UCC breaks ground on STEM-skilled trades middle school
The nonprofit United Community Center will break ground Friday on a new $7.5 million charter school aimed at preparing young people for future work in the science-technology industries and the skilled trades.
UCC has operated the Bruce Guadalupe Community School for more than two decades,
The new 30,000-square-foot facility on the northwest corner of S. 6th and W. Washington streets — across the street from Bruce Guadalupe in the Walker’s Point neighborhood — will house the UCC Acosta Middle School beginning next fall.
UCC Acosta opened with 55 students in 2016 in a building on the Bruce Guadalupe campus. The new school is expected to enroll 250 students by the 2021’22 school year, said UCC Executive Director Ricardo Diaz. It was the last piece of a five-year plan to boost enrollment on the near-south-side campus to 1,600 students, and to better-prepare students, who are almost entirely Latino, for jobs in the future, he said.
“Everyone is talking about the jobs of the future. And UCC is about getting ahead of the curve, not waiting until high school,” said Diaz. “If we can make an impression on what is the fastest-growing segment of Wisconsin, we can make a dent in the employment of the future.”
Metropolitan Milwaukee’s Latino population grew 51% between 2000 and 2014 — to about 160,000, or 10.2% of the population — compared with 0.4% growth for the city overall, according to a report released by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation in 2016. While they make up about 15% of the U.S. workforce, they account for only 7% of employment in the fields of science and technology.
The new school is expected to attract middle-schoolers from other neighboring schools, particularly those that end at fifth grade, such as the nearby charter school, Rocketship Southside Community Prep, according to Diaz. He said it is not expected to cut into enrollment at Bruce Guadalupe, which serves about 1,450 students in grades kindergarten through 8.
UCC has raised about $4 million of the $7.5 million project. UCC Acosta, like Bruce Guadalupe, is chartered by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Charter schools are public schools funded by taxpayers and afforded a degree of autonomy and freedom from some state rules in exchange for quality performance, though not all meet those expectations. Most are chartered by public school districts. However some, like Bruce Guadalupe and UCC Acosta, are run by independent operators. The per-pupil payment for independent charter schools this year is about $8,100.
St. Augustine Preparatory Academy, a $53 million private Christian school bankrolled by Waukesha businessman Gus Ramirez, launched this fall at 2607 S. 5th St.
The eventual K-12 school opened with about 600 students in select grades this year and is expected to enroll about 3,000 in the coming years, according to Ramirez.