Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary School (Racine, Wisconsin)

Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary School is an elementary school, serving kindergarten through grade five, located at 1722 West Sixth Street in Racine, Wisconsin. The school was first built in 1899, with major additions to the building in 1956-58 and 1967. Part of the Racine Unified School District, Jefferson Lighthouse is an IB World school, alongside RUSD's West Ridge Elementary School, Starbuck Middle School, and Jerome I. Case High School. The school is surrounded by West Sixth Street on the south, Cliff Avenue on the west, Maple Street on the north, and Jones Street on the east. As of 2019, the school has 502 enrolled students.

Early years
In August 1898, the Racine Board of Education investigated the city's Fifth Ward grammar school building, which was said to be in dangerously poor condition. While the investigation showed that the building was structurally sound, it was becoming overcrowded, and in February 1899, the city engineer announced plans to construct a new, three-story Neoclassical school building for the fifth ward. Construction on the new building was said to "be pushed as rapidly as possible", and work on excavating the foundation began on April 20. In May, mistakes in the original plans were discovered, and a special session of the Racine city council on May 22 determined that correcting these errors would cost up to $500.

On July 3, Alderman Austin proposed naming the new building Jefferson School. Later that month, ninety pounds of lead piping was stolen from the construction site and sold to "the junk shop of Mr. Falkenberg, corner of Grand avenue and Sixth street," where it was recovered by police. Alonzo J. Winnie was chosen to be the school's first principal on September 29. The school first opened to students on October 30, 1899.

By the end of 1899, Jefferson had a total enrollment of 391 students. Superintendent Estabrook reported in January 1900 that the building's floors and furniture, as well as the clothing of teachers and students, were becoming covered in soot because of problems with the furnace and ventilation system. It was described as "one of the largest and most modern educational institutions of the Belle City". The decision to build a school "so far west, almost in the country" was controversial, but within a few years, the city of Racine had grown significantly and Jefferson was filled to capacity. On the night of March 17, 1904, the building was damaged by a fire, and the fire department narrowly saved it from total destruction. The fire was said to be the result of spontaneous combustion from the boiler room, but some nearby residents claimed that the janitor was negligent and signed a petition asking that he be fired. The board of education found that the janitor was not at fault and decided that classes would resume in the damaged building on Monday, March 21, before a full investigation had been carried out or repairs could be made.

The school originally served students up to the eighth grade, but after the opening of McKinley Junior High School in 1921, Jefferson's seventh and eighth grade students moved there, as did the principal, H.C. Kilburn.

Expansion
In 1953, the Racine Board of Education found Jefferson to be the school building in the city most in need of renovation. At that time, it was the only school in the city to continue using third-floor classrooms that were only reachable by wooden staircases with no fireproofing, in violation of an order by the State Industrial Commission. In 1955, the city council authorized the board to purchase and demolish seven houses north of the Jefferson building, to allow for the construction of a new wing, with the ultimate goal of replacing the 1899 building entirely. The first part of the new construction, a multipurpose room serving as the school's gymnasium and auditorium, was dedicated on March 10, 1957, and the school board began taking bids for the construction of five new classrooms the following day. An open house for these five classrooms was held on April 25, 1958.

The third phase of new construction took place in 1967, adding another eight classrooms to the school. Additionally, the remaining houses on the block were purchased by the school district in 1968, to be torn down for playground space, except for one which was briefly converted into a specialized classroom for students with behavioral problems. The original 1899 building was never torn down after the replacement plan was completed.

Busing
Jefferson, an inner-city school with a largely African American student body, was at the center of the Racine Unified School District's desegregation plan in 1975. Before the plan was implemented, 86.6 percent of Jefferson students were members of racial minorities, far above the 17-25% range that district officials wanted all schools to reach. One of the plan's most significant changes in the city was that 276 students in the predominantly white suburban area of Crestview to be bussed to Jefferson, while a similar number of Jefferson students would be transferred to Crestview School and other nearby schools. Later that year, the New York Times highlighted Jefferson in a profile on school integration in Racine, which described it as "one of the more successful examples of school integration in the North to date".

While only students living two miles or more from their school were supposed to receive free school bus transportation, the district discovered in November 1975 that about 100 children who had been transferred from Jefferson to Wadewitz Elementary School actually lived just under two miles from their new school. When busing was canceled for these students, and other students in similar situations, their parents protested the decision, which threatened to derail the city's integration plan. After receiving private donations to fund school buses in those areas for several months, the district agreed in July 1976 to waive the two-mile limit and provide free busing to these students.

Jefferson Lighthouse
In 1977, 435 gifted and talented students were transferred to Jefferson from gifted programs at Roosevelt, Goodland, and West Ridge elementary schools, creating the Jefferson Lighthouse program. Jefferson Lighthouse initially made up about three-quarters of Jefferson's student body and faculty. On October 18 of that year, two teachers were assaulted while leaving Jefferson after meeting with parents in the evening. A grievance was filed at the Racine Education Association against Jefferson principal Lawrence Terry, alleging that he had failed to ensure teachers' safety.

By 1981, Jefferson Lighthouse no longer offered a traditional curriculum alongside the gifted program. When the district planned to eliminate McKinley Junior High School's elementary classes and move all their students to Jefferson, parents complained that there was no alternative to the gifted program, and were ultimately offered the option of sending their children to Fratt instead. In 1985, Jefferson had 757 students, over the recommended capacity of 730, and the district proposed temporarily moving Jefferson's kindergarten classes to McKinley to deal with the overcrowding.

Racine Unified announced in 2019 that Jefferson would eventually be closed as part of its "long-range facilities master plan." Under the plan, the 1899 building would be demolished and the 1950s-1960s additions would become home to Racine Alternative Learning.

Principals

 * Alonzo J. Winnie, 1899-1907
 * E.J. Hardaker, 1907-1910
 * H.C. Denny, 1910-1912
 * H.C. Kilburn, 1912-1921
 * H.E. Hinkel, 1921-1922
 * Peter Peterson, 1922-1932
 * B.G. Lahr, 1932-November 1, 1943
 * Harold Cripe, November 1, 1943-1948
 * M. Thomas Lucarelli, 1948-1963
 * Frank H. Cooper, 1963-1966
 * Alfred W. Held, 1966-1968
 * David Sweeney, 1968-1972
 * Lawrence Terry, 1972-1980
 * Dawn Kloften, 1980-1986
 * Patricia Rogers, 1986-1989
 * Helen Mitchell, 1989-1991
 * Steven J. Miley, 1991-2004
 * Gary Goelz, 2004-2006
 * Soren Gajewski, 2006-2011
 * Rosalie Daca, 2011-
 * Jody Cascio, -2016
 * Heidi Williams, 2016-2017
 * Jeremy Benishek, 2017-present