Teachers Union Loses on School Budget, Wage Hikes

Milwaukee Public Schools Administration Building. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

On April 28, Assistant City Attorney Robert Sanders made it clear that the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) are in a precarious position. For this coming school year, the district faces a $46 million deficit. This was verified by three outside audits and analyses of the district’s finances. In addition, Matt Chason of the Office of Accountability and Efficiency previously presented to the board a forecast that an $420 million deficit will develop over the next five years if left unaddressed.

The MPS administration proposed a wage bump in two phases: an increase of 1.5% in July and 1.13% in January. Sanders stated that the board could vote to implement this increase based on a mediator’s decision that the district had reached an impasse with the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.

The vote was 7-1 in favor at Tuesday’s board meeting, with Mimi Reza opposed and Katherine Vannoy recusing herself. This was against the wishes of the MTEA, which asked for the entire cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of 2.63% in July. The MTEA is contesting this implementation, calling it a violation of prohibited practices with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.

Several days before the vote was taken, school board president Missy Zombor outlined for Urban Milwaukee the dilemma the school board faced. “If someone could present an alternative that is viable for the budget and viable for the district and didn’t hurt students,” she said, “we would seriously consider it. But no one is presenting a solution.”

In an open letter on April 6 to the board and the Office of Accountability and Efficiency, the MTEA challenged Superintendent Brenda Cassellius on her plans to implement the two-step COLA and to cut the number of assistant principals, paraprofessionals and centrally assigned teacher specialists, sending most back into schools as classroom teachers. Cassellius stated classroom teachers would not be cut.

The MTEA called Cassellius a “liar,” pointing to reports that some music, art and physical education teachers were being cut at some schools. But Zombor stated that the district would maintain the same number of specialists in these areas even though there would be fewer students in the district next year. In some cases, individual schools simply lost a critical mass of students, or the school community made staffing choices.

Zombor suggested that some of the teacher cuts being announced now are based on projected enrollment at schools for next school year rather than waiting for the actual enrollment numbers in fall, when schools must cut teachers a month after the school year starts, which has caused classroom disruptions. The district is actually hiring 89 additional teachers and 63 paraprofessionals in an effort to lower class sizes.

On April 24, Cassellius sent a memo to principals that paraprofessionals who were cut to 30 hours per week could now be employed for 40 hours if they choose. Additional funds were now available to hire instructional facilitator teachers. Other funds were being sought.

School board members are sensitive to the positions being cut in favor of classroom teachers. These centrally assigned teachers are not “fat,” but placed in important positions. If given the choice, the board would like to keep them there. School board member Christopher Fons wrote an Op Ed published in Urban Milwaukee stating that very point.

Rather than cut positions, the MTEA argued that MPS should eliminate outside contracts, but the district contends that $46 million in unnecessary contracts was never identified by the union.

Said Zombor: “As we build the budget for the next, and this something I always said at MTEA, you put the classroom at the center of the budget. And then you build the budget around that. Using that framework, we have to protect classrooms, we have to invest in our literacy plan, and we also must restore the fiscal health of the district.”

Zombor’s reference to her previous role with the MTEA is important as she was the union’s communications director. She, along with board members who are former MPS teachers, has deep ties to the MTEA: former teachers Erika Siemsen and Fons voted for the two-step COLA pay raise. Vannoy, who is now a teacher in Greenfield, previously taught in MPS, which is presumably why she recused herself on the vote.

Marva Herndon, a longtime board member, has been consistently endorsed by the MTEA and voted yes. James Ferguson and Megan O’Halloran were previously endorsed by the MTEA and voted for the administration’s recommendation. Two members who were not endorsed by the MTEA split: Darryl Jackson voted for the plan and Reza was the lone vote against the plan.

Thus, all previously endorsed MTEA candidates, except for recused Vannoy, voted in support of the two-step pay raises proposed by Cassellius against the wishes of the union.

The MTEA contends that the effort to move staff members into the classroom and hire an additional 89 teachers is unrealistic given the present teacher shortage. Pay raises, it argued, are needed to keep teachers in MPS.

“I think the solution that she [Cassellius] has provided is incredibly generous,” Zombor said. “It honors workers, it protects students — all the things we said we wanted when we ran for school board. We want lower class sizes. Since when are lower class sizes a fantasy?”

The MPS administration and school board seem to see the MTEA as choosing a confrontation. The union sees a district running over its rights and not listening.

The MTEA did not respond to a request for an interview.

In comments to Urban Milwaukee, Bob Peterson, who has sat on both sides of the table, first as president of the MTEA and later as the president of the MPS school board, suggested more teamwork is needed: “The two parties, the union, and the administration and the school board, need to sit down and work for an overall plan.”

Author Terry Falk was on the MTEA executive board for 12 years and later served as a school board member for 12 years.