New MPS superintendent on school officers, district culture

MILWAUKEE - New Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius inherited a number of problems – a school resource officer mandate, financial woes, paperwork mishaps and more.

FOX6's Bria Jones spoke to Cassellius one-on-one to discuss her plans for Wisconsin's largest school district. This is part two of a two-part story.

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On school resource officers

Jones: "We have parents that want to see officers back in schools, and we have parents that say we don’t want a prison pipeline experience. What would you say is your vision for the program?"
Cassellius: "These are the hardest issues when you have polarized views, when you don’t have everybody saying one way or the other. It’s kind of like mask or don’t mask, open or don’t open, with COVID – you’re never going to make anyone completely happy. I think the best thing to do is work within the state law. These were state-mandated back into the schools, and then to make sure the program is successful. Working with parents, working with students, especially, working with our teachers and our principals, to make sure the program is successful, and they have what they need to be able to have it resourced, so we can ensure they are properly trained with healthy development, restorative justice, de-escalation. Those are the things that are really, really important."

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On paperwork mishaps

Jones: "Last year the district faced serious financial fallout when it came to missing critical deadlines for reporting information. How do we avoid going back to that place?"
Cassellius: "I’ve been meeting with our finance team each week that I’ve been here, so it is very, very critical that we are meeting regularly and meeting with the state and also our auditors to ensure that we can meet those deadlines, that we can have the clean audit financials that we need, and so that is the critical piece."

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On district culture

Jones: "An independent audit found that Milwaukee Public Schools had a workplace culture of fear and called for major changes – this was released by the state. What’s your response to that? This was just last month.
Cassellius: "I have always believed that attitude reflects leadership, and so I will bring an open and transparent leadership model, collaborative model, to the district, and I consider myself fun and easy to work, and so I look forward to rebuilding the trust internally as well with our community."

Jones: "Do you believe there is a culture of fear here?"
Cassellius: "Well, I haven’t experienced that myself; I’ve just been here a short week, but I do know that it’s important for me to make sure there doesn’t continue to be any kind of reason for people not to want to come to work or school every single day, feel joy and feel supported in their work.

Jones: "What is your message to parents to students who, over the years, may have lost trust in the district. How do you plan to restore that?"
Cassellius: "I show up, I respond to people, and I’m forthright with the information, and I think that helps to build the trust. And it's that relationship, and you get to know your community, and you deliver, and you deliver again, and when you start delivering the results, then people start and begin to trust that you are a person of your word."

Editor's note: Quotes were lightly edited for clarity. The meaning was kept intact.