MPS superintendent hopeful district will qualify for FEMA aid; responds to release of withheld state aid

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- With FEMA personnel in southeast Wisconsin this week to conduct damage assessments following last week's historic flooding, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said Wednesday she hopes the district will qualify for federal disaster aid.

Cassellius appeared at an M-Cubed event on the UW-Milwaukee campus for a program celebrated employers who've joined the partnership between MPS, UW-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College, offering work opportunities to students.

She said workers have been busy at two MPS schools, in particular, where flooding caused significant damage.

"Riverside [University High School] and Obama [School of Career and Technical Education] were our hardest hit schools where we are working on just monitoring them now," Cassellius said. "Cleaning them up and then making sure we monitor for any residual moisture within the school."

Cassellius said the biggest losses were electronic items that got ruined, but she said other building-related repairs will add more bills when MPS already forecasts it will end up spending around $25 million on district-wide lead mitigation efforts.

"Loss of technology, floors, some of that flooding damage that we have- materials," Cassellius said. "It would be wonderful if [FEMA] could get in our schools and see the damage and provide relief."

Mayor Cavalier Johnson also appeared at the M-Cubed event, accepting an award. Johnson said he wanted FEMA personnel to visit both schools and public sector properties that were badly damaged.

"Given an opportunity to talk with FEMA, yeah, I'd direct them not only to our citizens whose homes were negatively impacted by the flood, but also our schools," Johnson said. "We had significant damage, even to public facilities throughout the region, including in the city of Milwaukee, so FEMA should check it all out."

One bucket of money MPS knows it's receiving is $16.6 million in state aid released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The state withheld the money in the spring of 2024 after MPS failed to submit required financial data on time.

More than a year later, MPS has satisfied that reporting requirement. The state is still withholding another $25.4 million because MPS once again missed reporting deadlines this past spring. 

Cassellius said MPS' budget for the 2025-26 school year includes all $42 million in withheld because district leaders are confident they've also satisfied the requirements for releasing this year's fundings. The superintendent was confident the remaining $25.4 million would be released soon.

"I'm hoping that that will be released before school starts," Cassellius said. "But we'll see- they have to review the plan, still, and make sure that the plan meets every single piece that they need for us to release us out of the original Corrective Action Plan."

DPI spokesperson Chris Bucher said in an email Wednesday there's no specific timeline for when the state would release the $25.4 million, which is split between $8 million in Achievement Gap Reduction Aid and $17.4 million in special education aid. 

To receive the achievement gap money, MPS must submitted its audited financials for the 2023-24 school year. The district will get the remaining special education funding when submits a "locally constructed plan to address the upcoming fiscal year deadlines and Corrective Action Plan (CAP) compliance."

Cassellius said she was confident MPS will no longer be egregiously late to submit financial data because new district leaders are making progress in creating a new system that is better connected to the DPI reporting database.

"In that the two technology systems are really talking seamlessly together," she said. "And so, that's the next piece of work."