Milwaukee and St. Francis are preparing to redraw their borders to let Thomas More High School participate in the Milwaukee school choice program.
A Milwaukee Common Council committee started the process Monday by unanimously endorsing a land swap that would pull the Catholic school out of St. Francis and into Milwaukee.

South side Ald. Sue Breier sponsored the move, which has the backing of Mayors John O. Norquist of Milwaukee and Lawrence Burazin of St. Francis, as well as Archbishop Timothy Dolan, said Norquist, St. Francis City Administrator Ralph Voltner and Maureen Gallagher, director of education for the Milwaukee Archdiocese. "Since Thomas More is the only south side Catholic high school, this ordinance would begin to level the playing field" with other Catholic high schools that can take advantage of the voucher program, said Steven Roy, school president.

Only private schools in the city limits are eligible for the program, which provides tuition vouchers to parents who don't want to send their children to the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Thomas More's buildings are just south of the Milwaukee-St. Francis line, although its football field is in Milwaukee and it has used a Milwaukee address, 2601 E. Morgan Ave., throughout its 132-year existence, Roy said. Of the school's 650 students, 71% live in Milwaukee and 21% are children of city employees, he said.

The state Department of Public Instruction has rejected the school's application to join the voucher program, and school backers have failed to persuade the state Legislature to change the law to let Thomas More participate.

Phil and Marcy Blaufuss, residents of Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood whose son is a junior at Thomas More, urged the council's Judiciary and Legislation Committee to approve the move for future Thomas More students, although it would not directly affect their family.

Without school choice, more parents will move from the city to the suburbs, they warned.

Asked whether she was concerned about the voucher program's effect on MPS, Marcy Blaufuss, a retired MPS teacher, said, "MPS is so huge that I don't think it would have that drastic of an effect."

Ald. Don Richards, a Thomas More graduate and a member of the committee, said he had some reservations about school choice but did not believe that should affect a land deal.

The swap would give St. Francis the 711-square-foot parcel with the football field, and Milwaukee would get the 2,935-square-foot parcel with the buildings. That allows the school to keep one foot in its historic home of St. Francis, Roy said.

Technically, the ordinance would surrender only the football field. If the full council agrees Nov. 26, the St. Francis council could vote to annex that land and give up the 80% of Thomas More property now in the suburb. That could set up a final December vote by the Milwaukee council to annex the remaining school land.

Because Thomas More is exempt from property taxes, neither city would gain or lose any tax base, although Milwaukee would come out ahead on user fees, Norquist's staff said.