MPS parents, staff call for Superintendent Keith Posley's firing

Before a Milwaukee school board meeting where board members are scheduled to discuss the possible firing of Superintendent Keith Posley, board President Marva Herndon said at a news conference that an investigation is underway.

Herndon did not explain the purpose of the investigation or answer questions.

“We are working with the interested parties to conduct a thorough, expeditious and timely investigation,” Herndon said. “Given that the investigation is ongoing, the board is limited in what information it can share at this time.”

Monday’s special board meeting comes days after board members learned MPS had failed to submit key financial reports to state officials. According to the meeting notice, board members can discuss Posley’s hiring in a closed-door meeting before they can return to a public meeting to take action.

The board is also discussing hiring a new financial consultant, Todd Gray, who is tasked with helping the district complete its reports for the state Department of Public Instruction. He also held a public hearing on the district’s budget.

Residents are calling for Posley’s firing

Dozens of community members filled the board meeting room Monday to demand that Posley lose his job.

Maria Penager, a parent in the district, said she asked her neighbors, friends and sisters to support the MPS referendum that passed in April to raise taxes for the district. She said she has lost confidence in the district, blaming both Posley and board members for a lack of oversight.

“We believed in you, but we no longer believe in you,” Penager said. “So what we’re going to do is, when election time comes around, you’re not going to have your job.”

Angela Harris, a teacher at the Milwaukee Chinese Language Academy and president of the Black Educators Caucus, brought demands including: removing Posley, reviewing the performance of Posley’s administrative team, forming a community coalition to help find a new superintendent, adding community involvement in superintendent performance reviews, ordering an equity audit of the district and funding higher-needs students at higher levels.

“It’s time for the board and the district administration to rebuild the trust that they shattered,” Harris said.

Some came to Posley’s defense. George Jolly, pastor of Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, said Posley is a member of his congregation. He said it looked like people wanted to “do a hatchet job” on Posley. He said the MPS had been “messed up” for decades because of previous Posley decisions.

“I don’t think we need to come here specifically to pick a man,” Jolly said. “I’m with Keith Posley.”

MPS failures jeopardize state, federal funding

Posley is taking heat after both state and federal officials raised red flags about MPS operations.

On May 21, federal officials suspended funding for MPS Head Start sites, which are federally funded preschool programs. The district failed to correct problems after some children were found unsupervised or abused by staff, federal officials said.

MPS expected to get about $10.5 million for Head Start programs in the next school year, according to the district’s budget plan. The district could lose that funding if federal officials don’t find that MPS has corrected problems in its programs.

On May 24, state officials threatened to freeze general funding for MPS schools because the district failed to file key financial reports due last year — including an annual audit that has the potential to reveal more problems.

If DPI suspends funding to MPS, the district will be able to recover the funds when it completes its reports, DPI officials said. However, DPI also found that MPS made errors in reported costs for the 2022-23 school year, which a DPI spokesman said could cause a “significant reduction” in state aid for school year 2024-25.

MPS has also been late on its financial reports

MPS also belatedly turned over its latest audit to the state. A spokesperson for the DPI confirmed on Monday that the DPI handed in its 2021-22 audit by Baker Tilly on March 29, 2023. It was due by December 15, 2022.

DPI did not immediately respond to questions from the Journal Sentinel about whether DPI threatened to withhold funding during last year’s delay,

Last year, MPS CFO Martha Kreitzman admitted it was a challenge to complete the previous audit because of key staff vacancies and turnover in the finance office.

In that audit — which was submitted to board members on March 24, 2023 — Baker Tilly found that MPS did not prepare financial statements “in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles” or in compliance with state and federal funding programs.

Kreitzman said in December that the district is solving the problem by hiring more staff, working with an employment agency and outside financial consultants from Protiviti. MPS did not respond to a question from the Journal Sentinel about how many vacancies there are now in the finance office.

A spokesman for Baker Tilly said the company does not comment on matters involving its customers.

State officials criticized for not raising red flags sooner

After MPS handed over its previous audit months at the end of March 2023, DPI began holding quarterly meetings with MPS starting in April 2023, DPI officials said.

After MPS again missed its reporting deadlines in December, DPI began holding monthly meetings with MPS in February, moving to weekly meetings in March and daily meetings in May.

DPI Executive Director Sachin Chheda said that while it’s common for a few school districts to be late with their financial reports, MPS’s delay stands out because it’s “mostly late.”

Milwaukee school board members said they were not notified of the late reports until May 24. Asked why DPI didn’t inform school board members sooner, DPI spokesman Chris Bucher said, “Because that would be an extraordinary step.”

DPI did not immediately respond to questions from the Journal Sentinel about when the department typically notifies school board members or threatens to withhold funding because of late reports.

Daniel Bush, who served as DPI’s director of school finance from 2019 to 2022 and was on the team in previous years, said that during his time there, DPI threatened districts with withholding aid because of late reports once or twice. He said that step was taken much earlier than DPI did in this case.

“When I was at DPI, I escalated for late reports and missing audits, going to the school board president and the withholding of aid happened in November or December,” Bush said.

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MPS parents, staff call for Superintendent Keith Posley’s firing

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