Proposed MPS budget adds more than 200 jobs but also cuts assistant principals

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is proposing a significant staffing overhaul in her 2026-27 budget. The plan calls for hiring hundreds of new teachers and classroom assistants while offsetting those costs by cutting more than 100 administrative positions.

Cassellius' 2026-27 budget reduces spending by about $26 million, an approximately 1.6% cut that keeps the district's overall spending at around $1.6 billion.

The most noticeable changes revolve around a push to have more full-time classroom teachers and assistants.

Cassellius' budget calls for the hiring of 150 teachers and 157 educational assistants, known as paraprofessionals.

In an interview with CBS 58, Cassellius said the costs related to those new positions would be cancelled out by eliminating 53 assistant principal positions, as well as 53 administrative roles, including specialists who work with teachers across the district.

The superintendent said she aims to create smaller class sizes through the changes.

"We needed more capacity in our classrooms to be able to help students learn to read and give them a fighting chance by lowering class sizes," Cassellius said. "Especially at the earlier grades."

Cassellius maintained many of the laid off administrators would agree to take pay cuts and return to full-time classroom teaching positions. She said the cuts target many of the district's relatively new assistant principals, who aren't far removed from classroom experience.

When asked whether it is realistic to think administrators will accept demotions to stay in the district, Cassellius said she believed many will be motivated to keep helping MPS children.

"It's not always about money for everybody," Cassellius said. "I know it wasn't for me, and it hasn't been for me my entire career. It has been about the difference you get to make for children and some of our most vulnerable children within the region."

The proposal has been met with criticism by a number of teachers and parents in the district. Concerned educators have said the assistant principals are vital sources of support.

"It is kind of a hard situation," Adam Vanlaanen, a parent who said his three-year-old will be enrolled in MPS, said. "I feel like more bodies in the classroom would definitely help, but also, I feel like I have to side with the teachers' union just because they're the ones doing the work."

Cassellius acknowledged assistant principals often take on the challenging work of developing plans for students with behavioral issues. However, she maintained the district was overstaffed on assistant principals, relative to other large districts in the state, including Racine, Madison and Green Bay.

The proposed budget would take MPS from 149 budgeted assistant principal positions to 96. With new hires, the district would go from having 3,096 full-time classroom teachers to 3,246.

Cassellius said she was confident the district would be able to actually hire people to fill those positions, although the acknowledged it won't be easy.

"Well, [hiring] has been a challenge in the past, and we have this year-round staffing strategy now that we're using," she said. "And we're also trying to make sure our schools that are the hardest to staff are the ones we staff first."

The district had made much of a $46 million budget gap it had faced. However, Cassellius' budget closes that gap by ending $46 million worth of contracts with outside vendors.

Cassellius said the staffing changes were aimed at improving student-teacher classroom ratios, but she also maintained the changes were more fiscally sustainable.

She pointed at her predecessors, saying part of the district's bind was the decision to use federal COVID-19 relief money to hire administrative staff, including more assistant principals.

"Many districts were told, 'Don't pay for staff because you know when the grant monies leave, then you're gonna have these positions and either have to pay for them out of your operating expenses or eliminate them,'" Cassellius said. "Well, now, we're in this really difficult position."

One thing Cassellius, her critics and parents all agree on is the MPS budget process would be less painful if the state would provide more aid.

"It's hard to find money," Vanlaanen said. "But I feel like if you put money into the schools, it's gonna pay dividends in the end."

MPS won't actually finalize next year's budget until October; that's when districts statewide learn the exact amount of general state aid they'll be receiving.

In the long-run, Cassellius and MPS project to continue facing budget challenges amid declining enrollment and the end of additional funding from the 2024 referendum voters narrowly passed.

Cassellius said MPS will provide better learning environments when it closes a number of low-enrollment schools. She said it'll be easier for the district to staff fully-enrolled buildings with the right amount of support staff, including social workers, nurses and teachers of art and music.

Outside consultants have highlighted five or six schools as candidates for an initial wave of closures and mergers. Cassellius said last fall the district will eventually need to close 'much more' than that.

The vast majority of MPS' low-enrollment districts are in majority-Black neighborhoods. Cassellius said it will be important for the district to ensure the sites of closed schools still serve the surrounding area. She suggested shuttered schools could be converted into housing, mixed-use developments or parks.

"If you're gonna take something away," she said. "You need to have a plan for that building that will give back benefit to the community."