MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Keith Posley is out as superintendent as the Milwaukee Public Schools district deals with mismanaged finances.
The news, leaving the community with questions about what happens next and how their budget was and will be spent.
The Board of Directors accepted Posley's resignation after a near nine-hour meeting Monday that went into Tuesday morning. Posley will step down on June 30th, and regional superintendent Eduardo Galvan will fill in.
This is all happening while the state is threatening to withhold funds because the district failed to submit financial reports from last school year and shortly after taxpayers passed a $252M referendum.
Questions regarding the district's accountability, transparency, and competency are still looming. We tried calling board directors to get answers Tuesday, and only one responded.
"Why have you chosen to sit down with us," Jenna Rae asked director Henry Leonard.
"Cause you called. If you didn't get a hold of any of them, you're going to get a hold of a board director eventually, and I believe that when those board directors are called upon, they gotta step up to the plate and do an interview," Leonard responded.
Leonard's a board of director with MPS. He also taught in the district for nearly three decades.
"My biggest concern is that we've lost trust with the community," he said.
A loss of trust after Leonard said even board members were kept in the dark about the district's financial mishaps.
Mishaps that Leonard said the board's trying to fix, as the director's leader is on his way out.
"We have to make sure we're looking at the budget and the DPI paperwork and get that in place correctly. Then, with that, we have to make sure working with Todd Gray, I believe we can get this done, we have to know pragmatically and quantitatively how to never get into that situation again," Leonard explained.
It's a situation the director said other board members still don't fully understand.
Since we learned about MPS' financial discrepancies with the state, we've been trying to ask district leaders what's going on. We've been told to contact the Board of Governance, and so we did, by email, several times in the last week.
We went to the office Tuesday morning, where we were met with MPS' spokesperson, Nicole Armendariz.
"We're here to speak with someone at the Board of Governance," Rae said to Armendariz.
"Okay, and what are you looking to do an interview on," Armendariz said.
"We were told that we had to speak to the Board of Governance, per your team, so that's what I'd like to talk with someone at the Board of Governance office about," Rae said.
"Okay, great, and then did you send a request," Armendariz asked.
"Multiple," Rae responded.
Armendariz went back into an area of the building where we weren't allowed, then called Rae a few minutes later.
She said she's now assisting the Board of Governance with interviews and someone would be able to talk with me tomorrow. She then told us to file an open records request for all information regarding Posley's resignation.
"Marva promised in the meeting this morning at 2:30 in the morning that this would be released this morning and it's 12:26," Rae said to Armendariz on the phone.
We ended up calling the Board of Governance who emailed the documents in minutes.
Those documents show once Posley is out on June 30th, he'll get $160,000 of severance pay, accrued, unused, and personal days paid out, health insurance, and more.
The Board of Directors is holding a press conference Wednesday at 4 p.m.
We'll be there and will continue asking questions and getting answers for all of you in the community.
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