MPS and Carmen Are Breaking Up

Milwaukee Public Schools Administration Building. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The relationship between Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and Carmen Schools of Science and Technology effectively ended Thursday night.

Carmen Northwest, a combined middle and high school, was given one more school year to find a new charter authorizer and a replacement for the building it currently leases from MPS.

The MPS board rejected the three-year renewal recommended by Superintendent Brenda Cassellius and its own charter school review rubric. The superintendent proposed a one-year renewal as a bridge while the school finds a new home.

The decision comes amid a political realignment on the board not to support non-instrumentality charter schools, which some board members believe are designed to “destroy” public schools. Non-instrumentality schools report to MPS and are tuition-free, but their employees are not MPS employees, and their operations are governed by independent boards.

The latest decision follows earlier votes against Carmen. In October 2024, the board voted to end lease agreements for Carmen’s South and Southeast schools, which were colocated with two MPS schools.

“Carmen had already been seeking a site to build a new school before MPS voted to end the colocation,” said board chair Missy Zombor during a Nov. 13 Committee on Student Achievement and School Innovation meeting. She said the colocation “harmed students.”

The charter network is now building a $55 million complex for its southside schools, but at the time of the October vote Carmen said it hadn’t decided what schools to locate in its new building.

Now it will need to find a new home for Northwest in time for the 2027-28 school year.

“They’re scared. They feel like the timeline is rushed,” said new board member Mimi Reza of the Carmen parents.

“They don’t want the carpet pulled from under their feet,” said board member James Ferguson II.

But Cassellius said there wasn’t political support from the rest of the board for a three-year extension. She said the one-year extension would give Carmen time to find a new charter authorizer and provide parents and students with certainty that they had a school next year.

Carmen’s South and Southeast are already transitioning to being chartered by UW-Milwaukee. South Middle School is currently chartered by UW-Milwaukee. The City of Milwaukee also issues charters.

The board passed the one-year extension, with an explicit instruction that no renewal be offered, on a 6-2 vote.

New board members Christopher Fons and Kate Vannoy, both former MPS teachers, voted no. Darryl L. Jackson was absent.

They had made their votes clear at the Nov. 13 committee meeting.

Fons said he ran for office to support public schools. “I think non-instrumentality charter schools are not compatible with that mission,” said Fons. He said they are designed to “destroy” public schools. “I will vote no on all non-instrumentality schools while I am on the school board of Milwaukee Public Schools.”

“I have never been a fan of non-instrumentality charter schools. I do think they were established to destroy public schools as well,” said fellow new board member Kate Vannoy

Carmen, in a statement after the vote, also took issue with a different list of board members.

“Tonight’s decision clearly shows that Directors Zombor, Siemsen, O’Halloran, Herndon and Fons do not believe in all children, even though it is their legal responsibility as elected school board members to serve the will of the local citizenry, reflecting the ethics of the education profession. It shows us that they have personal vendettas against Carmen, and have no problem putting their politics ahead of the needs of our kids,” said Carmen CEO Aaron Lippman in a statement issued after the vote.

Zombor, during the Nov. 13 committee meeting, said the school was being dishonest when it claimed to be a top-10 high school and that the ranking from U.S. News and World Report applied to Carmen South. “This matters because some of the parents in our focus group also believed the ranking applied to the Northwest campus. Accurate and honest representation is critical, especially when families rely on this information to make informed decisions about their child’s education,” said Zombor.

She said benchmark data showed the school was falling behind other MPS schools.

Marva Herndon said she was concerned about the school’s English and math scores.

Quinton Klabon, senior research director with the right-leaning Institute for Reforming Government, said Carmen Northwest is a high performer within MPS when adjusted for poverty. The school has a two-star, 58.3 rating in its 2024-25 Department of Public Instruction report card. The report says 98.5% of its 526 students live in poverty. Unlike Carmen’s majority Hispanic South Side schools, Northwest serves a majority Black student population.

“Every other school up for approval this year, including those with scores similar to ours, had their recommended renewals approved last week with no issues. Then the MPS Board selectively, intentionally, and illegally discarded its process for Carmen Northwest, throwing away any sense of caring or concern for our kids and community along with it,” said Lippman.

The only other non-instrumentality up for renewal was La Causa, which operates two schools on the south side. During the committee meeting, Fons also voted against renewing La Causa’s charter authorization. Vannoy voted “present.” Neither called for separate action during the full board meeting and the charter renewal passed unanimously. Two instrumentalities, Whittier and IDEAL, were renewed.

Starting in July 2027, MPS will now have another empty building on its hands.

Carmen leases the former John Muir Junior High School, 5497 N. 72nd St.

Cassellius said the district intends to retain the building for future educational use.

At the end of the current school, Carmen must also vacate the portions of Casimir Pulaski High School, 2500 W. Oklahoma Ave., and ALBA School, 1712 S. 32nd St., that it occupies for its Southeast and South schools.

Carmen was founded in 2007, and Carmen Northwest opened in 2013. In July, the network sold its elementary school, acquired in a 2019 merger, to Rocketship Education.

Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.