Grievance describes Racine middle school in chaos

Teachers criticize lack of equipment, space

Dozens of teachers at a Racine middle school have filed a grievance with the district depicting the school as chaotic, unsafe and not conducive to learning.

The six-page document, titled “Mitchell Middle School is in Crisis,” details complaints including assaults by students against their teachers and peers, vandalism, evidence of gang affiliations, unsupervised students roaming the halls and violent outbursts spilling into classrooms.

Since the beginning of the school year, it says, there have been 800 office referrals for student discipline and 120 out-of-school suspensions. Eight staff members have been injured by students, including one who was stabbed with a sharp object, according to the document, which has been shared online by parents in recent days.

“The problems at Mitchell are systematic of what happens when you grossly deprive public schools of funding for eight years,” said Angelina Cruz, president of Racine Educators United, the local teachers union that filed the

grievance on behalf of members last month.

Stacy Tapp, spokeswoman for the Racine Unified School District, said it has changed principals at Mitchell and provided additional supports since receiving the complaint.

“We are hearing from individual staff and families that they are already seeing progress and improvement,” she said.

“What is circulating online right now does not reflect the wonderful students, staff and families of Mitchell School. We know that working together, we will improve the environment at Mitchell,” Tapp said.

Mitchell Middle School, housed in a single building with Mitchell Elementary, added about 200 students this year as part of a reorganization of middle schools in the district.

The complaint says that six weeks into the school year, that “transformation” has been inadequate and required staffing and curriculum are not in place.

The complaint depicts an environment where students roam the halls, kicking classroom doors and smashing out window screens to sit on the ledges. It says students routinely fight with the school resource officers and that local police were called five times in one day.

As for the curriculum, it says, three computer labs are down; only 171 of 240 Chromebooks are functional; the seventh-grade science class has no science equipment; there’s no science/ math teacher for eighth grade and no math textbook for seventh grade; no science textbook in Spanish for the dual language class; and classrooms are so overcrowded, there is no room for additional desks.