A new, joint effort between Racine Unified and Gateway Technical College will get off the ground this fall after all. At the end of a closed-door, two-hour long negotiating session Thursday night, the Sturtevant Village Board approved a conditional use permit that’ll pave the way for R-U-S-D’s REAL School to move into the SportxPlex, located in the Renaissance Business Park, just a couple of blocks from Gateway’s iMET technology center.
Approval had been delayed over the village’s demand that the district pay an annual $35,000 fee for municipal services because Racine Unified would operate part of the facility as a for-profit venture by renting out space to sports team, just like the former owners.
Gateway is involved because many REAL School students would spend part of their day taking college-level engineering classes at iMET.
Details of the agreement between Sturtevant and R-U-S-D were not immediately revealed.
David Hazen, the district's Chief Operating Officer, said many of the issues that concerned the district were dealt with. "All along the village has been very positive in supporting the school," Hazen said. "I felt that eventually we would come to where we're at." Last week Hazen issued a news releasing saying the school's opening would be delayed if an agreement wasn't reached soon.
Village President Steve Jansen,who was defeated in a re-election bid this week, said afterward that he felt it was time to work something out both sides could agree on. "I told the board when we went into closed session 'let's get this done,' he said. "And that's what we did."
By the way, the REAL school’s full name is Racine Engineering, Arts and Leadership School.
The new partnership between R-U-S-D and Gateway is expected to compress the time it takes to earn a four-year engineering degree following high school graduation from four to three years. While Gateway is prepared to award college credit to high school students who successfully complete the course work, the other side of the spectrum has the Milwaukee School of Engineering accepting Gateway credits in an articulation agreement.The deal saves money for students and their parents, and gets graduates into the work force faster.
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