A fire gutted the 109-year-old Lincoln Avenue School on Milwaukee's south side on Tuesday, and with the new school year about two months away, Milwaukee Public Schools now has to find somewhere for roughly 500 students and dozens of staff to go.
The Milwaukee Fire Department called the building a total loss. Aerial footage showed why: the roof is gone, collapsed into the classrooms and hallways below. The building was empty when the fire broke out, and no one was hurt.
What the district does not have yet is a plan for the fall. School leaders say senior administrators are working nonstop to figure out where the Lincoln Avenue community will land, and the answer will not come quickly. Wisconsin's largest district is trying to relocate an entire school in the middle of summer, with the first day of class already on the calendar.
The Immediate Scramble
In a letter to families and staff, Principal Damaris Ayala said the district's goal is to keep the school community together at a single location for next year rather than scatter students across the city. "While this fire has been deeply painful, it is important to remember that Lincoln Avenue School has always been defined by its people, not its walls," Ayala wrote.
The district has scheduled community meetings on July 13 and 14, with in-person and virtual options, to answer the questions families have and to walk through relocation plans. Details of those meetings have not been finalized.
Some pieces are already moving. The school's summer Community Learning Center has been temporarily relocated to Hayes Bilingual School through July 31. The summer meals program has shifted to two nearby sites, including Rogers Street Academy. Those are stopgaps for the next few weeks, not answers for September.
A South Side Anchor
Lincoln Avenue is a bilingual school in a heavily Latino part of Milwaukee, and the reaction on the block made clear how much the building meant beyond its enrollment. Neighbors and former students stopped by Wednesday to see the damage.
Sandra Sanchez Segura taught third-grade bilingual classes there almost 20 years ago and came back to see it. "It's one thing to get excited and plan and prepare for the fall, but now, this is a different type of planning and preparation," she said.
Omar Aponte, a father who attended the school as a child, had planned to drop his daughters at the Community Learning Center inside the building Tuesday morning. "That building right there was actually my classroom in fourth grade," he said. "It's pretty depressing."
Angel Perez lives across the street and said he had just been offered a spot on the school's maintenance team. Now he is unsure about the job and about his own child. "For my little one, I still don't know where she would go for school," Perez said. "We still need to search for that place that hopefully will be the best for her now."
What Caused It, and What Happens Now
Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said his department does not yet have a strong lead on what started the fire. Milwaukee police are not investigating it as arson. Investigators are still working the scene.
For the 500 families waiting on an answer, the calendar is the hard part. A school year does not pause for a building, and the district has weeks, not months, to name a location, sort transportation, and move a staff and student body that Principal Ayala is trying to keep in one place. The July meetings are where families will find out whether that is possible. Until then, the plan is the same one Perez described from his front step: search for the place that will work now.
Sources
FOX6 News Milwaukee: Milwaukee school fire, Lincoln Avenue students, staff in flux
Milwaukee Public Schools
