Superintendent Posley 1-on-1: Why MPS budget moves teacher coaches into classroom, increases salary spending despite job cuts

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As board members weigh amendments to his proposed budget for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), Superintendent Keith Posley defended his administration's plans for closing a budget gap by eliminating nearly 300 jobs.

Posley sat down with CBS 58 for a one-on-one interview Friday. The proposed budget cuts spending from $1.61 billion to $1.47 billion. Most of the $252 million voters approved in an April referendum will be available for this budget, but not all of it kicks in at once. At the same time, federal pandemic aid MPS had been receiving is set to expire.

To balance the books, Posley's budget eliminates 288 positions. 149 of those jobs are classified as teachers. Of those teaching positions, more than 130 are designated teacher coaches who had been overseeing less experienced faculty. Now, those coaches will go back into the classroom and fill vacant teaching positions the district hasn't been able to fill.

Posley said he believed the benefits for students would outweigh the lost developmental opportunities for younger teachers who won't have as much access to mentorship.

"You always have thoughts about what that's going to look like, but I feel that this is gonna be great for our children," Posley said. "You just think about a veteran teacher in front of a classroom, that's amazing."

Posley said the teacher coaches will have the ability to choose the grade and school to which they're assigned. While MPS has some of the state's top-performing schools, such as Rufus King High School and its collection of Montessori and language immersion schools, some of its neighborhood schools have downright dismal testing results. 

For instance, 83% of students tested at a below basic level in reading Auer Avenue School, and 88% were below basic in math, according to the most recent Department of Public Instruction report cards. At LaFollette Elementary, 75% were below basic in reading with 97% scoring as below basic in math.

What if teacher coaches don't want to be places in those low-performing schools?

"All of those things are taken into consideration, and I'm a firm believer that an employee works best where they want to be," Posley said. "If they get an opportunity to select the location they want to be, I think they're gonna give it 110%."

Improving classroom outcomes came up as a topic in Thursday's MPS board meeting. Director Henry Leonard noted tough staffing decisions were coming because the district allocated $32 million of its pandemic aid to personnel. 

Despite those challenges, Leonard told the administration, without offering a specific amendment, MPS has to find a way to improve performance, specifically when it comes to reading.

"Because it concerns me as a teacher when I go in there, and I see -- I'm gonna be honest -- I'm talking to 19 students in a high school freshman class, and four of them could not read," Leonard said. "That's a concern."

During a February interview, before the referendum passed, Posley said MPS would use the additional dollars to maintain art, music, library and physical education offerings it had added after voters approved a 2020 referendum.

"Maintaining what we have," he said at the time. "We're trying to maintain."

With the April referendum having also passed, why does the district believe sustaining those offerings will lead to improved reading and math outcomes?

"The learning process takes place in all content areas, and as far as when it comes to physical education, they're looking at the reading skills and writing skills, and all of these different- art, music, we are teaching to the whole child," Posley said. "And that learning process takes place there with the whole child."

Posley defends salary spending increase

Despite the overall spending decrease, Posley's proposed budget increases total spending on salaries and benefits by more than $47 million.

Salary spending would increase from $599.1 million to $621.6 million, a 3.75% increase. Benefit costs would increase by 7.93%, going from $317.5 million to $342.7 million.

Posley said the salary increase was driven by across-the-board 4.12% raises meant to cover cost-of-living increases.

However, if the district was eliminating 288 positions, shouldn't the increase be smaller? After all, if the average eliminated position had a combined salary and benefit cost of $60,000, that would amount to $17.2 million.

"All of the individuals that are being shifted or their salaries are moving into another job class, and that job class is being eliminated," Posley said.

The district has previously claimed savings from positions that were funded in the budget but remained vacant, so it remains unclear how eliminating 288 positions doesn't generate greater savings, even if all 288 positions were accounted for by people who remained employed by MPS but moved into a different job. 

Two budget meetings remain, feedback sought on long-term building plan

The MPS board's budget committee will meet again on May 28 to hear public comment and consider amendments to the administration's budget. The board is then set to vote on the budget May 30.

Milwaukee residents who want to offer testimony or feedback on the proposed budget can do so here.

MPS is also holding three community sessions to collect feedback about the long-term future of the district's facilities. The could include school consolidations in some buildings with low enrollment while potentially expanding other schools.

The meetings will run from 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Monday's will be Hamilton High School, Tuesday's will take place at Bay View High School and the final session Wednesday will be hosted by Rufus King High School.