Janes Elementary School (Racine, Wisconsin)

Janes Elementary School is an elementary school, serving kindergarten through grade five, located at 1425 North Wisconsin Street in Racine, Wisconsin. Part of the Racine Unified School District, the original school building was built in 1855, with major additions to the building in 1883, 1897, and 1961. The school is surrounded by North Wisconsin Street on the west, Barker Street on the south, North Main Street on the east, and Kewaunee Street on the north. As of 2019, the school has 310 enrolled students.

History
The land on which Janes was built was donated to the village of Racine in 1839 by Lorenzo Janes. This area consisted of what is now the north half of the city block bounded by Kewaunee Street, North Wisconsin Street, Barker Street and North Main Street. The south half of the same block was donated to the village in 1840 by Gurdon S. Hubbard, on the condition that if no public building was built there within five years, ownership of the land would revert to Hubbard or his heirs. The Racine Board of Education discovered in 1960, over one hundred years after Janes first opened to students, that this condition was never met, and that the school's playground was technically owned by Hubbard's descendants. The board, and the city of Racine, argued that it retained ownership of the land through.

Construction on a two-story brick school building at the site began in the fall of 1855, which opened as the Fourth Ward grammar school in 1856. It was one of the three grammar school buildings built in Racine at that time, along with the Third Ward and Fifth Ward grammar schools, all of which survive in some form today. The original Fourth Ward school building housed four teachers and approximately two hundred students. The building was expanded in 1883, adding four more classrooms, including a large assembly room for fifth through eighth grade students.

In 1897, the original part of the building was demolished, and replaced with a three-story building with eight classrooms, attached to the 1883 addition. At the same time, the Board of Education unanimously voted to name the school for Lorenzo Janes, whose son was then serving as the city's mayor. The first electric lights were installed in the building in 1922. In 1923, the Racine Day School for the Deaf began occupying two rooms in the Janes building.

A multipurpose room was added to the school in 1958. A major expansion of the building added a modern wing with 10 classrooms, opening to students in late 1961. After the addition opened, Janes had 635 students, out of a capacity of 850, up from 443 students before the expansion. Along with to the opening of Goodland Elementary School in 1962, the expansion of Janes allowed all elementary school students to be moved out of Washington School.

Janes principal Lawrence Terry was suspended in 1990, after teachers filed a union grievance alleging that he had a policy that no teacher should call emergency services without his approval. The local chapter and other Black civil rights activists accused the school district of discriminating against Terry because of his race, and suspending him before any effort to investigate the claims, some of which the Racine Education Association later dropped. Terry's suspension lasted two months before he was moved to Garfield Early Childhood School.

In 1993, Janes was chosen to become the first school in Racine to experiment with, which eliminated summer vacation in favor of month-long breaks distributed throughout the year. Year-round schooling at Janes began in July 1994. The experiment was successful, and the year-round schedule was made permanent in 1998. In 2012, the Racine Journal Times found that teachers, students, and parents were happy with the alternative schedule, arguing that the lack of a long summer vacation reduced the amount of re-learning that would otherwise be required in fall. However, the Racine Unified School Board found that Janes students were struggling academically, compared to students at other schools in the district, and the alternative schedule caused problems for nearby residents. With one board member describing the schedule as a "noble experiment", the board decided to end year-round schooling at Janes in 2016. Reportedly, few Janes teachers or parents came to school board meetings leading up to the decision to defend the alternative schedule.

In December 2015, six kindergarten students in the Racine Unified School District were reportedly suspended for performing simulated sexual acts at school. While the district refused to publicly comment on the allegations or name the school that the events took place at, the Racine Journal Times spoke to parent volunteers who confirmed that it took place at Janes. Janes principal Kimberly Romero and the kindergarten teacher in question did not return from winter break, and were replaced with substitutes in January 2016.

Racine Unified announced in 2019 that Janes would eventually be closed as part of its "long-range facilities master plan." Under the plan, the school would be merged with Roosevelt Elementary School, which would be housed in a new building.

Principals

 * I. N. Miller, 1856-1859
 * E. H. Knapp, 1859-1860
 * I. N. Miller, 1860-1862
 * Harriet Blackburn, 1862-1863
 * Emeline Marsh, 1863-1867
 * L. W. Briggs, 1867-1869
 * James Hannon, 1869-1870
 * S. S. Morse, 1870-1874
 * George Skewes, 1874-1880
 * D. O. Hibbard, 1880-1889
 * J. C. NeCollins, 1889-1919
 * L. F. Rahr, 1919-1920
 * W. I. Hood, 1920-1922
 * R. C. Winger, 1922-1929
 * F. C. Meyer, 1929-1935
 * E. J. McCarr, 1935-1940
 * H. B. Temme, 1940-
 * Godfrey D. Stevens, -1947
 * Ben G. Lahr, 1947-1961
 * Ernest Nielsen, 1961-1968
 * Frank Sweet, 1968-1975
 * John Blickle, 1975-1982
 * George Knudtson, 1982-1984
 * Michael Kaiserlian, 1984-1986
 * Richard Fornal, 1986-1987
 * Lawrence Terry, 1987-1990
 * Deborah Coca, 1990-2010
 * José Martínez (acting principal), 2010
 * Walter Robles, 2011-2015
 * Kimberly Romero, 2015
 * Dr. Evelyn Resto, present