MILWAUKEE — Funding will once again be withheld from Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) after it missed a deadline to turn in financial reports to the state, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) confirmed in a statement Tuesday.
MPS had until Friday, May 30 to turn in financial reports to the state as part of a corrective plan created by the state and the district.
In a statement, DPI Deputy State Superintendent Tom McCarthy said that withholding funding is "last resort" and that it's seen "real progress" under new leadership. However, DPI said that meeting the deadlines is critical to ensure the DPI can accurately and efficiently calculate general aid estimates for school districts across Wisconsin."
"At this point, there are still some required priority actions which were needed by the May 16 and May 30 deadlines. Because of that, we will continue to withhold the $16.6 million from the prior year and begin withholding new aid for this year," said McCarthy in the statement.
At a school board meeting on May 29, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said her team would be working through the weekend to get those reports to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
“For the past two weeks, the members of the team have been working out of the superintendent’s suite,” she said.
As of Monday, June 2, MPS provided no new information.
“It’s a problem not only for MPS,” said Jacob J. Curtis, general counsel and director of the Center for Investigative Oversight at the Institute for Reforming Government. “It’s a problem for the funding of all 420 school districts. It’s a problem because DPI is clearly not enforcing these deadlines.”
Late financial reports last year cost MPS more than $16 million in special education funding from the state. That prompted Gov. Tony Evers to order an audit of the district.
At that time, former MPS Superintendent Keith Posley blamed outdated software and an inexperienced finance team for missing deadline. Posley ended up resigning from his position.
“I think that’s what bothers me because I know that the staff that’s in there,” said Henry Leonard, a former Milwaukee Board of School Directors member. “I mean, I’m part of that. We help bring those people in. They are more than able to handle this. The capacity is there. They’re very smart. They know what they are doing.”
Leonard acknowledged that every cent of funding for MPS is critical to best serve students and teachers.
“We need every penny we can get to make sure we give our students all the classrooms and teachers they need,” he said. “We really need to make sure that we do everything in our power not to let that happen. I’m frustrated with it. I want to see us moving forward.”
A spokesperson for MPS provided Spectrum News with this statement Tuesday:
"MPS has been in close coordination with our partners at DPI and clearly understands the action they are taking today. We expect that our team will be able to submit all of the final information and data needed in the coming days and have been assured that state funds can be released quickly after it is reviewed. We expect any withholding of funds to be temporary and will not interrupt services to students in any way.
Since arriving in mid-March Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has been laser focused on shoring up all of the MPS practices that led to this delay and is actively implementing changes to ensure the district is never again in this position."
