MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Wednesday afternoon, Jenna Rae was a panelist at the Milwaukee Press Club Newsmaker Luncheon, where Jilly Gokalghandi spoke.
Gokalghandi is the vice president of the Milwaukee Public School Board of Directors.
In the beginning of May, we learned MPS failed to send the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) its required financial statements for the year. That triggered a potential withholding of finances from the state.
At the end of May, the state approved a corrective action plan from MPS that had goals and deadlines for the district to get back on track.
The plan showed holes in MPS' central office like lack of staffing and outdated financial systems.
Watch: Jenna Rae questions MPS board vice president during panel
Some of the deadlines included hiring new staff, training staff, implementing new financial software, and submitting reports to DPI.
"Do you have the financial office staffed and did you meet the July 15th deadline," Rae asked Gokalghandi.
"We're working right now to source applicants, right. The problems that we've had over the last 18 months don't get solved in two months, and so we have to be realistic, and we're gonna have a conversation about what deadlines look like and how we move forward," Gokalghandi responded.
It's a deadline acting chief financial officer, Todd Gray, told TMJ4 last month was realistic.
"I think we have to re-look at them. I mean, you just said to me right, that we've missed a deadline, and now we have to be really honest about that," Gokalghandi said.
In addition to the lack of staffing, Gokalghandi said the district's former superintendent and CFO are responsible for the current financial mess.
"It's not scapegoating, it's accountability, right. When we were made aware of what was happening, what we did is we took steps to remove the people we felt were contributing to that problem," Gokalghandi explained.
Former superintendent Keith Posley resigned at the end of May. His CFO, Martha Kreitzman, retired in June.
The district now has a new leader at the helm, interim superintendent Eduardo Galvan, who's been with the district for more than 30 years, and acting CFO, Todd Gray, who is hired by school districts statewide to clean up finances.
Those decisions were made without public input, but it's something Gokalghandi said will change moving forward.
"We were in a moment of crisis and needed some stability. When we think about a superintendent search, there are going to be community engagement sessions, we're going to have events in the district where people can come and have conversation," Gokalghandi said.
This is a story we've been following for months and will continue to follow.
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