MPS board passes budget that restores $11.6 million to classrooms, cuts central office
The Milwaukee Public Schools Board passed the 2018-’19 budget at a special meeting Tuesday night, slashing millions of dollars from the central office and returning $11.6 million to classrooms.
Interim Superintendent Keith Posley made changes to former superintendent Darienne Driver’s proposed budget just three days after assuming the office last week.
The vote was unanimous. The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, which protested Driver’s 5% per pupil reduction in school budgets, cheered the board’s move.
“I feel this is a golden opportunity for the young people in the city of Milwaukee to receive a support that’s needed in the classrooms,” Posley said in an interview.
The $1.17 billion budget makes cuts to areas including operations, finance and human resources departments. The cuts to the central office will eliminate more than 32 full-time positions, some of which could be reassigned as school-based jobs.
