MPS announces plan to cut more than 260 jobs amid $46 million budget gap

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced plans Friday to eliminate more than 260 positions as the district tries to close a projected $46 million budget gap.

Cassellius sent a memo to district staff Friday afternoon, which CBS 58 obtained, before the district sent out a press release outlining the proposed cuts.

According to the memo, Cassellius seeks to eliminate a total of 263 positions ahead of the 2026-27 school year. The superintendent noted about 40% of the positions are currently vacant.

The memo stated the positions cut would include assistant principals, deans of students, and interventionists; 147 of the positions on the chopping block are based in schools, and the other 116 are in the district's central office.

Cassellius said the proposed cuts would save MPS about $30 million.

According to the memo, MPS currently has one district employee for every 138 students. Cassellius said that is a significantly higher rate that the average large urban U.S. district, which was one employee for every 166 students. Across Wisconsin, the average district has one employee for every 198 positions.

Cassellius said, despite that ratio, the district still has a higher student-to-teacher classroom ratio.

The district has grappled with financial challenges for years, and it relies heavily on federal aid to manage an enrollment with a higher rate of impoverished students than all but five other large urban districts.

More recently, MPS incurred massive unexpected costs when the district had to spend nearly $43 million on lead remediation efforts in more than 100 schools.

Cassellius said none of the jobs she's proposing to cut are full-time classroom positions. She added those who do have their positions eliminated could apply for classroom-based teaching roles.

Teachers union responds

Last spring, Cassellius announced plans to move 40 specialists and interventionists into full-time classroom jobs. The proposal called for 180 staffers to re-apply for their current jobs, a process the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA) sharply criticized.

In Friday's memo, Cassellius alluded to that bumpy process.

"We are continuing to reallocate resources to classrooms, a difficult but necessary process that began when I first arrived," Cassellius wrote. "To address vacancies in schools, we reduced teaching positions based at Central Services for the current school year. We take ownership for the challenges with the prior process and continue to work to address concerns and have listened and readjusted based on that feedback."

MTEA leadership in a statement Friday evening said Cassellius is not being forthcoming enough about her plan. Union President Ingrid Walker-Henry called on Cassellius to provide a detailed breakdown of exactly how many of each position would be eliminated under her plan.

"MPS Administration is purposefully withholding information that the Board, the public and loyal MPS workers need to understand the impact of the superintendent's proposed job cuts," Walker-Henry said. "The Administration’s announcement withholds the line-by-line positions and job titles that would be cut. They are asking the School Board to rubber-stamp a plan without the detailed information needed to make responsible, informed decisions."

Where the cuts are coming, a history of fiscal woes

The proposal includes a total of 183 positions cut from MPS' Office of Schools. Cassellius also proposed cutting 25 jobs from the district's academics office, 25 from its operations department, 12 from human resources and 12 from the office of finance.

Cassellius also proposes cutting two jobs each in the offices of communications, community partnership and from the superintendent's office.

The proposed finance office cuts come less than two years after a financial scandal rocked the district and forced out former Superintendent Keith Posley. 

In the spring of 2024, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction revealed MPS was so late in providing financial data to the state, it was threatening to keep other districts statewide from knowing what state aid they'd receive for the 2024-25 school year.

On top of that, the data MPS had provided up to that point was inaccurate, something both the district and state blamed on the use of outdated, incompatible software.