New MPS Leader Seeks Quick Wins

Brenda Cassellius. Photo from MPS.

“I’m a much better skater than stick handler,” the incoming MPS superintendent, Brenda Cassellius, told Minnesota Public Radio when she became Minnesota’s commissioner of education in 2011. She might be a little slower now, but she will need all her skills facing slapshots from the Wisconsin Legislature, local business and elected officials, as well as the teachers’ union and general public. She needs to get her own shots off as well.

In a Zoom call with reporters last week Cassellius said she needs some “quick wins.” MPS has taken a lot of criticism due to financial problems that blew up last year and other issues and she would love to counter that with some positive news. Though her official starting date is July 1, she noted that her contract negotiations with the district may allow her to have some role even now though Eduardo Galvan will be interim superintendent. Cassellius said she has a good working relationship with Galvan who probably will take on more the day-to-day stuff while she plans long term.

Critical positions must be filled now, she said. The district needs a comptroller, human resource director and a communications chief. “There are several people I have worked with that are absolutely stellar educators. And I told this to the board. I would love to place them tomorrow. But I want them to go through this process so that this community trusts that [her choices] are the best qualified to take these jobs. So, people who I have gone after, I’ve been telling them they are going to have to go through the process with the Milwaukee folks first. Might appoint one or two people early to help with the transition.”

Other quick hits Cassellius outlines are establishing a series of listening sessions, examining the summer school program and improving the school food program. She considers improving attendance the “low hanging fruit” that can be harvested by making our schools as welcoming as possible.

She believes three things really matter: having clear expectations with a safe and welcoming climate; offering rigorous opportunities for students to excel; and building community capacity with services like health, housing, and workforce development within a mile of where children live.

Kirk Schneidawind, the executive director of the Minnesota School Board Association, watched Cassellius operate as Minnesota’s commissioner of education for eight years and offered this assessment to Urban Milwaukee: “I have confidence in her advocacy and knowledge; she is a student first advocate… She is very much centered that way; that is her North Star.”

The MPS board has made student achievement a high priority. Cassellius points to success in Memphis where she was in charge of the middle school program. She made sure that “everybody used the same curriculum; high quality materials.” But teachers need quality professional development. She told the Milwaukee forum where she spoke to the public before her hiring that, when placed in charge of the Memphis middle school program, only 4 schools out of 32 met state standards. Two years later, only 4 schools were not meeting the standards. Reading scores were raise by 22%.

The 2022 Massachusetts state report did not show she could show similar results in Boston, where she served for three years as supertintendent. But this was also during a nationwide pandemic.

The key to student achievement is early childhood education, Cassellius has emphasized. “She often told the story about her upbringing and the value and the importance of Head Start and early childhood opportunities in the public schools, the value it meant for her in her life and that really guided her,” says Schneidawind.

Her ability to handle state government will be important. The fact she was Minnesota commissioner of education should help her understand how Wisconsin’s department of education operates. She was commissioner when Gov. Tony Evers was Wisconsin state school superintendent, and that relationship could be very helpful.

“I did chat with the governor,” she noted soon after her Milwaukee appointment. “He congratulated me; he committed to me his support for Milwaukee Public Schools. He said he is excited for this new chapter, and I’m really excited to work with him again. We were colleagues and sat on the board of chief school officers, I think, for six years. So, I know Tony really well. He is just salt of the earth. I really respect him and what he is doing in Wisconsin.”

When appointed education commissioner by Minnesota Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, both houses of Minnesota’s Legislature were controlled by Republicans. Cassellius finds herself in a similar situation in Wisconsin with divided government. She may go beyond talking to the elected officials as she did in Minnesota. “I knocked on doors… getting out among their constituents within their districts… whether they were red or blue, it didn’t matter to me.” She is likely to be seen among community and business organizations, and not just in Milwaukee.

One criticism raised by Schneidawind: “She wasn’t a very collaborative commissioner [with his school board association]. We worked well with her staff.”

Issues facing MPS are moving quickly before Cassellius becomes superintendent. She is asking the consultant MGT, which was hired to do an operational review of MPS and issued a report this month, to give her a private report on their findings and recommendations. Facilities plans must move forward. Lead paint in the schools must be addressed. The implementation of the 25 school resource officers will take place before she is superintendent. But how implementation takes place concerns Cassellius.

“What is most important to me is how they are reintroduced to the communities they are serving, and how we are interacting with our 260 current safety officers within our schools and our administrative teams, how we are interacting with youth. Are people trained around youth development? Do we have de-escalating training, mental health providers?”

“I’m excited for the challenge and ready to partner with the teachers, parents, and our district team to make sure our children get what they need.”