.
Parking, traffic flow and drainage were among the concerns that were raised to officials of KTEC High School and their planners.
The school—after being rejected by Kenosha Unified—opened last year as a charter under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents in leased space at the former St. Mary’s Catholic School.
That broader issue was raised by Plan Commissioner Lydia Spottwood. She questioned whether the school would duplicate the curriculum that’ll be offered by Kenosha Unified’s Lakeview Technology Academy when it moves into new quarters in the redevelopment site dubbed Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood. "One of the things that I'm off-balance about is that there seems to be zero coordination," Spottswood said. "You're sort of barreling forward with a program that doesn't seem to be in anyway synced up with the big planning...either at the Unified level or with the city in our endeavor to move forward with the KIN site," she said.
Angela Andersson of KTEC High School maintained the new school is needed. "It's really about giving another option to students for these high-demand, high-wage careers where we aren't filling the pipeline into those careers as much as industry needs us to do that," she said.
Mayor Antaramian, who chairs the Plan Commission, cut off further questioning from Spottswood on the school's structure and its programs, saying it wasn’t germane to the siting issues at hand.
Antaramian ended the meeting by saying he wasn’t convinced that the site in question was the best place for the school, and urged KTEC officials to consider refining their plans.
The discussion was billed as a conceptual review, so no votes were taken.
Those speaking included Kenosha Unified administrator Kris Keckler, who said he was there to counter what he termed misrepresentations. KTEC High School is not affiliated in any way with Kenosha Unified, he said. "The community has a misunderstanding...we just want to make sure partly because Kenosha Unified like many other school districts will be closing multiple schools in the near future and we didn't want additional misrepresentation that as we're closing schools we're also looking to expand or build on the taxpayer dime in this manner."
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