MPS comptroller out after 2 weeks on the job
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A key Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) financial official has left the district after only two weeks on the job, multiple district sources told CBS 58 Wednesday.
MPS has continued to miss deadlines for submitting required financial data to the state, and last week, the school board approved an updated corrective action plan with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI.)
The new version of the plan lists Begmurad Nepesov as the district's comptroller. An organizational flow chart shows Nepesov was one of only two workers in the finance office who answer directly to Chief Financial Officer Aycha Sawa, a former City of Milwaukee comptroller.
According to the updated action plan, Nepesov's first day with MPS was January 22.
It is unclear why Nepesov left the district. An MPS spokesman refused to say whether Nepesov still has a taxpayer-funded position with MPS, writing in an email, "In accordance with District policy and Federal and State law, the district does not comment on the circumstances of our individual staff members."
A spokeswoman for the MPS board said she would ask interim Superintendent Eduardo Galvan about Nepesov's status but did not respond to a follow-up message seeking confirmation.
The district's financial problems came to a head last spring. State education officials blasted MPS' late and inaccurate data reporting, which led to former Superintendent Keith Posley and former Chief Financial Officer Martha Kreitzman resigning.
The fiscal mess led to MPS receiving more money from the state than it was supposed to, and the DPI last summer docked more than $42 million from MPS' 2024-25 aid to make up for the overpayments.
Last summer, Gov. Tony Evers announced his office was launching audits into MPS' financial operations as well as how the district teaches kids.
Evers' communications director, Britt Cudaback, told CBS 58 last week in an email the outside firm MGT is conducting both audits. Cudaback said the financial audit will be done first and "my understanding is that it should be finished soon."