MPS to discuss making changes to residency requirement for teachers

MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Public School District administrators want to triple the amount of time educators have to comply with residency requirements. At a meeting Thursday night, December 13th, the district plans to discuss how much time new hires have to make their move to Milwaukee. MPS requires that teachers who teach within the MPS District live in Milwaukee with a year of being hired.

MPS is hoping to hire an estimated 700 new educators for the 2013 school year.

"This is a unique situation for MPS. We're very excited about getting all these teachers in next year," MPS Chief Human Resources Officer Dr. Karen Jackson said.

Dr. Jackson says the residency requirement is making hiring a bit of a hassle.

"I would say one of the reactions that's pretty common is disbelief," Dr. Jackson said.

In response, the MPS administration is proposing a residency rule change that would give new teachers up to three years to make a move to Milwaukee.

"The longer a person stays with MPS, the more likely they are to stay longer. We think if we reach three years, that would give us a threshold where we have more probability that a person would stay, than a person would leave MPS," Dr. Jackson said.

Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association President Bob Peterson says his organization wants the residency rule lifted altogether. 

"The proposal we're seeing is a good step, but it's not enough. It only deals with new teachers. We think if they're gonna apply this to one section of the teachers, they should apply it to everybody," Peterson said.

Peterson says removing the requirement would have a positive impact in the continuing effort to not only attract, but also retain quality teachers.

"For teachers that are already working here, if that's a factor in terms of residency, it won't be anymore," Peterson said.

At a meeting on Thursday evening, an MPS committee listened to the district's proposal to decide whether to recommend it to the board for next week's meeting.

MPS Superintendent Gregory Thornton said with the district needing to hire 700 teachers and 50 administrators, he is concerned with filling classrooms.

"My number one concern is children and classrooms when the bell rings in September," Thornton said.

The MPS Board is set to take up this issue at next week's meeting.