“This is the worst financial condition I’ve ever seen”
Ryan Krueger carries a sign during the Arts Rally at MPS.
When asked to describe the upcoming fiscal year’s situation in the Milwaukee Public Schools at Tuesday’s district committee meeting, Superintendent William G. Andrekopoulos was direct and to the point.
“This is the worst financial condition I’ve ever seen,” he said.
He shared his comments during a loud and spirited meeting of the district’s committee on strategic planning and budget last night. With more than 200 parents, teachers and students in attendance, the board and Andrekopoulos listened to the reactions to proposed cuts in classes and services for the 2010-2011 school year.
The evening started out with more than 100 supporters of arts education marching to the MPS Central Offices on 53rd and Vliet from Milwaukee High School of the Arts on the 2300 block of West Highland Avenue. Students carried signs in opposition to the loss of teachers at the district’s arts magnet schools and a group of children carried a large cardboard coffin, representing the death of arts education.
In January, Superintendent Andrekopoulos sent budget projections to each school based on proposed 2010-2011 revenues and expenses. Principals and school governance teams worked to balance their allotted monies with the needs of the students and guidelines for the district. In almost every school they failed, instead resorting to cuts to teaching staff, paraprofessionals and programming.
The students were the most eloquent in defending their schools and programs. Michael Haubner, a 7th grader at Wedgewood Park, asked the board to keep its promise to him and his classmates to provide a challenging and vibrant school. “Support schools that are achieving, keep your promise to us,” he said.
Wedgewood Park student Michael Haubner addresses the MPS School Board.
Haubner’s mother asked the board to look for cuts by closing schools that are failing and not schools like Wedgewood, which is an international baccalaureate school and has been cited as a model demonstration school by the governing body of the IB program.
Ryan Krueger, another student who participated in the arts march also addressed the board. “We have come to speak for the children,” he said. “The arts are everything … To many, the arts are the only reason they come to school.” He spoke confidently and reminded the board that Milwaukee High School of the Arts has a 93 percent graduation rate — one that is better than the district and national rates. He also stressed the importance of arts education and told board members that if they persisted in forwarding budgets that cut arts funding they would have schools called “Elm Creative School, Lincoln School of the … , Roosevelt School of the … and Milwaukee High School of the …”
Teachers from Alcott Elementary School stand in solidarity to cuts that will eliminate four teachers from their ranks.
Andrekopoulos said the arts, music and physical education program cuts, along with the loss of specialty teachers and aides was due to dropping enrollments, $4.2 million less in state general aids, a loss of SAGE funding and increased benefit costs for teachers and retirees.
The wage and benefit proposal for the 2010-2011 school year shows that health insurance, employment taxes and pension benefits equal 77 percent of the total salaries and wages paid by the district. The district’s benefit package pays 100 percent of health premiums for all teachers and retirees and offers coverage with two different insurers.
Andrekopoulos said that the board has to get a handle on the benefit spending before it bankrupts the district. In that vein, Board President Michael Bonds asked how many full-time teaching positions could be saved by having all employees switch to the lower-premium health insurance policy offered by the district. After a quick calculation, Andrekopoulos said that 480 positions could be retained by switching insurance carriers.
He added that the budget problem will be even greater for the 2011-12 school year, when the stimulus funds provided to the school district by President Obama disappear.
But keep in mind that this budget round is only beginning and will not be completed until mid-June. More public hearings are scheduled and more hand-wringing will occur. Hopefully, the board will listen to children and taxpayers to make tough decisions that will save the good, high-performing schools and the students who attend them.
Great coverage, Patti. And what a crime. 77% of salaries to benefits and taxes? If you factor in the unfunded liability for retiree’s benefits, it rises to an astounding 104%. And the teacher’s union still won’t accept a lower cost alternative even as the district burns? That’s what I interpret, but am I correct in my assessment? If so, fiddle on, MTEA. Soon you’ll rule the ashes with an iron fist.
Of course it doesn’t come down to one issue with the district, but it faces an immediate financial crisis, a major part of which could be addressed with a simple decision: cut the higher cost health plan option. More radically, have teachers, like other similarly compensated professionals who don’t even have pensions to look forward to, participate in paying for their health care.
MPS school board member Bruce Thompson recently wrote an impassioned opinion piece for MJS that bears a look: http://su.pr/2LUS0p. It gives some history of the rise of the union and his perspective on how MPS governance got where it is today. TCD will continue to cover this most critical of issues.
Are we capable of solving the problems facing our nation’s schools? Check out what’s happening in Rhode Island. Each so-called solution seems to make things worse!http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/24/rhode.island.teachers/index.html
I don’t know why my link didn’t work. Let’s try this: http://bit.ly/bAZa9c
The cuts started happening more than 10 years ago when my oldest son was at Elm Creative Arts School. Every year when the budget comes out, I say, it can’t get any worse. Every year it gets worse. I feel like my kids have been guinea pigs in a bizarre social experiment. My mother was a kindergarten teacher who worked most nights OUTSIDE of the classroom to prepare for her students. She also taught during the summer, because her pay wasn’t quite enough to stretch over those months off. My mother worked very hard for every penny of retirement benefit she is now receiving. The administration likes to blame employee benefits, but what about board memebers who take “vacation” rather than attend seminars? What about building schools that don’t have students to fill them? What about the never-fully-funded money sucker of all money suckers, No Child Left Behind. Let’s put the blame where it is due: politicians and administrators who squander our money on programs that don’t work.
Ironic that unions are always to blame for fiscal problems in an organization with problems. Baloney. It takes 2 parties to agree to a contract. B.Thompson has been on this board more than once. The Waltons of Walmart fame and other out of towners who have stuck their noses in the city’s school business have done nothing but try to privatize MPS. Bust the unions and use tax money for private school education. Because whites don’t want to be intergraded in the choices of places to live or their childrens education.
You should know thats Evan in the first picture holding the sign… not Ryan.