The Unknown MPS Office

Milwaukee Public Schools Office of School Administration, 5225 W. Vliet St. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Public Schools.

The Office of Accountability and Efficiency (OAE) of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) hasn’t gotten much attention until recently. But from its tiny suite of offices, just up the back stairs in the central administration building, it is now a powerful force in MPS. That authority comes from the corrective action the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is requiring OAE to oversee after the district failed to meet reporting financial deadlines.

Created in 2010, the OAE was created by the school board to give it power independent of the MPS superintendent to provide financial oversight of the district. By 2018 it had 10 full-time staff, all positions that were moved from working for the administration to working for the school board, as it Chief Accountability Officer, Matthew Chason, told Urban Milwaukee. Chason has been an employee of the district since 2011 and OAE’s sole manager since 2019.

It has five employees in its second-floor offices and another five at Capital Drive offices. With the addition of the district’s five auditors this year, it has 17 employees if fully staffed.

Chason doesn’t draw much attention. His philosophy follows what he learned from a city employee: “Quietly arrive when needed, quietly assist, and quietly leave.”

OAE’s mandates are spelled out in district policies to include oversight of financial operations, evaluate fiscal performance, ensure contract compliance, and oversee the Board’s audit function. It provides updates to the board on a monthly basis.

OAE also monitors and investigate some whistleblower complaints. The school board rarely hears detailed complaints concerning lower-level employees. Only a handful of complaints have come before the board over the years of high-level employees. Chason says there are “peaks and valleys” in the complaints, but less than a half dozen on average each year.

In January 2024, the auditing function was moved from the Office of Governance, which reports to the superintendent, to the OAE. “The board felt that the internal audit function was not afforded the independence that it required,” says Chason, “so they thought it would be a better fit, afford it more independent function under OAE.”

As Urban Milwaukee has reported, school board directors can have trouble getting information from district offices, often being told by district employees that they are not to talk to board members without permission from their supervisors. Because OAE is independent of the administration, and it has access to most of the district’s internal data systems, board members have increasingly bypassed both the administration and its own Office of Governance. The board elected not to renew the contract of the previous director in the Office of Governance and is in the process of hiring a replacement.

Another OAE mandate is to “facilitate the District’s process improvement” which can give OAE broad authority. “We have expanded our role,” says Chason. “We are asked to do analysis on a number of operational things… Enrollment trends, use of buildings. There is just a lot of analysis as the board views us as data professionals.”

Board members may ask ‘Can you give me an independent look at something?’ Clausen notes. “We provide it.”

“They [the board] recognize that OAE, under board policy, is entitled to every shred of information in the district, and they rely on us to produce analysis of that data.”

“In January of 2023, I sent a memo to the board that said you are missing DPI deadlines. You have problems with your audit, and it is my obligation and policy to bring this to your attention,” says Chason. “The external auditor was raising concerns that they were having problems completing the audit.”

The administration of then-Superintendent Keith Posley kept telling Chason and the board that the problems were being taken care of. However, meetings between DPI and the MPS administration went from monthly to weekly, and then daily. “No one ever told us those meetings were taking place. We had no idea that was going on,” says Chason.

By January of this year, Chason was finding that his access to district data was often cut off. “If people do not want to work with you, that presents a significant hurdle to do the function.” However, since a change in MPS administration, “no one is a roadblock in MPS.”

Now Chason is working with Acting Superintendent Eduardo Galvan. “I always had a good working relationship with Galvan when he was regional superintendent. He was an individual to whom I could make a referral at schools, and he would take care of it. I never had to follow up,” says Chason. “Channels of communication are wide opened and collaborative right now… I will pop in or call him on a moment’s notice.” He has a standing weekly meeting set up with Galvan but quickly adds that he had a similar arrangement with Posley.
“We were able to meet some significant milestones with DPI this week,” says Chason. “That engenders goodwill on how we will be able to meet the expectations of the corrective action plan.”

At this month’s board meeting, the district will modify its rules to allow the superintendent to hire financial employees without approval of the board according to the corrective action plan approved by DPI. Chason expects a panel to be established to vet candidates and expects that he or someone from his office will sit on that panel. Such hirings could include a new Chief Financial Officer. But Chason does not expect the district will take hasty action in hiring a CFO. Currently Todd Gray, a retired superintendent of Waukesha schools, is acting CFO.

“I would not be shocked” if he was appointed interim CFO “in a week or two,” says Chason “maybe for 4 to 6 months, in that neighborhood.”

Chason is looking to make proposals to the board to improve accountability in the district. He wants to “restore a stand-alone audit committee to which the internal audit function reports. They would still report to me [OAE]… but otherwise would be totally independent… That committee would also include a board member, also external audit and finance professionals.” It is considered “best practices according to the Council of Great City Schools,” he notes.

Disclosure: Terry Falk previously served as a Milwaukee School Board director and supported the creation of the Office of Accountability and Efficiency.