Not many budgets can handle an unexpected $16 million expense. But public school leaders in Milwaukee don't have a choice.
They’re under a mandate from the health department and the community to clean up hazardous lead paint in the district’s 106 aging buildings. Much of that work is planned for summer break. The threat was discovered when a student tested positive for lead poisoning and their case was traced back to exposure at school.
Earlier this school year, the district closed six schools for lead cleaning. Five have now reopened. In most of the closures, students were moved to other campuses while teams removed, cleaned or sealed the paint.
Priority number one this summer is decontaminating the district’s 54 campuses built before 1950. Prep work at 14 schools will begin on June 14 — the day after students leave for the summer. MPS Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius says work at those sites is scheduled to be done by the first day of school next year.
The district’s next priority will be removing lead from the 52 schools built between 1950 and 1978, when lead paint was outlawed. That phase is supposed to start in the fall and be finished by the end of 2025.
“Of course, lead stabilization has been an ongoing challenge for us," she says. "And I feel like we’re turning a corner there, which is wonderful.”
So far, the project has cost the district around $2 million.
Coupled with the $16 million line item in the proposed budget, MPS will spend nearly $20 million in total fixing the deferred paint maintenance that got the district and its students into this mess. The money will come from the district’s capital improvement trust, a fund typically reserved for long-term projects.
Cassellius plans to hire 61 new employees in the facilities and maintenance department to help manage the lead paint cleanup project.
MPS budget climbs higher thanks to voter-approved referendum
Cassellius presented her proposed budget to the school board’s finance committee earlier this month.
At a time of dropping enrollment, the proposed budget is $620,000 higher than last year. That’s mostly possible because of MPS’s $252 million referendum voters approved last year, according to Cassellius.
“We also have rigid state student funding formulas and revenues, so we don’t have the opportunity to have revenue," she says. "(I'm) thanking our residents here in Milwaukee who did pass a referendum that’s making this not as difficult as it could have been. So I’m very grateful to the residents of Milwaukee for passing that referendum prior to my coming (to Milwaukee).”
The school board must pass a spending plan by the start of the fiscal year on July 1.
If approved, Cassellius’ budget would include dozens of new jobs in the facilities department, while cutting 45 paraprofessionals who work with students with special needs.
The budget would also add new administrative positions the superintendent says she needs to effectively run the school district.
Teachers union sounds the alarm about cutting jobs, centralizing school budgets
The draft budget has been controversial on other fronts, though. Teachers union members are concerned about Cassellius’ plans to cut central office jobs by moving teachers who work in multiple schools into vacant classroom positions.
Last month, 140 of those jobs were “excessed” from the central office, which means jobs were cut but that employees can apply for a smaller number of open positions. The positions affected included teachers of the visually impaired, literacy specialists and academic coaches.
Now, union members are critical of Cassellius’ proposal to standardize school budgets from the central office.
Angela Harris, an MPS teacher and parent, says the move would take away principals’ power to decide how best to use the money at their schools.
"While I understand the intention may be to create consistency across the district, centralization often comes at the cost of equity. When financial decisions are moved further away from school communities, we risk silencing the voices closest to the needs of our students, especially those in schools serving historically marginalized populations.”
MPS again misses 2025 financial reporting deadlines, putting state funding at risk
The budget was sure to be an uphill climb as MPS recovers from missing financial deadlines last year that caused the resignation of superintendent Keith Posely and the loss of $43 million in state funding.
Things haven’t quite turned around yet.
MPS missed a pair of state reporting deadlines in May, and the Department of Public Instruction has said it will withhold $42 million in state funding yet again.
MPS can recoup that money after it submits its required financial information and shares a plan to meet future deadlines with the state.
For now, the only way out appears to be through for Cassellius and MPS.
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
