Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and Mequon-Thiensville Superintendent Demond Means heard feedback on their Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program (OSPP), their plan to take control of one Milwaukee public school this fall.
Abele and Means, the appointed OSPP commissioner, stressed throughout the evening that they didn’t like the Republican-crafted law that created the OSPP, but that they were trying to implement it without harming the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).
They’ve given the MPS Board of Directors a June 23 deadline to accept or reject their offer to take one public school and turn it into a charter school under the MPS umbrella. If MPS rejects their plan, they’ll apparently have to find a charter school operator to take over at least one school—yet to be selected—by the beginning of the school year.
‘A Fairy Tale’
The crowd at the MICAH-sponsored forum was polite, asking pointed but at times skeptical written questions about the OSPP’s structure. After the written comments, sparks flew when audience members took to the microphone and addressed Abele and Means directly.
MPS educational assistant Michelle Mackey confronted Abele and Means about their “fairy tale” takeover plan that would likely target Milwaukee’s low-income children of color.
“You live in a high rise and you are out in Mequon,” Mackey said to Abele and Means. “I am down here in the trenches for 22 years. Why are you attacking the children of color?”
Mackey said the law requires the OSPP commissioner to fire the teachers in the school he takes over. The law states, “If the commissioner transfers a school to the opportunity schools and partnership program, the commissioner may reassign the school’s staff members out of the school without regard to seniority in service, shall terminate all employees of the school who are employees of the school district operating under this chapter, and shall require any individual seeking to remain employed at the school to reapply for employment at the school.”
Yet Abele and Means’ proposal would retain teachers in the school they’re taking over.
“You are not telling us the truth,” Mackey said.
After her microphone was cut off, Mackey continued to talk, using her “teacher’s voice.”
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“We are going to fight you tooth and nail,” she said. “Why are you lying to us? It’s like you’re lying to children that Santa Claus is here. No. You’re not Santa Claus. You are a destroyer of inner city youth and black children of color and special needs. You are a destroyer. You are not going to service special needs.”
Abele responded by saying that he didn’t craft the OSPP legislation and that he’s concerned about impoverished kids. He said as a philanthropist he had helped to raise $100 million for the Boys & Girls Club.
“I don’t put out Tweets or Facebook posts about that,” Abele said. “I do it because I’m passionate.”
Shortly thereafter, as Means told Mackey that they were in fact telling the truth about their plan, Abele left without saying goodbye. The audience was bewildered.
MICAH’s Jane Audette told the Shepherd that Abele had informed the organization that he’d have to leave early, but organizers didn’t tell the audience.
Abele’s spokeswoman, Melissa Baldauff, emailed the Shepherd that Abele had planned to leave before the forum ended at 7:30.
“He had a pre-scheduled meeting with Jim Clark, the director of Boys and Girls Club of America, to talk about more ways we can help MPS kids,” Baldauff wrote. “I know the organizers and Demond were aware that he would be leaving early and the reason for that, but unfortunately the message wasn’t communicated to the audience.”
June 23 Deadline
Abele and Means seem to be waiting for MPS’ June 23 response before making more details about their proposal public.
From a purely financial point of view, their proposal would penalize the district and not provide enough funding for extra programming needed in the school.
The MPS/OSPP school would receive roughly $8,075 per pupil. Since MPS’ per pupil revenue limit is $10,261, the district would lose about $2,000 for each student enrolled in the OSPP school.
Abele and Means’ OSPP school is supposed to provide “wraparound” social services for its students. But they haven’t stated what those services would be and who would provide them. Nor have they announced any definitive support from the city’s philanthropic community for their school.
Abele said Thursday that state agencies such as the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health Services, the Department of Workforce Development and the Department of Transportation have all offered to provide OSPP with help.
Throughout the MICAH forum, Abele and Means stressed that they didn’t like the OSPP law. But Abele, as the leader of a county—which is an extension of the state—is forced to implement it, they argued. Their proposal does the least damage to MPS and is not what the law’s authors—Abele allies state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and state Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield)—intended, they claimed.
They also didn’t discuss what their Plan B is if MPS decides not to decline their offer. The law requires them to offer OSPP schools to charter operators, although according to the county’s attorney, the law allows Means to draft the request for proposal for a charter operator, respond to it and win it with no outside input, meaning that Means himself could take over an MPS school this summer if the MPS board rejects his offer.
