Madison Erlanger Elementary Parents - Kindergarten Merge Safety Crisis

ERLANGER ELEMENTARY PARENTS SOUND THE ALARM: Madison Friends! Writers! Media Folx! Loud Punks! News Personnel! Smart Lawyers! Community Organizers: I come to you as a single mother. A public servant. A child advocate. An invested member of my neighborhood and a long term resident of this city. We all know that as we work within and outside of toxic systems that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I am asking for any help that anyone locally can offer to help our elementary school fight systemic racism, internal retaliation and the ongoing issues press my neighborhood school. If you know me you know that is where my heart lives; with my kids and all of the kids in the neighborhood that know me by first name. Heres my ask: If you have access to a media platform of any sorts please consider filming, recording, interviewing or inquiring about all of the issues we are facing at Erlinger Elementary(Lindbergh for those that are not privy to the ironic rename). My brilliant friend and fierce advocate colleague has released this statement in the hopes that someone cam help us further spread the word regarding this injustice to our fragile community. Dms welcome! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Michelle Kelley Erlanger Elementary Kindergarten Cohort ERLANGER ELEMENTARY PARENTS SOUND THE ALARM: MMSD ILLEGALLY COLLAPSING KINDERGARTEN CLASSES, CREATING SEREVE SAFETY CRISIS FOR HIGH-NEEDS STUDENTS MADISON, WI — October 7, 2026 — Parents and community members at Erlanger Elementary School are launching an aggressive campaign to halt a sudden Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) central office directive to collapse its kindergarten sections into a single classroom. Families warn that the consolidation creates an immediate physical safety crisis, violates federal special education law, and blatantly breaks the district's own Employee Handbook rules. The district's plan would merge the classrooms into a single section of 17 to 18 five-year-olds. Shockingly, 45% of the combined classroom (8 students) require high-support Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), and 4 of those students are active elopement risks who frequently run out of the classroom and building. "The district is treating our children like line items on a spreadsheet instead of vulnerable five-year-olds," said Liv, a parent of 3 students at Erlanger. Combining four active elopers into one room with a single teacher is a recipe for physical tragedy. We asked central office at MMSD for support, and their response was to strip away a teacher and destroy a safe learning environment. This, after one month of consistent and stable learning in a familiar classroom environment only to pull a precious sense of security from and vulnerable children of a Title 1 school. Children in these classes experience homelessness, hunger, trauma & undiagnosed behavior disorders. We want to hold MMSD accountable for this failure to provide these kids FREE ACCESS TO PUBLIC EDUCATION! (FAPE)" Furthermore, parents and staff point out that the district is executing this transfer entirely outside of its legal authority. Section 3.1 of the MMSD Employee Handbook explicitly mandates that any enrollment-based involuntary teacher transfers must occur within the first 25 school days of the semester. That strict contractual window closed, making the district's late-semester attempt to surplus the classroom teacher a direct violation of policy. To make matters worse, parents report that this exact student cohort was combined last year during 4K with 'added SEA support' & it completely failed. "Last year was a documented disaster where children didn't feel safe and learning stopped," said Heidi, a mother of one of the children who experienced this first hand last year. "As a Title 1 school, our kids deserve equity and stability, our daughter is finally feeling safe enough to show her personality at school, I am not going to let her go back to being in the back of a crowded and unsupported classroom!" Erlanger families have flooded the MMSD School Board and Superintendent’s inboxes with notices of opposition. The Board has come to the school to see this outcry in person and have already made public statements. They will host an Emergency Parent Meeting tomorrow, Thursday, October 8, at 5:00 PM via Zoom to coordinate formal complaints to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and discuss further community actions. School Board members Nicki Vander Meulen and Martha Siravo are expected to attend. The irony of the entire story is how this was the year Charles Lindbergh Elementary was renamed Jeffrey Clay Erlanger! Renaming a school after Jeffrey Clay Erlanger—a legendary Madison disability rights advocate who spent his entire life in a wheelchair and famously pushed for systemic accessibility—while the building itself is not fully ADA accessible and the district is actively stripping away support from high-needs IEP students is the absolute peak of district hypocrisy. OUR CHILDREN ARE HUMANS with infinite potential and a capacity to learn and create change. They are not NUMBERS. The DATA IS A LIE. OR A MANIPULATED HALF TRUTH. AT BEST. The fact is : good teachers- dedicated, licensed, full time members of a school community MAKE A SCHOOL. I am begging you all to stand up for our teachers at Erlinger who move mountains to make pro-learning environments possible. write a story! Make a post! Talk about it on uour radio show! Tell a news person you know! And if you are a northsider, I most certainly implore you to invest in the future of your community! In solidarity and with all of my love, Ms Michelle