Actions Taken in January 2022 by Milwaukee Education Officials

By Julia Smucker, Community Policy & Advocacy Fellow

Each month, we will provide updates on activity of public officials impacting Milwaukee education during the previous month.

Here are some of the entities responsible for education at the state and the local level:

Milwaukee Board of School Directors

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors makes decisions that impact education on the local level. The board meets monthly to make decisions. It may also call special meetings for specific matters that require a timely decision.

The board also has several committees that meet separately and make recommendations to the board. The following committees meet monthly :

• Committee on Parent and Community Engagement (PACE)
• Committee on Student Achievement and School Innovation (SASI)
• Committee on Accountability, Finance, and Personnel (AFP)

There are also a few other committees for more specific purposes that meet as needed. These include the Committee on Strategic Planning and Budget (SPB) and the Committee on Legislation, Rules and Policies (LRP).

During these meetings, board members hear information and updates, discuss proposals for change, and make decisions on things that require board approval. In addition to regular monthly matters, here were some of the topics discussed at this month’s board meeting:

• A new school board district map has been proposed based on the results of the 2020 Census. The new map would change which areas of the city are represented by each board member. School Board members will discuss the plan Feb. 11.
• $63 million was approved for renovations/additions from ESSER III (federal pandemic relief) funding for MPS schools. One of the largest expenses on the list was almost $10 million for a new gym and four classroom additions at Reagan High School. See full list of projects here.
• MPS is requesting permission from the state to skip teacher evaluations for the 2021–22 school year due to COVID-19. This would be the third school year in a row the evaluations have been waived for the district due to the pandemic.
• A Middle and High School Equity Group has been reviewing the district’s admissions process that determines how students are placed in middle and high schools. They found that the admissions process should be simplified and supported for all students in a more consistent way. They also found that all students should be able to access academics, extracurriculars, social-emotional supports, and transportation. You can read more about the group’s findings here.

Opportunities for Engagement

Are you wondering how you can engage and have a say in local policies affecting your child? Here are some upcoming opportunities for parent and community engagement:

• District Advisory Council (DAC) virtual meetings for families and parents (first Thursday of the month from 6–7:30 p.m.)
• District Multicultural Multilingual Advisory Council (DMMAC) virtual meetings with parents and community partners to brainstorm with school staff to ensure access to DMMAC
• School board committee meetings — if you feel strongly about an issue that will be addressed, you can give testimony at a committee meeting. Here are some guidelines.
• Vote in local elections. The next upcoming election is Feb. 15. Find out more information here.

Charter School Review Committee

The Charter School Review Committee is part of the City of Milwaukee’s Common Council. The committee meets monthly (unless meetings are canceled), and it has seven members (six are appointed to their position and one is the City Comptroller, who is an elected official). The job of this committee is to recommend new charter school applications to the Common Council and to oversee the contract review process for existing charter schools. The committee did not meet in the month of January.

Department of Public Instruction (DPI)

The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is responsible for overseeing public education in Wisconsin. We use the educational data provided by DPI and we follow their updates to administrators.

The Department of Public Instruction has regular communications with district administrators that are available for the public to view, which you can find here. Below are some of the highlights from January:

• DPI announced that the Department of Health Services (DHS) has funding to make COVID-19 resources available to schools upon request. These include KN95 and N95 masks, in-school clinics for vaccines and booster shots, and free COVID-19 testing in schools for teachers, staff, students, and their families in public, private, and independent charter schools
• School districts can request exemptions and waivers from DPI from certain school laws due to the pandemic, including exemption from the Sept. 1 school start date and hours of instruction.
• DPI recommends using collaborative and family-centered approaches to attendance and truancy issues. Find more information here.

Wisconsin Legislature

The Wisconsin Legislature, which is made up of the state Senate and Assembly, is responsible for state law-making. Both the Senate and Assembly have committees that study laws and may propose bills that change existing laws or create new laws. Bills must be passed in both the Assembly and Senate and then signed by the Governor to become law. We follow the committees on education to see what potential bills could affect K-12 education in the state.

In the month of January, the legislature met (through public hearings and/or executive sessions) about the following bills (AB = Assembly Bill, SB = Senate Bill):

• AB 495 — Allowing people with a concealed carry license to have a firearm in a vehicle on school property
• AB 830 — Model curriculum for pupils in grades 5–12 on interacting with law enforcement
• AB 843 — Comprehensive firearm education for high school pupils
• AB 611 / SB 589 — Changes to the Foundations of Reading Test (FORT) requirement for teachers
• AB 617 — Early admissions to kindergarten and 1st grade at private choice school
• AB 721 — Number of Independent Charter schools authorized by College of Menominee Nation or Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College