January 30, 2026 – West Bend, WI – Few people in the community have seen the West Bend High School consolidation debate from as many angles as former Washington County Circuit Judge and WBHS alumni Andy Gonring.
A 1970 graduate and the last class to leave the old high school, Gonring was student council president during a pivotal transition period. His father served on the West Bend School Board at the time, giving him an early, front-row view of the decisions shaping the district.
Decades later, Gonring would return to the issue himself as both a citizen committee member and a school board member, serving on the board from 1991 to 2000.
“I’ve been through this process probably three times in my lifetime,” Gonring said. “Once as a school board member, twice as a citizen member. Once before my time on the board and once after.”
During his board tenure in the 1990s, consolidation nearly happened.
“We came within one vote of consolidating,” he said. “It was tied three to three and came down to the last member. That person said, ‘I was hoping it wouldn’t come down to this,’ and voted against it.”
At the time, the superintendent was Dwain Ehrlich. Later, in the early 2000s, Gonring co-chaired another large committee tasked with studying consolidation while Michael Wiziarde served as superintendent. That committee held numerous meetings and ultimately issued a report without recommending consolidation one way or the other.
“The issues then were basically the same as today,” Gonring said. “Although today they’re many times enhanced.”
Back when the district adopted the “two schools in one building” model, overcrowding was the driving force. After two failed referendums, the third finally passed, allowing the district to address space limitations without fully consolidating.
“That was a great way to resolve the high school problem at the time,” Gonring said. “It was a good experiment. But that was 56 years ago.”
In his view, the reality has shifted.
“Participation is low. For all practical purposes, except for a few varsity sports, we already operate as one school,” he said. “Even more so than when we studied this in the early 2000s, programs and sports have been co-opted, and school choice has changed the landscape.”
Gonring recently met with Superintendent Jen Wimmer, sharing a detailed timeline of past consolidation efforts and his personal experiences across multiple eras.
“I asked to sit down with her because I’ve lived this from every perspective,” he said. “As a student, as a community member, as a board member, and then again as a citizen.”
He believes the district now faces a moment that calls for reassessment, not nostalgia.
“I think it’s time to take a step back and say it’s been a good experiment, but now we need to deal with present realities and move forward based on the facts we have today,” Gonring said.
“This isn’t a new conversation,” he said. “But the conditions today are very different than they were back then.”
It was 2015 when the West Bend School Board adopted a policy regarding the discussion of combining the high schools. The topic, while contentious, was one that provided a lot of stress and division in the community.
Ted Neitzke was superintendent at the time and one of the steps in a policy on review of high school configuration, would be to hold a non-binding referendum during the presidential or gubernatorial election.
It appears the current school board is following some of the initial policy suggestions, however it is looking to replace the non-binding referendum with a survey.
Deb Butschlick has been the head coach of West Bend West varsity volleyball for 11 years. She said numbers were dramatically down this past season.
She said one of the benefits of combining schools and teams would be a stronger outcome. “If they went to one school the teams collectively would be much more successful because they would have a bigger audience to draw from,” she said.
Some of the other items up for discussion are reportedly an intense intramural program or combining club teams with other schools. That practice is already in play with girl’s field hockey, snowboarding and the Washington County Trail Sharks mountain bike team.
Coming up the West Bend School District will hold community meetings to determine whether the schools should remain separate or be combined.
The West Bend School District has operated two high schools on a shared campus since 1970, currently serving 1,818 students. Enrollment projections show a potential decline to 1,500 students by 2029-2030, and possibly 1,200 by 2037-2038.
The district is quoted as saying the drop in enrollment is “due to declining birth rates.”
Data is being compiled for other school districts in Washington County, Wi, regarding enrollment trends and open enrollment numbers.
The meetings will be held in the West High School Cafeteria, 1305 E. Decorah Road, West Bend (enter in the West High School door near the fieldhouse):
● Monday, February 2, 2026, at 6 p.m.
● Wednesday, February 11, 2026, at 6 p.m.
