Milwaukee Public Schools budget proposal would cut 288 staff positions despite referendum
Despite a successful referendum April 2 to boost funding for Milwaukee Public Schools, Superintendent Keith Posley's proposed budget released Friday still makes major cuts, including about 288 staff positions, as the district contends with high inflation and the end of federal pandemic relief dollars.
Some of the staff positions may already be vacant. Any staff members whose jobs would be cut under the plan would have the option to move to other positions in the district, MPS Communications Director Nicole Armendariz said.
Over the next month, Milwaukee school board members will be hearing from the public and have the opportunity to make changes before voting on the budget at the end of May.
Released Friday evening, Posley's $1.47 billion total budget is down from last year's $1.61 billion budget, with the drop largely due to the ending of pandemic-related federal funds. The referendum saved the district from more severe cuts, district officials said.
Here's what to know about Posley's budget proposal.
MPS budget proposal cuts 288 staff positions
Posley's budget plan would cut about 288 staff positions. Most of them are considered Central Services staff, as opposed to school-based positions.
The cuts would include about 149 teacher positions. Of those positions, about 130 are considered "teacher coaching positions," Armendariz said. She said current coaches in those positions would be moved to being classroom teachers.
The proposed cuts also include:
44 educational assistants
27 food service assistants and eight food service managers
27 administrators
13 school nurses and nine health assistants
11 clerical and secretarial workers
nine social workers and three psychologists
It wasn't immediately clear how many of those positions might already be vacant.
As of February, the district reported about 300 teacher vacancies and over 300 vacancies in other positions. However, those positions wouldn't necessarily be the first to be cut, as some of those positions could be considered more critical than positions that are currently filled.
MPS continues to project vacancies, but not as many
Posley's budget plan, possibly in part because of its staffing cuts and reshuffling, anticipates fewer vacancies than his last budget did. But the budget plan still banks on hundreds of positions remaining vacant.
The proposal includes an expected savings of about $48 million from vacancies, down from $65 million last year.
District officials justified this "vacancy adjustment" last year because the district has struggled to recruit and keep staff. Planning for the next school year, MPS Chief Financial Officer Martha Kreitzman had said she hoped to mostly end that practice.
"We are working hard to fill our vacancies and have improved in that direction, so it's risky to have such a high vacancy adjustment to our budget," Kreitzman said in January.
Why is MPS still making cuts despite a successful referendum?
When MPS board members voted on a referendum to send to voters, they chose a middle road: a tax increase that would significantly reduce the district's deficit but not entirely eliminate it.
Board members were concerned that if they sought a greater tax increase, it would be too much of a burden on Milwaukee property taxpayers. Even with the lower amount the board members decided on, nearly half of the city's voters voted against the measure, with many raising concerns about effects on housing costs.
For property owners, it's an additional tax of $2.16 per $1,000 of property value, according to MPS projections.
The referendum allows MPS to bring in an additional $140 million in the 2024-25 school year, while the district had projected a $200 million budget shortfall.
If the referendum had failed, MPS leaders were prepared to make deeper cuts, including about 300 teachers and 100 paraprofessionals. Principals had prepared to slash 13% of their schools' budgets, while the district's central office prepared to cut 26% of its own budget.
How did MPS end up in a deficit?
Many school districts in Wisconsin are relying on referendums to avoid major budget cuts. About 82% of Wisconsin's school districts have turned to referendums in the past three decades, according to Forward Analytics. And nearly a quarter are doing so this year, state data show.
District leaders across the state have said this is largely because school funding in Wisconsin has fallen far behind inflation. For decades, state lawmakers have kept caps on school funding and have not increased those caps to keep pace with inflation. If they had matched inflation, MPS officials estimated the district would be getting over $210 million more every year.
Some of MPS' projected deficit was related to inflation: an estimated $19 million to cover inflationary raises for staff of 4.12%, and $39 million in increased pension and health costs.
MPS also faced rising costs because of how it has maneuvered its staffing in recent years.
MPS has been able to avoid cutting staff positions in recent years by assuming that hundreds of them would go unfilled. Filling most of those vacancies would have cost about $45 million, the district estimated.
Additionally, MPS has used federal pandemic relief dollars to fund staff positions that it now hopes to fit into its own budget before federal dollars sunset. The cost of those positions was estimated at $32 million.
What about the 2020 referendum?
Milwaukee voters approved a referendum for MPS in 2020 that allows the district to continue collecting $87 million annually in perpetuity.
Thanks to that referendum, the district got about $13,366 per student this year in core funding, which includes funding under its revenue limit and state categorical aid. That's slightly above the inflation-adjusted amount it got 20 years ago, about $13,319 per student, according to a Wisconsin Policy Forum report.
Yet district officials say it's not enough to maintain operations. In part, that's because the district has had to use its core funding to pay for a larger portion of costs for special services that used to be covered more by separate federal and state funds, including those for students with disabilities, English language learners and students in poverty. State funding for special education, for example, now only covers about a third of the cost. MPS' budget for the 2024-25 school year includes about $205 million for special education services.
The district has also used some of the referendum funds to expand art, music, library, physical education, career and technical education, and early childhood programs.
Another challenge: MPS doesn't have as many students as it used to, as city birth rates decline and more families opt for independent charter schools and private schools that get tax-funded vouchers. The district has certain costs that are complicated to cut in proportion to the loss of student population, such as costly maintenance on its aging buildings.
The district is in the process of updating its long-range facilities plan, which could include plans to sell school buildings, but that plan isn't expected to be complete until October.
What's next in the budget process?
According to a preliminary timetable, the school board's Strategic Planning and Budget Committee will review the budget May 7, in a meeting open for public comment.
Board members will then have the chance to submit and vote on amendments to Posley's budget.
The board plans to hold a public hearing on the budget May 14 and could take action on the budget May 30.
Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @RoryLinnane.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS budget proposal would cut 149 teaching positions despite referendum
