Community Workshop - Community Recreation Center

The Recreation Center Committee wants to get community input on the committee’s guiding questions, namely:

• Is the community of South Milwaukee interested in building a community recreation center?
• If so, what should be in a potential recreation center?

So far the committee has provided their own feedback related to these questions, but would like to get further input from the community before moving forward.

The South Milwaukee Recreation Department is administered by the School Board, but is funded and operates separately from the rest of the school district. It has its own director, Stan Dorff, and runs its own programming.

Communities in Wisconsin either run their recreation departments through their respective municipalities, or their school boards. In South Milwaukee, the Recreation Department is administered by the School Board instead of the city.  

It must be emphasized that the Recreation Department is funded through a separate fund from the school district, the Community Service Fund - or Fund 80.

The Recreation Department is funded through a separate fund from the rest of the school district, the Community Service Fund - or Fund 80. The Community Service Fund raises money through the School Board approved tax levy, and through raising fees for relevant recreation department activities. 

It is illegal to use a dollar in the Community Service fund for general instructional purposes in the school district, or vice versa. As a result, it is possible to add or detract from Recreation Department programming without any impact to the school district’s instructional practices. 

Since the Community Service Fund and the School District’s General Fund (for instruction) are separate, and since the School District’s General Fund has a state mandated revenue limit, the financial state of both funds operate completely differently.

Over the course of the last several years the Recreation Department has been able to put funds aside for a potential community recreation center while the state mandated revenue limit for instructional purposes for the school district has declined.

About $450,000 a year has been put aside within the Recreation Department’s budget for the purpose of offsetting the cost of a potential community recreation center.

To date, the community Service Fund has a balance of a little less than $2 million. Although sizable, it must be emphasized that this is not enough money in and of itself to create a stand alone recreation center.

This question would ultimately be decided on by the School Board depending on how much interest there is.

The Recreation Center Committee is gauging community feedback and will continue its work over the course of the next several months. The goal is for the committee to have a formal presentation and report to the school board for discussion in the fall of 2025. 

It should be noted that the school board does receive regular updates regarding the discussions that are taking place with the Recreation Center Committee - those summaries can be found on the district website here. Furthermore, two school board members, Patrick Hintz and Andy Simmons, are Recreation Center Committee members. 

The high school was built with the intent of being a community space - with the Performing Arts Center and community fitness center being an integral part of its design and programming to this day. 

Since the building’s construction some 20 years ago school safety standards have become more stringent, and the needs of the Recreation Department have become more robust. It has become problematic to have community members access the Fitness Center during the school day while instruction is taking place, and the background check and bag check process required for visitors during the school day makes running community programming during the school day problematic. 

From a programming perspective, the Recreation Department is mostly limited to offering enrichment opportunities (outside the Fitness Center and Performing Arts Center) outside of the school day. Many Recreation Department clubs and athletic groups utilize school gyms throughout the district - which have to work around school district programming in order to operate. 

Initial discussions about pursuing a stand-alone community recreation center began in 2021 when the school board decided to put funds aside for such a purpose and to begin exploring options.

Preliminary discussions related to a potential community recreation center began in 2021. The school district created a 5-year strategic plan in the 2023-24 school year, and an item that came up was the need to create a committee to look into this matter further. 

As a result, a committee was formed in the fall of 2024 in order to help the school board answer two questions:

• Is the community of South Milwaukee interested in building a community recreation center?
• If so, what should be in a potential recreation center?

Different communities have tailored community centers to fit their local needs. The committee leading the workshop toured the West Allis Recreation Center and the New Berlin Recreation Center to get an idea of what is out there.

The School Board ultimately has the final say in whether or not a community recreation center should be pursued, and what it should look like. The Recreation Center Committee was formed to help inform the school board regarding two questions:

• Is the community of South Milwaukee interested in building a community recreation center?
• If so, what should be in a potential recreation center?

The 19-member committee is made up of people from South Milwaukee who responded to a community wide call for volunteers in the fall of 2024 and underwent an application process.

The committee has been meeting about twice a month since October 2024. 

Discussions so far have been very high level - focusing on potential community interest, guiding principles, and a vision statement. 

We have come to a general consensus on what the committee’s guiding principles and vision are - and the committee wants to get community input on the matter before potentially moving forward at the April 3rd Community Workshop

Yes - but the committee has not reviewed any formal drawings or site plans yet, and wants to receive more community input before doing so.

The committee has been working with EUA since the beginning of February, 2025. So far they have primarily helped us look at technicalities relating to a potential pool, and hone in our programming discussion.

At this time the Recreation Center Committee has reviewed several different sites and is leaning toward the possibility of using the practice field of the Soccer Complex near E.W. Luther Elementary School as the site for a potential Community Recreation Center.

It must be emphasized that this is primarily for exploratory purposes to hone the committee’s discussion on space and what may be included in it. No formal commitment has been made to developing this space - that direction would have to come from the school board.