Dr. Brenda Cassellius had an unexpected start to her job at MPS.
During her first week, the superintendent traded in her shoes for skates and took to the ice at Petit National Ice Center. A Minnesotan by birth and a lifelong hockey player, she said she was in her element with Bryant Elementary students in their PE class.
The superintendent's job is slippery even off the ice.
MPS’s last superintendent, Keith Posley, resigned after failures to file basic financial reports with the state cost the district millions of dollars. National exam results showed that achievement gaps between Black and white students in Milwaukee are only growing more stark. And an ongoing lead paint crisis has caused the closure or overnight cleaning of half a dozen schools.
But Cassellius is clear-eyed about why she’s here.
"The reason I came to Milwaukee was because we have 67,000 children and 90% of them are poor," she says. "They deserve the same opportunities that any other child would have within this state and within this nation.”
Milwaukee has a higher rate of poverty among students and their families than all other southeastern Wisconsin school districts. Within MPS, 83% of students are economically disadvantaged. Among all other school districts in Milwaukee County, just 38% of students live in poverty.
Cassellius didn’t miss a beat when asked her about her top priorities.
"In my first year, I want to improve literacy rates. So academics is top of the list.”
Number two?
"We have a significant lead issue here in the schools, she says. "So lots of training of our staff and retraining of our staff as we begin to clean and remediate the lead.”
And then?
"Working with our communications division on issues of transparency and trust," she says. "Make sure they know what’s happening in Milwaukee Public Schools.”
Next on her list is working with the state Department of Public Instruction to straighten out the district’s finances. Then, she plans to reorganize the central office in accordance with a state audit and work plan, and hire members of her cabinet.
Cassellius says she has experience turning around school districts
Cassellius comes to MPS from the clean energy sector in Minnesota. She previously ran Boston’s public school district from 2019 to 2022, where she was also tasked with overhauling what legislators called a “failing system.”
By some accounts, she didn’t succeed. A report in 2020 found that the district didn’t have a clear plan for turning around low-performing schools.
But Cassellius says she’s led other districts through successful turnarounds. Under her leadership in Memphis, the district moved from having 27 underperforming middle schools to just four.
Any district heading for a turnaround needs the right people, she says.
“But a lot of that hinges on having great teachers and great principals," she says. "It’s my commitment to our Milwaukee parents and students that we’re going to have caring and competent teachers in every single classroom. And leaders in every single school who are on fire for this work and hope to get that done.”
Cassellius is planning a town hall for this spring where students, parents and teachers can come share their thoughts on how to help the district succeed.
Her contract runs until June 2027, and she’ll be paid a base salary of $320,000, according to district documents.
Katherine Kokal is the education reporter at 89.7 WUWM - Milwaukee's NPR. Have a question about schools or an education story idea? You can reach her at kokal@uwm.edu
