MILWAUKEE — The MPS Board of Directors will hold a special meeting Monday to hear public comment on their financial issues after Thursday night's meeting came to a screeching halt.
Parents and community members at the meeting were upset about the district's delay in sending the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) mandatory financial reports— something that's threatened the future of state funding to the district.
"Where's the money?" asked Dr. Tamika Johnson. That question is what brought Johnson in front of the board this week.
"Where is it going? Schools are still failing," said Johnson.
The board of directors was supposed to vote on the next budget this week, but that did not happen.
The Superintendent's office is staying tight-lipped about what exactly happened to cause the delays in these financial reports.
TMJ4’s Mariam Mackar went to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a non-partisan state research organization, who does a deep dive into MPS’ budget each year.
Mackar asked the forum's president, Rob Henken, what — if anything — stuck out to him about the budget proposal this year.
“One of the things that did stick out to us this year in trying to analyze this 900 pages of a budget was, number one, the lack of information regarding several key things in the budget," Henken said.
Henken said those key things were how the district came up with its revenue limit, why nearly 300 positions were still at risk of being cut, and where those referendum dollars were going.
“For some basic fundamental questions like that, we did not receive answers prior to our publication deadline,” said Henken.
Henken said for their research they always analyze the previous year's audits.
Something we now know they couldn't do because MPS didn't turn them in.
“What do you think it’s going to take to get this all sorted out? This doesn't seem like an easy fix,” Mackar said.
“Well, again, it’s all dependent on the nature of the issues that are causing this delay," Hanken said.
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