Southside School Hops Charter Networks

Stellar Elementary, 1431 S. 10th St., being painted. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A charter school on Milwaukee’s South Side has new owners.

Carmen Schools of Science and Technology has sold Stellar Elementary to Rocketship Education.

It’s the second time the school has changed hands. Stellar was founded by Melissa McGonegle in 2016 and was initially located in a former Catholic school.

In 2019, Carmen acquired the school and hired McConegle. The charter school network relocated the school to Milwaukee Public Schools‘ former Hayes School, 2431 S. 10th St., in the same year, after purchasing the vacant building from MPS.

According to Wisconsin real estate transfer records, Rocketship, through Launchpad Development Milwaukee 3 LLC, paid Carmen $1.17 million last week for the Hayes property, located in the city’s Lincoln Village neighborhood.

The sale comes as Carmen is building a $55 million high school.

“After careful consideration and months of collaboration, we are excited to share that Stellar Elementary has joined the Rocketship Public Schools network. This decision reflects our deep commitment to ensuring that the students, families and staff of Stellar continue to thrive in an environment that aligns with their needs and values,” said Carmen CEO Aaron Lippman in a statement.

It will be the third Milwaukee school for Rocketship, which operates schools in four states. Locally, the California-based charter network operates Southside Community Prep at 3003 W. Cleveland Ave. and Transformation Prep at 5501-5537 N. 68th St. It opened the southside school in 2013 and added the northside school in 2019.

Stellar was Carmen’s only elementary school. It will continue to operate middle and high schools. Starting in fall 2026, it will combine its two southside high schools into the new building at 2005-2025 W. Oklahoma Ave. Carmen Middle School South is located in a former Catholic school It also operates a combined middle and high school on the Northwest Side.

In Milwaukee, Rocketship only operates elementary schools.

“They are uniquely positioned to provide the specialized support, resources and experience that an elementary school like Stellar requires to flourish,” said Lippman. “This transition will allow Carmen to focus on its traditional core competencies in educating middle school and high school students.”

Students from Stellar are expected to continue to progress to Carmen middle and high schools.

“While Stellar will no longer operate under the Carmen umbrella, we are thrilled that this shift will enable it to remain a feeder school for Carmen’s schools, allowing our collaboration to continue in new and meaningful ways,” said Lippman.

Stellar had 217 students in the 2013-2024 school year, the latest for which state Department of Public Instruction report cards were published. The school earned a two-star, 55.9 rating. Of its student body, 98.2% of its students reported being economically disadvantaged. The student body was reported as being 78% Hispanic or Latino, 14% Black, 3% white and 2% Asian.

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rocketship’s southside school had 398 students, earned a three-star, 68.1 grade and had a student body that was 81.7% economically disadvantaged and 86.7% Hispanic or Latino. Its northside school had 231 students, earned a one-star, 46.3 grade and had a student body that was 92.2% economically disadvantaged and 81.8% Black.

McGonegle, the Stellar founder, departed Carmen in 2022 and now works for the KIPP Foundation, a network of more than 250 charter schools.

Stellar is chartered by UW-Milwaukee, as is Carmen Middle School South. The remainder of its schools are chartered by MPS. Rocketship is chartered by the City of Milwaukee.

The former Hayes School, built in 1906, has 43,396 square feet of space. It was renovated in 1964 and 1995. Designed by the firm of Uehling and Linde, it was previously known as the Fourteenth District School No. 2. and Fifth Avenue School. The school was later renamed after President Rutherford B. Hayes. MPS now operates Hayes Bilingual School at 971 W. Windlake Ave.

Carmen paid $350,000 for the Hayes building and was expected to invest approximately $1 million in renovating the property. By the time the sale transaction was posted last week, a crew from Rocketship could already be seen moving into the building while another team was painting the three-story structure in Rocketship’s signature purple color.

Stellar was initially located in the former St. Patrick’s parish school at 1115 S. 7th St.