On Thursday the Board of School Directors for Milwaukee Public Schools voted to approve a $1.59 billion budget for 2027.
The budget passed with a vote of 8-1, with only Board Director Mimi Reza voting against.
Met with controversy since being proposed in early May, the budget included the elimination of 260 positions, including 70 central office employees and 60 assistant principals. Cuts to equity and other programs were also approved.
Also part of the new budget is a plan to add an additional 138 paraprofessionals and 150 teachers to classrooms as part of the district’s plan to reduce class sizes and provide more classroom support.
MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius defended the changes as needed to balance a $46 million budget deficit next year and increase student achievement in a long underperforming district.
“While difficult decisions that impact members of the MPS team throughout the district had to be made, this budget places our resources where they will have the deepest impact on our students,” Cassellius said in the Thursday night board meeting.
District makes changes after community feedback
After several requests to keep the Community Schools program during budget hearings throughout the month, the district will use an extra $3 million from the Milwaukee Recreation budget to support community schools.
Community Schools bring together other essential resources to support students and families in and out of the classroom. Community Schools used to receive support in partnership with United Way before that funding ended.
The 2027 budget eliminates all three Community Schools coordinators, but the extra Milwaukee Recreation funds will support 11 additional positions including a manager, coordinator, planning assistant and eight supervising associates.
Teachers at Transition High School, Project STAY High School and James E. Groppi High School, which each serve students at risk of not graduating, raised concerns about staff cuts at the alternative schools.
Cassellius said she spoke with leadership at each school and reduced the number of eliminated positions.
Concerns about budget decisions remain
Educators, residents and advocates continued to express concerns about the approved budget, including hefty cuts to Restorative Justice and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) staff and reductions in Black and Latino Male Achievement coordinators.
Reagan High School junior and Black and Latino Male Achievement Chapter President De’Myen Dixon said students will have to take on more responsibility to keep monthly meetings running after losing a coordinator.
The district approved a 2.63% raise for Milwaukee Teacher Education Association-represented staff, with about half to start on July 1 and the remaining implemented on Jan. 1, 2027.
Union representatives have demanded a full 2.63% raise by July 1 for several months.
The budget will cut 15 staff in the Department of Multilingual and Multicultural Education, including three literacy specialists, one Native American program coordinator, five teachers and four teacher leaders.
Luz Hernandez, an MPS elementary bilingual teacher, told the school board on May 26 that the cuts have taken place quietly without community or staff input.
Jennifer Santiago, art teacher at Academia De Lenguaje y Bellas Artes, told the board during that meeting that the cuts weaken the district’s ability to provide a quality education and services for bilingual and English-learning students.
“Enrollment of English learners and multilingual students continues to increase,” Santiago said. “This is precisely the time the district should be investing in (Department of Multilingual Multicultural Education) infrastructure in its budget, not dismantling it.”
Report finds that new budget won’t solve district’s financial troubles
A new brief by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a nonpartisan policy research organization, found that while the new budget does balance the books in the short-term, the district’s long-term financial outlook is murky.
“The district’s five-year forecast projects a structural deficit for its main fund emerging as soon as 2028,” read a Wisconsin Policy Forum press release.
The deficit coincides with the final year the district will see increased revenue as part of the phased implementation of the $252 million MPS referendum passed in 2024.
According to the report, spending is projected to outpace revenue by $63.7 million by 2029.
Among the short- and long-term financial pressures for MPS are lost revenue from departing charter and alternative schools, paying new hires, declining student enrollment and aging buildings.
“Families, teachers, residents and investors need to have confidence in the district’s ability to meet these coming challenges, or MPS will find it harder to maintain and attract the necessary enrollment, staff and capital financing to accomplish its crucial mission,” stated a brief from the report.
Still, the report did identify a number of positives in the 2027 budget, including the leveraging of available funding to avoid cuts and make investments, the district’s vacancy adjustments, a steady rate of debt repayment and its progress in addressing operational issues.
“Students deserve a budget that puts them at the center. And teachers deserve classes that allow them to give students personalized attention,” Cassellius said. “This budget invests in our valued employees, tackles our deficit head on and takes important steps toward financial stability with an eye toward the difficult economic realities ahead.”
The approved budget and changes will go into effect next school year.
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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