Milwaukee alderman calls on MPS board to not enact full referendum after financial problems revealed

As the furor around financial mismanagement at Milwaukee Public Schools continued this week, an alderman called on the School Board not to enact the full referendum approved by voters in April and urged the board to hold another meeting solely on the district's budget to give residents a better chance to weigh in.

Residents who attended a lengthy School Board meeting earlier this week following the revelations expressed "buyer's remorse" over the referendum voters approved earlier this year, Ald. Scott Spiker said at a City Hall press conference Wednesday.

Milwaukee voters narrowly approved a referendum in April allowing the district to raise property taxes to gain an additional $140 million for the next school year, then increase to $252 million annually by the 2027-28 school year.

"The idea that you're going to do nothing, that you're going to pretend as if the financial disarray that has been brought to light doesn't exist and that everybody who voted for the referendum would repeat that vote today, that's insulting," he said.

The referendum was approved before revelations last week that state officials are threatening to suspend funding to MPS after the district failed to submit required financial reports, some of which were due to the state Department of Public Instruction more than eight months ago. In addition, MPS errors in reported costs for the 2022-23 school year will likely result in a "significant reduction" in state general aid payments to the state's largest school district, according to DPI.

Spiker said voters' approval allowed, but did not require, MPS to raise property taxes to a certain level. He called on the board to amend the budget to decrease the proposed $140 million increase by 25% and pay for it by cutting central administration staff instead of teachers, vacant teacher positions or front-line staff.

Cuts should come, he said, "from the same central office that gave us the mismanagement that got us into this predicament."

Spiker said it is too soon to specify positions to cut at the central administration, including whether the top financial staffers should go. Still, he said, this situation should spark a deep examination of what factors contributed to this situation.

"You can't come in with a hatchet and just slice things up and think that won't have an impact," he said. "It's shortsighted to think that your rage is going to be a good tool for determining what systematic, deep reform is supposed to look like."

Whether the board can regain trust in the community will depend on the board's next steps, including whether the board holds a special meeting on the budget, Spiker said. If the board declines to give the public another opportunity to comment on the budget, that will "sow the seeds of deep distrust that you can never come back from," he said.

Milwaukee School Board vice president says district needs referendum funding

Jilly Gokalgandhi, vice president of the Milwaukee School Board, didn’t comment Wednesday on whether the board would consider holding another public hearing on the budget. She said her focus was on submitting the district’s late reports to the state Department of Public Instruction.

“We’ve had our statutory hearings, we’ve had multiple sessions on the budget,” Gokalgandhi said. “The board is really focused on getting DPI the information that we need right now so our focus is on what’s most pressing and important.”

In addition to the regular meetings and hearings on the budget, the board added a hearing on the budget that was held Monday, after board members decided last week to delay a vote on the budget.

Some community members were frustrated that Monday’s hearing, where Posley resigned, was combined with a hearing on the district’s late financial reports, with each speaker given two minutes to address both items together.

Spiker called the decision to hear both items together "a move as tactically brilliant as it was dishonest."

Responding to Spiker’s demand for the board to cut 25% of the referendum, Gokalgandhi said the district needs the full amount. While board members are still working with financial consultant Todd Gray to understand the district’s “full financial picture,” she said it’s clear the district will need the funding.

“Without the referendum passing, the district would be in incredibly dire straits,” Gokalgandhi said.

If the district were to make deeper cuts to its central administration, as suggested by Spiker, Gokalgandhi said the district could end up back in the same situation. The district’s chief financial officer has said the lack of staffing in the district’s finance office has made it difficult to complete financial reports properly.

“To continue to chip away at Central is going to land us in the position we’re seeing ourselves in right now,” she said.

To those who’ve said they’ve lost trust in the district, Gokalgandhi said the board is listening.

“I understand and I hear you, and we are listening every day to our constituents, our families and our students,” Gokalgandhi said. “And at the same time we have been responsive. We are making the necessary changes that we believe will prevent the situation from ever happening again. You’ve seen an incredibly responsive board who understands the urgency and dire nature of this matter.”

Financial errors should be considered as MPS board decides how, whether to enact referendum, Mayor's Office says

Asked about Spiker's proposal, Mayor Cavalier Johnson's spokesman said the mayor was "troubled by multiple financial errors that have emerged at Milwaukee Public Schools."

"Those errors ought to be considered as the Board of School Directors determines how, or whether, to collect the tax revenue allowed through the recent referendum," spokesman Jeff Fleming said in an email. "Importantly, the Mayor does not want children attending MPS to be harmed as a result of the fiscal mismanagement by MPS administrators."

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Rory Linnane can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee alderman calls on MPS to not enact full referendum