MPS community engagement meeting held to address school safety issues

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Safety at Milwaukee Public Schools was front and center at a special community engagement meeting Tuesday night, Dec. 10. 

The goal: bringing the community together to share ideas and propose solutions. 

It comes amid an ongoing back and forth between MPS and the city of Milwaukee over reinstating school resource officers (SROs). 

School board members say Tuesday night's meeting is meant to help address the underlying issues that affect school safety and goes beyond the SRO debate. 

"The meeting I'm doing tonight is really more all around, and it's something I've been trying, actually, for a couple of years to get our parents, our community and our staff members, everybody to sit at the same table to discuss issues, including safety," said Henry Leonard, Milwaukee School Board of Directors. "So the SRO program, and I've said this before, is a small part of that."

MPS is required by state law to place at least 25 SROs across the district or risk having state aid cut. 

They're now more than 11 months past the Jan. 1 deadline to make that happen.