The School District of Waukesha decided to close Bethesda Elementary School at the end of the 2025-26 school year. We believe that instead of being sold to a private developer or a competing school, the City of Waukesha should collaborate with the School District to preserve Bethesda's over 9 acres of green space, and transform that space into a destination park that will benefit the whole community for many years to come.

Bethesda Elementary School's grounds border Merrill Crest Park, which makes it a logical location for the city to invest in. The timing of this project aligns well with current city priorities, as the city is now in the process of creating a master parks & recreation plan. Bethesda already has a playground, an outdoor classroom space, and an established, fenced garden with 8 raised beds and numerous perennials, as well as a gymnasium with a new floor that was installed in 2022 that could host community events and Parks & Rec activities.

We suggest that the new park could also include:

• Community garden plots that could either be rented or assigned via a lottery system
• A community orchard to provide fresh, local fruit for the community
• A Little Free Farm Stand/Community Pantry to complement the existing Little Free Library as a way to distribute fruit grown on the site
• A pollinator garden
• A rain garden to replace the one that was lost to the hospital redevelopment on Madison St.
• A school forest that could serve as an outdoor educational space for students in the entire School District of Waukesha as well as a recreational space for the community with walking paths and benches
• A restored prairie space with walking paths
• Solar panels on the roof of the building and a solar panel canopy over the parking lot to reduce utility costs and increase resilience in the local electrical grid

Turning Bethesda into a destination community gardening and nature park would preserve or even raise property values in the surrounding neighborhood, provide fresh food resources for the community, create intergenerational recreational and educational opportunities, and allow for better water management which could mitigate flooding in the surrounding neighborhood. We believe that there are also ample opportunities for partnership with local organizations and businesses to support this plan, which could keep it financially sustainable in the long term.

We call upon City and School District leaders to make it a reality.