MPS Superintendent Struggles With Equity and Consolidates Power

It has been a year since current Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Casselius has taken her position. She succeeds Kieth Posley, who resigned in shame and with an added bonus of exposing more cronyism from Mayor Johnson’s office in the form of a huge payout. Immediately, she was thrown into solving some incredibly difficult and sensitive issues for our public schools, starting with the great lead crisis. She also faced an uphill battle with budget deficits and received little support from Madison with Tony Evers' budget absolutely failing to fund public education.

Up to this point we have tried to show some grace for her situation, especially as budgets are concerned. We have talked about her in previous articles where we discussed the work cut out for her in the aforementioned lead crisis, and also warned about her cozying up to MMAC president Dale Kooyenga. However, on March 23rd at the final meeting with the School Engagement Council (made up of parents, staff, admin, and community members), she officially passed the threshold and established herself as just another person who is a part of the problem by being unwilling to listen to those most directly impacted by her decisions.

It started two weeks ago on March 6th. Cassellius indicated that cuts had to be made. The rhetoric surrounding this announcement gave reason for very cautious optimism, as she seemed to say that the positions cut would not be classroom roles. Rather she vaguely pointed at 147 in-school jobs, with an additional 116 positions cut from central offices. It is worth noting that there was a community-facing meeting previously on March 4th, where parents were not informed of the cuts even as they discussed budgets.  

Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) President Ingrid Walker-Henry was very clear that it did not make sense to ask anyone to approve these cuts without more transparency in what positions were being taken away. On March 9th, the school board approved the cuts anyway. We did learn that assistant principals and deans were to be reduced after the cuts were approved by the school board. 

This timeline is so problematic. There still is no public list of who is being cut. Those who are being let go were verbally informed late on March 23rd, with written notices being given on March 24th.

Brenda’s Bad Plan Was Not Transparent, Because It Was Bad

A great deal of the information in this article was provided by a public school advocate named Amanda Seppanen. She has been most critical of the timeline for how these cuts were implemented, and has been working to demand transparency from the administration as well as a plan more balanced by the people closer to the school. To add your name to the list of people demanding transparency, you can sign this petition!

Previously the superintendent had suggested that most of the jobs being cut were not “classroom jobs.” This has turned out to be true only in that they are not the majority of positions on the chopping block. But, make no mistake, classroom jobs are being cut. Furthermore, the central office jobs that are being cut are not addressing administrative bloat (which I think would be a fair problem to target), but rather highly specialized positions that travel to classrooms around the district and, to the surprise of many, assistant principal roles. This number also likely includes those in Human Resources departments, which is made up of all sorts of roles including new teacher mentors.

Assistant principal roles will be axed under this plan (62 in total across the district, or 40%.) This is something that had been foretold by her previous statement, but has been met uncritically. The role of the assistant principal in a school is incredibly student-facing, especially in high schools where they are often the first to step in for deescalation before students face suspension. At all levels, APs help provide oversight for classroom roles and play a large part in the school’s culture. In some cases, schools are cutting the roles from 5 to 3, or 4 to 1; these working conditions are not sustainable. 

This demonstrates the greatest flaw in Cassellius’ plan, as she aspires for equal treatment for schools across the board, even if they do not need “equal treatment.” In previous administrations when cuts were demanded, schools were granted more discretion on how they would be made. They could adjust their budgets and find ways to best get their job done at the highest level while also complying with demands from central offices. This approach brings us much closer to equitable outcomes, rather than equally making cuts.

As a pittance, those facing cuts are being offered two terrible options. The first option is early retirement, with no new incentives… so quitting. They can quit, that is option one. Option two under this plan is straight out of the Dr. Anthony Cruz playbook, where these experienced long-term employees are allowed to apply for teacher roles or other open positions, to then be hired without their seniority. It is also troubling that the roles being cut are those who are the newest in their positions. Newer assistant principals are more flexible and mission-driven, while those closer to retirement may be stuck in their ways.

All of this axing of positions is joined by cuts to relationships with private contractors that will solve $5-10 million of the $46 million budget shortfall. Many contractors are essential to the success of the district, especially transportation and food services. The other half of the contracts feel superfluous and Cassellius has not had the best track record with them so far, specifically with consultancy firms.

For starters, she has continued to humor the report from Perkins Eastman who have lobbied for the closing of 5 schools in the 53206 zip code. This contract did not start under her tenure, but she has consistently shown herself amenable to their suggestions despite the community and the board member of that district rejecting these plans without considering alternative investments. 

They have also floated the idea of lobbying folks in Madison to remove the current statute requiring former MPS buildings to be vacant for 2 years in order to be sold to a private school. Cassileus has stated she would be supportive, though it is clear that developers are the ones most likely to benefit from this move, and not the school community. 

The consistent issue with a great deal of consultant firms like Perkins Eastman is that they exist to tell the school things that they already know, and then justify the plans (like school closures) that they already want to do. Cassellius has also spent at least $2 million dollars on metal detectors that dehumanize students as young as 12 years old. 

The Consistent Struggle With Equity

There is a lot that is unclear at this moment. But one parent activist from Lead-Safe Schools MKE says “Cassellius is trying to make every school “equal” while not understanding the concept of equity. She is just applying one size fits all formulas to every school.” Her strict plans lack involvement from the community who are most affected, and she does not understand that every school is not the same. This is especially frustrating as she has previously touted her work in Boston on the “opportunity index.” 

Interestingly, in that previous position in late 2020, the Boston Teachers Union overwhelmingly resolved a vote of no confidence in Brenda Casselius after she refused to “formally ensure equitable and uniform safety and instructional provisions at additional schools.” Her understanding of equity seems insufficient, and someone needs to show her one of those images of equity vs equality where the kids are watching baseball. You know the ones.

When Brenda Cassellius took over MPS last year, the Evers administration had just released a report that highlighted what we already know about the ways that MPS has failed its most vulnerable communities. A strikingly similar report was released by the Massachusetts government about the Boston schools she served at in 2022 as she was leaving the position.”BPS has shown little to no progress in addressing the needs of its students with disabilities, English learners, and students at the district’s lowest-performing schools, resulting in continued poor outcomes for tens of thousands of students.”

She also said her time in the role “was marred by… racial unrest following George Floyd’s murder.” What the hell does that mean? BRENDA.

There is quite a bit of concern from parents at bilingual schools, like Escuela Fratney, about these cuts. Their assistant principal is going to be replaced by someone without community involvement (this is atypical) who may or may not understand Spanish as their current AP does. This concern comes from Cassellius' plan to shuffle administrators from around the district to new schools where their experience does not translate to the student population of the school. 

At the 6-month check-in on her progress, Milwaukee Magazine highlighted some of her goals and achievements at the time. Among them was the creation of the Family and Community Engagement Office with the intent to specifically tackle issues of equity by involving the voices of parents and community members. 

Another half a year later and education activists do not feel that this office has lived up to these intentions. In a piece for Milwaukeeans MPS teacher/activist Angela Harris says this committee specifically has been used to “reduce transparency and limit deeper discussion before decisions reach the full board.” 

Look, It’s Not Just Cassellius 

The board is relevant to this discussion. As much as we do not appreciate the moves being made by the superintendent, we acknowledge failures all the way down from the Governor’s Office, the state legislature, at both the Mayor’s Office and Common Council, and of course the school board as well. Both the activist from Lead-Safe Schools and Harris had some heat for board members who do not even show up for meetings – and specifically Chris Fons who did not even show up to the meeting on March 6th and does not consistently answer emails from parents. 

The board deserves to be scrutinized for not supplying sufficient oversight on the superintendent. When Cassellius is making plans from the central office without conveying that information to the schools directly, it is the board who should have stepped in and said, “hey wait a minute.” As it stands this body has only served to rubber stamp her consolidation of power. It is theorized that the superintendent and the board both do not feel that some principals in the district can be trusted to make these cuts. However that mostly reflects poorly on them, as this is a staffing issue that should be addressed without punishing schools that are functioning well. 

This situation is evolving still, and we plan to do some more extensive reporting on how the community is organizing against these moves. For now I think we will just remind people that there is a school board meeting on Thursday, March 26th at 5:30 in the Donald J. O'Connell Memorial Auditorium, Central Services Bldg., 5225 W. Vliet. 

It might be a good time to pack the house.