MPS expects $19.4 million in cuts — more could come
In the final stretch of its 2017-’18 budget process, Milwaukee Public Schools must slash an additional $19.4 million in spending because of a loss of revenue and higher-thanexpected costs for health care and pension benefits.
Schools and staff are already feeling the pinch. Teachers and other staff were to begin receiving “excess” or transfer letters on Friday. And it could get worse, in the short and long term, depending on its final enrollment data and looming cuts in the proposed federal budget.
MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver and her top finance official detailed the causes and proposed cuts for school board directors at a Strategic Planning and Budget committee meeting Thursday, where some were visibly frustrated by the news.
“This is mind-boggling,” District 8 Director Carol Voss said. “You can’t just find $15.4 million out there now,” she said, referencing the health care and pension costs. “We
are going to have some difficult choices.”
Driver said there would be no layoffs, but teachers and other staff would begin receiving “excess” letters on Friday. That means their positions were eliminated, but they have an opportunity to move to other posts in the district.
She said many of the cuts will be borne by central administration, but it is impossible to entirely shield schools from the impact.
“We always try to make sure the pain is felt here first,” she said. “But most of our budget truly sits in our schools.”
In the long term, Driver and board members said, the district may be forced to re-examine its generous employee benefits package and consolidate or close some schools.
MPS’ final $1.1 billion budget is expected to be finalized in November. The district already made a series of cuts in the spring aimed at closing what was then a $50 million budget gap. Those included cutting 96 teaching positions and 98 classroom assistant posts.
The causes for the latest round of cuts, according to Shannon Gordon, the district’s senior director of finance and budget services include:
A loss of $4.9 million in federal Title I dollars intended to serve low-income students.
$9 million in higherthan-projected medical and prescription costs.
And nearly $6 million in higher-than-projected costs for pensions and other benefits.
Asked by board members how staff could be so far off on the health care and pension benefits, Gordon said they were using the best available data when they made their projections in the spring.
In addition to those cuts, MPS will not get the $1.4 million in state aid initially projected for summer school, but that money returns in 2018-’19. It could lose as much as $5 million in federal Medicaid funds if Congress repeals the Affordable Care Act.
And U.S. Secretary of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is proposing to cut $9.2 billion from the federal education budget, a move that would dramatically affect public school districts and many of their nonprofit partners, though most of that would take effect beginning in the 2018-’19 school year.
“This really is our calm before the storm,” Gordon said.
Schools were given a heads up about the budget in recent weeks. A letter to parents at Fernwood Montessori School on S. Pennsylvania Ave. dated Sept. 8 said it would be eliminating its traveling strings and piano programs.
One parent told board members Thursday that the elimination of one kindergarten teacher at Humboldt Park Elementary School in Bay View has disrupted schedules for 100 children as the classrooms are reconfigured.
“Whose needs are we putting first, the adults or the children?” asked parent Erin Flood Harrison.
Driver outlined a litany of potential measures the district is considering to close the budget gap. They include:
Delaying payment of a $5.8 million pension payment due in June, a step that would represent only a temporary fix.
Delaying the creation of a Newcomer Center for immigrant children at South Division High School and moving those English as a Second Language jobs to individual schools.
Leaving unfilled vacant positions at the 21 new College Access Centers that were unveiled earlier this year.
Reducing transportation costs in part by reconfiguring programs and schedules.
Chief Operations Officer Wendell Willis said it would not affect the districtwide arts initiative announced Thursday because that is largely dependent on other community partners.
Amy Mizialko, a longtime special education teacher and vice president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, pleaded with board members not to make cuts that will hurt students and teachers.
“We can’t increase class size. We can’t take our children’s librarians. We can’t take their art teachers ... their physical education classes ... their music classes ... their band opportunities,” she said. “We can’t solve this problem on the backs of the people who teach them.”
SENTINEL FILES