Milwaukee Public Schools plans to add more teaching positions in an attempt to reduce class sizes. Some say the district has much more it needs to do to achieve that goal.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced on Tuesday that the district is budgeting to hire 150 teachers, 138 paraprofessionals and five psychologists for next school year.
The new positions come after Cassellius announced a reduction in about 260 non-classroom positions in the district in March.
Among those cuts, which would happen before the next school year, were 53 assistant principal positions.
Union reaction
Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association Executive Director Amy Mizialko said everybody would like smaller class sizes, but the goal may not be rooted in reality.
The district doesn’t have enough teachers or the structures to make smaller class sizes a reality, she said.
“That’s why it’s so important to retain the workers we have, and to supplement that as much as we can with recruitment,” Mizialko said. “Both retention and recruitment are made far more difficult by the completely avoidable damage Cassellius is doing to the district.”
The union is currently bargaining with Milwaukee Public Schools for all represented employees to receive a 2.63% cost of living raise in July. The district is offering the wage increase to all employees by January.
Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association President Ingrid Walker-Henry said the union is pushing for the July increase to ensure classrooms are fully staffed and so the union and school district can “work together on priorities like increasing student enrollment and addressing the district’s high staff vacancy rate.”
Casselius has publicly defended her moves as necessary to address the budget deficit while prioritizing teachers. She also said that many of the individuals who are losing their jobs can be rehired into classrooms.
Colleston Morgan is executive director of City Forward Collective, an organization that advocates against educational inequality and for increased access to school choice. He said the district should consolidate schools so staffing better matches where students actually are.
Morgan said the problem is an inefficient allocation of staff between schools, not just too few positions.
“They’re got teachers in buildings, in some cases with seven or eight kids in their classroom, but then in some of their more in demand schools, they probably are over capacity,” Morgan said. “I think MPS probably does have some space to optimize, and it does seem like the specific decisions being made make sense.”
Guidelines for classroom sizes
MPS is rolling out new guidelines for how large class sizes should be in each grade as part of the 2026-2027 budget planning process.
The district uses these guidelines to decide where to place new teachers, said Stephen Davis, MPS media relations manager.
Guidelines will look different at bilingual and Montessori schools, said Tony Tagliavia, chief communications officer at MPS. Teachers at these schools asked for additional paraprofessionals to manage class sizes in those unique programs.
More school psychologists, no new art or music teachers
Five new psychologist positions will open, funded by a Mental Health Demonstration Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Davis said the district hasn’t determined yet where it will place these psychologists next year.
One thing that won’t change is the number of art and music teachers. Davis said the district did not need to change teacher allocations for those positions.
The district also doesn’t plan on hiring more physical education or library teachers.
Mizialko said the district uses contracted vendors to offer music, art and physical education at 45 schools.
“MPS should recruit and hire permanent, licensed art, music and physical education teachers who are MPS employees to serve our students,” Mizialko said.
Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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