MPS to present budget that cuts nearly 300 jobs, still increases total spending on salaries

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The public will have its first chance Tuesday to weigh in on the first Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) budget since voters narrowly passed a $252 million referendum last month.

MPS administrators will present their proposed $1.47 billion budget for the 2024-25 school year at a public hearing Tuesday night. The district's current budget is $1.61 billion.

The administration's proposal calls for the elimination of nearly 300 positions, more than half of which are teachers. 

For more than a week, CBS 58 has asked the district office for an on-camera interview with either Superintendent Keith Posley or a district official involved in crafting the budget. That interview request was not granted ahead of Tuesday's presentation. 

Sara Shaw, a senior researcher at the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum, said the budget gap was largely a result of federal pandemic aid expiring and the full referendum increase not yet taking effect.

The referendum will provide an additional $140 million for the upcoming year while federal aid for MPS will decline from $327 million to $137.2 million. That leaves a budget gap of a little more than $137 million. 

To close the gap, the proposed budget would cut 288 jobs; 149 of those positions are classified as 'teachers,' although the majority of those positions are 'non-school' jobs, which Shaw described as experienced teachers who'd been focused on developing younger teachers. 

"School support teachers, who are teachers who are not directly in a classroom themselves, but really helping coach teachers and inside schools in that capacity, those positions were eliminated," Shaw said.

The support teachers will now fill vacant classroom teacher positions, which MPS has long had a difficult time filling. Shaw described the impact as a trade-off; having experienced teachers back in the classroom could provide direct benefits for students, but younger teachers won't have the same level of mentoring.

"The exact impact we don't know," she said. "If those school support teachers are now going into vacant teaching positions, they may still be having a very impactful experience with students, but it will look different at the school level."

In addition to the 149 teacher positions cuts, the proposed MPS budget also eliminates the following jobs:

• 44 Educational Assistants
• 27 Food Service Assistants
• 21 Children's Health Assistants
• 21 Certified Administrators
• 12 Nurses
• 9 Social Workers

At Washington Park Monday, Jaime McDermott supervised her two children as they bounded from one part of the playground to another. The oldest daughter is now an MPS kindergartener, and McDermott said her main concern was ensuring expanded extracurriculars, like art, libraries and music, will not be cut.

"[Access to extracurriculars] just keeps kids well-rounded. It's not always just about the focus on books and books and books," McDermott said. "It's making sure they're a balanced human."

McDermott said she was hopeful the impact of any cuts would be minimal as a result of vacant positions being eliminated.

Despite MPS administrators' plans to fund 288 fewer jobs, the proposal still calls for the district to spend more money on salary and benefits than it is this year. 

In the 2023-24 budget, MPS is spending $599.1 million on salaries and $317.5 million on benefits. The 2024-25 proposal calls for spending $621.6 million on salaries and $342.7 million on benefits.

The budget proposal stated increases that will attract and keep staff can quickly get costly.

"Even a small increase in salaries—for example, 1.0 percent—represents an annual cost of over $9.0 million when salary-driven benefits are included," the document read.

"That's a point on which we'd love to learn more from the district," Shaw said. "Some of it is likely due to the cost-of-living adjustment that they built it."

Tuesday's public hearing will begin with the school board hearing a report on the administration's long-term buildings plan, which could include closing schools amid declining enrollment. That special meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the budget presentation and hearing to start at either 6:30 p.m. or the conclusion of the special meeting.