Milwaukee Public Schools Using Retirees To Fill Vacant Teaching Positions
The district still has 83 vacancies to fill.
Joe Conti, left, is a retired teacher who is back at Milwaukee Public Schools. He taught School Board Member James Ferguson when Ferguson was in seventh grade. Corrinne Hess/WPR
Kristin Cheever was only in her mid-50s when she retired from Milwaukee Public Schools in 2023.
Cheever was an art teacher at three different Milwaukee schools, responsible for all grade levels. But that year, her school had just announced another round of budget cuts.
“I thought, you know, maybe now is the time, and I’ll just see what happens,” Cheever said.
Turned out retirement wasn’t as fun as Cheever thought it would be.
Now she’s back in the classroom as a substitute teacher.
MPS wants to attract more people like Cheever — retirees who miss interacting with students.
On Thursday, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius and Milwaukee Teachers Education Association President Ingrid Walker-Henry announced a campaign to encourage retired educators to come back to the district.
They hope the campaign will help fill the 83 vacancies MPS still has this year.
“We know there are gifted educators looking for a way to get back to the classroom,” Cassellius said. “This is an incredible opportunity to do just that.”
Cassellius said every child deserves a high-quality, permanent, licensed teacher.
“That’s why we’re making an appeal to our retired teachers today,” Cassellius said. “Oftentimes they volunteer their time within our schools, but we actually need them here full-time.”
Cheever is currently at Garland Elementary School on Milwaukee’s south side as a longer-term sub for a teacher who is on medical leave.
“It really felt good to be able to step in and help her,” Cheever said. “And it’s really good for the students because they didn’t have a new sub every day.”
She said she would work more hours, but it would affect her pension with the Wisconsin Retirement System. Retirees are limited to working 880 hours per year.
Legislation in the state Assembly and Senate is pending that would allow WRS retirees to return to work full-time without affecting their pension.
Until the legislation changes, Cassellius suggested retirees job share or work half-days.
Under the MPS campaign, the first 90 retired teachers to be successfully placed in a school and continue to work for six months will be eligible for a $1,000 bonus.
The offer is open to retirees from MPS or any other Wisconsin school district.
School Board Member James Ferguson arrived at Garland Elementary on Thursday for an event to promote the recruitment campaign and was shocked to find his seventh grade teacher, Joe Conti, standing in the hallway.
Conti retired from Westside Academy in 2019. Now he’s back as an intervention teacher, helping students with math and reading.
“The first thing I said to him was, ‘you haven’t changed a bit,’” Ferguson said. “He said, ‘You have.’”
Ferguson, now over 6 feet tall, used to only come up to 5-foot-7-inch Conti’s chest.
“He was so much taller when I was in middle school,” Ferguson said. “I thought he was a tower.”
Conti said being back at a school as a limited-time employee has been a great experience.
“I get to help the kids for 10 to 15 minutes. I see the progress without having to manage a classroom,” Conti said. “And I don’t have to go to meetings.”
Milwaukee Public Schools recruiting retirees to fill vacant teaching positions was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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