Meet the New MPS Superintendent

Brenda Cassellius. Photo from MPS.

On Tuesday night, the Milwaukee School Board voted 8-1 to choose Brenda Cassellius as the new superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), with only Darryl Jackson casting an opposing vote. Her selection is pending a third-party background check and contract negotiation, but is expected to be settled in a few months.

No MPS superintendent in recent history has had higher-level educational experience than Cassellius. Now it’s on her to prove she is up to the job.

Cassellius grew up in poverty in Minneapolis public housing, calling herself a “Head Start baby.” She received her B.A. degree with a Psychology major and Child Psychology minor from the University of Minnesota, her Master’s degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and her doctorate from the University of Memphis. She started her career in 1990 as special education paraprofessional, then as a teacher and held administrative positions in Minnesota and Memphis.

Cassellius was appointed to the top educational position in Minnesota, as Minnesota’s Commissioner of Education by its governor and served in the position from 2011-2019. During that time, Tony Evers was in a parallel position as Wisconsin’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, from 2009-2019. Cassellius was on the nine-member board of directors for the Council of Chief School Officers when Evers was its president.

On Twitter, Evers hailed her hiring in Milwaukee calling it “Great news” and adding this: “Having known Dr. Cassellius for years since we worked together when I was state superintendent, I’m really excited about the leadership, passion, and energy she will bring to MPS. I’m looking forward to continuing our work together to do what’s best for our kids.”

Both educational leaders had similar responsibilities in a somewhat different system. The Wisconsin superintendent is elected. The Minnesota commissioner is appointed. Both had to work with the state Legislature, experience that could be helpful for Cassellius in her new job. However, one disappointment for her was a push for a Minnesota legislative initiative on school safety that had bipartition support, only to see the deal fall through at the last minute as the two political parties retreated to their own corners.

As state Commissioner, Cassellius stated that early childhood is the most critical issue in education and that investment in early childhood yields a 16-to-1 return. She is likely to place early childhood education a high priority in Milwaukee as she did in Minnesota and later as Boston Public Schools superintendent.

Cassellius called on school superintendents in Minnesota to take responsibility for kids through age 21 since the state provides funding for those students. “Schools dumped their career technical education programs,” she said. “We will work collaboratively with our community and technical colleges to ensure multiple pathways to careers.”

When states sought waivers from the No Child Left Behind rules, watering down accountability, Minnesota increased expectations, as Education Week reported in February 2014. Three-quarters of the districts were on track to cut in half their achievement gap between white and minority students by 2017. Graduation rates for black students in 2013 increased at six times the rate of whites. More than 70% of its lowest-performing students showed improvement in test scores.

But the new evaluation system was seen as cumbersome and unfair to students in poverty by the two largest districts in Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul. However, Cassellius has noted that she worked closely with St. Paul on several initiatives. For part of that time, Joe Gothard was its superintendent; he is now superintendent in Madison, WI.

A new governor ended Cassellius’s tenure as Commissioner. She applied to be superintendent for several Twin Cities area school districts and was not chosen. Then Boston mayor, Marty Walsh chose her to become superintendent of Boston Public Schools.

In Boston, the mayor appoints the school board (School Committee), and chooses the superintendent. She served from 2019-2022.

As with most urban school districts, Boston presented challenges. A March 2020 state report highlighted serious challenges and deficiencies across the district. A 2022 report, a follow up from those findings, lauded superintendent-led initiatives, “despite challenges in managing a central office with entrenched dysfunction. They represent real progress over a short period of time and in some cases may lay the groundwork for transformative change within BPS.”

The report concluded, “Under Dr. Cassellius’ leadership, BPS has successfully launched several new district-wide initiatives and has further advanced others. However, the district has failed to effectively serve its most vulnerable students, carry out basic operational functions, and address systemic barriers to providing an equitable, quality education.”

The turmoil in Boston may have had more to do with the divisions within the community than the school governing structure or superintendent. When COVID-19 hit, one group criticized Cassellius for not going remote soon enough; another group questioned why she waited so long to bring students back.

Cassellius proposed changing the entrance requirements for admission to elite high schools to increase diversity, receiving push back from other parents. The school board supported modifications to the entrance requirement system.

In 2021, the state Police Reform Act disbanded the Boston school police force and Cassellius created a new group of safety paraprofessionals with additional training to work with students. Safety concerns continued in the schools.

A new Boston mayor, Michelle Wu, arranged to buy out the last year of Cassellius’s contract. Her departure meant the new superintendent would be district’s fifth over a seven-year period. But Wu gave Cassellius high praise saying Boston was better off because of her leadership.

Cassellius became executive director of Fresh Energy, a pro-renewable energy group in St. Paul after leaving Boston, but continued to pursue other educational positions. She was runner-up as St. Paul’s next superintendent who was picked in December 2024. That opened up an opportunity for Milwaukee. The timing, it seems, could not have been better.

Ms. Cassellius, welcome to Milwaukee.