Public education nonprofit sues Wisconsin county for selling empty property to Christian school 

A thriving Christian school in Wisconsin is facing a lawsuit against its effort to purchase an unused public college campus.

FaithRidge Christian School, formerly Ozaukee Christian School, has offered Washington County $3 million to purchase the closed campus of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Washington County (UWM-WC).

UWM-WC closed in June 2024 as part of larger cuts in the University of Wisconsin system. It had just 285 students.

FaithRidge started in 1990 with just six students in a church basement. As the school grew, it bought and renovated a former strip club. But now, with over 140 students, FaithRidge is again looking for a bigger facility.

However, the Washington County Charitable Foundation (WCCF) doesn’t want FaithRidge to be allowed to purchase UWM-WC’s old campus.

WCCF – whose stated mission is to “financially support the success of Washington County students and their educational community” – recently filed a lawsuit, arguing that because it previously donated money to the school to benefit public education, the campus can’t be sold to a private school.

“Those funds, donated by the Foundation with the specific charitable purpose of benefitting public education, dramatically increased the value of the property, the sale of which will result in an unjust windfall to the County and City,” the lawsuit read.

Between 2000 and 2009, WCCF donated over $1 million to the campus, including funds designated for a new science hall.

“The County Board, acting on behalf of Washington County as an owner of the Campus, has a fiduciary obligation to use the Foundation’s donation in a manner consistent with the designated purpose of the funds,” WCCF told the Washington County Board last fall.

“By approving the sale of the Campus to Ozaukee Christian School, the County Board is acting in violation of the charitable trust and its fiduciary obligations because this sale violates the intended purpose of the gift of the Collins Science Hall.”

However, county officials are eager to get the property off their hands, citing the $300,000 annual maintenance cost.

Meanwhile, FaithRidge’s Interim Head of School Chris Bergstresser says the campus would be perfect for the Christian school.

“It has a full gym, a performing arts theater, soccer fields, tons of parking, state-of-the-art science labs, engineering labs, STEM facilities, art, pottery, all sorts of opportunities [for] programming that we want to have with our high school,” he previously told The Lion.

Since FaithRidge is continuing to grow, the campus’s capacity to serve 1,200 is ideal.

“This is just another example of God working through OCS and opening doors for us as we continue to grow,” Bergstresser said. “The feedback that I hear from parents about schools is that they love coming here because their kids are getting a good quality education and they’re also getting fed spiritually.”