MPS School Board Election

The horrific lead crisis currently facing Milwaukee Public Schools is not the only piece of noteworthy news coming out of MPS. The MPS Board recently elected a new president. While Milwaukee Beagle’s beagle-reporters were not able to write on this story at the time of the election, it still is important news worth covering. On April 22nd the school board elected Missy Zombor as President and Marva Herndon as Vice President. Based on their previous records we at Milwaukee Beagle hope and feel that Zombor and Herndon are the right people to steer MPS through this lead crisis and the various other crises the district currently faces. 

First, let's address what could potentially be the elephant in the room during this conversation. Zombor is a white woman representing a school district that is predominantly students of color. This has arguably caused a great level of distrust towards her, and understandably so. White folks have caused so much pain and suffering in these communities. Trust needs to be earned not just with words, but with concrete actions. That being said, just because someone is white or someone is black does not inherently mean they know what is best for MPS. Lived experience does provide vital perspective and should be listened to, but real tangible actions are the most important. Thankfully, both Zombor and Herndon have shown themselves to be staunch allies of public education.

While on the school board, Zombor was instrumental in severing MPS’ contracts with a nonprofit run by Wisconsin GOP official Gerard Randall which was charging the district over a million dollars for unclear and non-transparent services. Herndon has been fighting against voucher schools for years prior to joining the school board and is in fact the reason that all schools in Milwaukee are required to have a playground space. Zombor and Herndon, as previously covered by Milwaukee Beagle, also resisted State Republican’s efforts to bring cops back into MPS.  Both have receipts showing their public education defender credentials. Zombor and Herndon were also the targets of a failed and fraudulent recall effort headed by school privatizer and disgraced former school board member Aisha Carr. Carr has also been in the news recently as new campaign finance and fraud charges were brought against her at the end of April. Privatizers like Carr will never be the answer to fixing education. These schools enrich their owners while depriving public schools of resources without even providing better results. Privatizers must always be resisted.

Despite being off the school board, Carr’s presence can still be felt. The school board member who ran for president against Zombor was Dr. James Ferguson who is currently occupying Carr’s vacated seat. Despite wanting to “stay neutral” when questioned whether or not he supported Carr, a huge portion of Ferguson’s nomination papers were circulated by Carr herself. And while he made transparency and accountability for finances a central tenet of his campaign, Ferguson’s own most recent campaign finance reports seem to contain finance errors where the amounts in the “Year-to-Date” section are less than those listed under “This Period”, something which should never be the case. We at Milwaukee Beagle are not accounting experts, so we understand that filing campaign finance reports can be agonizing. But one would hope if transparency was a central part of his campaign, Ferguson would have done extra due diligence to ensure all his numbers lined up. Even more concerning is that Ferguson’s biggest expense was for an event at Kingdom Partners Alliance Inc. on election day; an organization that he happens to be the Chief Operating Officer of. Now, to be clear we are not saying that any of this comes close to the level of fraud that Carr is accused of committing. What we are saying is that there are some concerning details that Dr. Ferguson is not separating himself from Carr as much as he should be. It is not illegal, but it does not look very ethical. MPS has to fight against relentless attacks, and cannot afford to be caught up in any sort of questionable behavior, especially from its leadership. 

Tensions were high the night of the election. Dr. Ferguson had publicly questioned the transparency of school board elections and the proceedings themselves were stopped multiple times by a handful of disruptors supporting Dr. Ferguson and opposing Zombor’s nominations for president. Given the failed recall attempt organized by privatizers, it is no surprise that Zombor’s nomination faced resistance and will continue to do so during her presidency. A lot of this same resistance also often targets the teachers union (MTEA) which is seen as a ‘green wall’ protecting bad teachers that mistreat or fail MPS’ children. That is not to say that all resistance to Zombor and the union is in bad faith and can be written off. There is a lot of betrayal and pain from MPS’ very real failure to protect Milwaukee’s children, exacerbated even further by the current lead crisis. The solution though is not to burn the whole public school system down and privatize it. Private schools are even more unaccountable than public schools and will only exacerbate these problems further. MPS needs to right these wrongs but in a way that strengthens public education, not weakens it.

We do, however, find it incredibly concerning that there was a threat of calling the police on the disruptors during the board meeting. Calling the police will always escalate rather than resolve any type of conflict. It is a relief that the board meeting was able to proceed without the intervention of law enforcement, and hopefully they are able to continue resolving these conflicts without resorting to police. Now that this election is over, ideally everyone can come together and fight for what really matters. Protecting Milwaukee’s children and public education. Though this may be idealistic thinking, given the apparent continued influence of Carr. We hope that the board can put a greater distance between itself and scandals like Carr’s and the years of mismanagement to truly move the district forward.

 In the face of the current lead crisis, swift and meaningful action is desperately needed. Zombor has demonstrated both in her words and actions that she will stand up for public education. Regarding the current lead crisis, she has instructed the school administration to consult the city attorney regarding potentially suing lead paint companies. While lawsuits like these are more of a long-term solution than an immediate one, it does demonstrate Zombor taking concrete action on the issue. We encourage our readers to attend the regular MPS school board meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month to show support for real solutions offered and hold the school board accountable for resolving the lead crisis and the many other crises MPS faces.   There is also a special meeting this Tuesday May 13th which folks can attend.