De’Myen Dixon used to struggle to talk to people outside his family.
Currently a junior at Reagan High School, Dixon is the president of his school’s Black and Latino Male Achievement chapter. BLMA is a national organization that also supports Black and Latino boys in Milwaukee Public Schools.
He said the program has helped him get out of his shell.
“When I got to BLMA, they helped me feel the brotherhood that we have, the safe space and the confidentiality that I could tell them something and that my business wouldn’t be everywhere,” Dixon said.
Black and Latino Male Achievement is one of several programs the district is restructuring into an equity department. Multiple positions are being eliminated as part of that restructure.
MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is proposing grouping several departments – including Black and Latino Male Achievement, Gender and Identity Inclusion, and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) – under one centralized equity department.
Twenty-two positions were grouped into the new department and only six positions will remain, for a total of $1.8 million in cuts, including two Black and Latino Male Achievement coordinators, one Gender, Identity and Inclusion coordinator and all eight Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports coaches.
More responsibility for schools
Dixon said among those losing their positions is the Black and Latino Male Achievement coordinator who attended each of Reagan High School’s monthly meetings.
Dixon said he’s sad to see their coordinator go because he has impacted the lives of young men in the program and taught them helpful life lessons.
“A big thing especially for a lot of teenagers is learning the value of self-control,” Dixon said. “He also helps get us connected to other people or organizations based on what our passions are.”
Once the coordinators are gone, Dixon said, students will need to take on more leadership roles to keep monthly meetings running.
Gabriel Velez, a Marquette University professor and faculty director of the Black and Latino Ecosystem and Support Transition (BLEST) Hub, worries that the proposed cuts will stop the momentum built by equity programs like Black and Latino Male Achievement over the years.
He said it isn’t sustainable for schools to take on the load of the program.
“The work they’re doing just can’t be done with fewer resources,” Velez said. “Then it becomes work that the schools, if they’re excited about, have to take on, and they don’t have the capacity.”
A critical resource for students
David Castillo, a founding member of the Black and Latino Male Achievement program in Milwaukee, worked for the department until 2021. He designed the curriculum for the program’s Manhood Development Academy class to address the problems and needs of Black and Latino boys in Milwaukee.
His goal was to create spaces that guaranteed success and change their trajectory in Milwaukee.
The class explores the challenges of participants through literature, history, culture and community. Castillo said they centered the opinions of Black and Latino boys when developing the curriculum.
In the first year of the program, a district evaluation summary found that students enrolled in the Manhood Development Academy course had lower average suspension rates, higher average attendance rates and higher grade point averages compared with students outside the program.
Castillo worries that the district may not realize it’s cutting a critical resource for students.
“Students see themselves in (the program),” Castillo said.
Equity department will support more schools, superintendent says
In a school board meeting May 7, Cassellius said she hopes the new equity department will make it easier to send support into all classrooms, since programs like Black and Latino Male Achievement currently only work in select schools.
“We want to be more intentional with these behavior intervention teams around their academics, around the climate and culture of the school and identity supports and belonging,” Cassellius said.
Lukas Wierer, a teacher at Riverside University High School, told the school board in May that he understands why the district is trying to expand its reach, but he worries about the capacity of the departments and individual schools.
“When we hollow out support for our Black and Latino young men and our LGBTQ youth, we aren’t just cutting positions,” Wierer said. “We’re cutting the lifelines that tell these students they have a place in our district.”
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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