The Fear Factor at MPS

Milwaukee Public Schools administration building. Charles Edward Miller (CC-BY-SA)

“A longstanding culture of fear and reluctance to change” permeates Milwaukee Public Schools, according to a state audit of MPS released last February and reported by Urban Milwaukee.

There are signs that is beginning to change under new Milwaukee Superintendent Brenda Cassellius.

But change doesn’t come easy. At a July 31 school board meeting, several months after she took office, school board director Darryl Jackson sounded the alarm about the problem. “When I knock on a door,” said Jackson, describing an attempt to talk to a central office administrator, he would be told, “I can’t talk to you.”

“That is systematic,” Jackson complained. “How do we address the culture? How do we talk to various departments openly?”

Former school board director Henry Leonard told Urban Milwaukee that administrators were often resistant to talk to him. “I got it anyway,” he said. “I forced myself. I went in there and said, ‘I’m your boss, and I am asking questions and need to know what is going on, and I need for you to give me as an accurate statement as possible.’”

Leonard was well within his rights; as Board Rule 3.01(2)(d) states: “Board members are free to contact any MPS employee for information that will assist in carrying out a board member’s responsibilities. Additionally, any MPS employee may contact a board member to offer information which the employee reasonably believes would aid the board member in his/her responsibilities.”

The issue is not new, and goes back decades. It also involved the news media.

As a school board director about 10 years ago, I remember getting a phone call from the office of governance not to talk to the media over the issue of Viagra. The teachers union (MTEA) wanted it covered under the district’s health insurance plan. A couple of board members, including myself, when told not to talk to a reporter, would do so anyway. The issue got coverage and today Viagra is covered by the MPS health insurance policy.

Last year, when issue of the district failing to file financial reports with the state Department of Public Instruction arose, most school board members keep silent, according to Leonard. But he finally broke ranks and began to speak up. When a TV reporter ask Leonard why he now was talking to the media, he responded, “Because you asked.”

“I do remember people from the board confronting me, because I was so open, that they did not like that,” Leonard says. But after superintendent Keith Posley resigned, board members talked more freely.

And that has continued, school board director James Ferguson told Urban Milwaukee: “It’s a difference of night and day. The culture is rapidly changing. [Interim superintendent] Eduardo Galván started that culture shift. Dr. Cassellius pushes a culture of openness.”

And another sign of change is Cassellius bringing on Tony Tagliavia as the new chief communications officer. Tagliavia, who began as a TV reporter in Michigan, then served as MPS media manager from 2012-2016 and later became a Student Recruitment and Retention Specialist for nearly two years, looking at where schools were growing in enrollment and which schools had additional capacity. He is most proud of facilitating the development of Riley Dual Language Montessori.

He then took similar duties at Milwaukee Area Technical College as director of marketing and communications, later promoted to chief marketing officer. His move from MPS to MATC “was a growth opportunity” and reflects no negative feelings toward the school district, he tells Urban Milwaukee. He was happy at MATC, but coming back to MPS “was a dream job,” he says, because he has a “greater passion for K-12 education.” And he is impressed that Superintendent Cassellius, is “making a lot of important but difficult changes.”

Her openness and honesty match Tagliavia’s media philosophy. “The superintendent has really worked to reset with reporters,” he says. “People have noticed her accessibility to the media.”

Sharing information first begins with sharing information internally. “Our employees and families want to hear from us first,” says Tagliavia. Too often people in the district turned to television and internet to find out what was going on the district. Tagliavia wants to change all that. “Are we empowering our own employees to share information?” The district loses credibility when MPS employees know little more than what is in the media, he notes.

Tagliavia is focusing on teacher recruitment and retention, and student enrollment. The district has developed a plan to hire retired teachers. They must have been out of Wisconsin public education for 75 days and cannot work more than 440 hours in any calendar year. But the school year covers two calendar years, so two teachers sharing a position would cover most of a position. Tagliavia says some 50 potential teacher retirees have expressed interest in jobs.

Tagliavia says MPS is developing “a comprehensive enrollment marketing plan, promoting marketing year-round for the different audiences, not just for the next enrollment period. Reaching out to families, giving them resources, building relationships with the district, so when it is time to enroll the students in kindergarten, there is already a relationship there.”

All this comes down to authentic community engagement, says Ferguson. That’s what’s needed, he believes.

“We are funded by taxpayers at the local, state and federal level and with that comes a responsibility to be transparent,” concludes Tagliavia. “We have to be honest about the challenges and celebrate the successes.”