MILWAUKEE— Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) now has an official interim superintendent.
The Board of Directors appointed Eduardo Galvan at its meeting Thursday night, with a vote of five to two. Director Henry Leonard and Director Darryl Jackson voted against Galvan’s appointment.
In terms of length, Galvan said his contract will be at the board’s discretion.
Galvan has been the district’s acting superintendent since the resignation of former Superintendent Keith Posley. MPS has been under intense scrutiny since the end of May, when the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction revealed eight months of missing financial reports from the district.
Galvan has a long history with MPS. He has been a teacher, an assistant principal, a principal and, most recently, a regional superintendent working with 26 schools on day-to-day operations.
Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin’s Watchdog Reporter/Anchor Megan Carpenter sat down with Galvan, as he laid out his plan to get the district back on track.
Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin: Stepping into this role now, officially, what are your top three priorities that you’d like to address?
Interim Superintendent Eduardo Galvan: Well one, make sure we’re ready for students when they come in September. Students and families are counting on us, so that’s always our top priority, right? Making sure students are ready to learn and have the best opportunities possible.
Second is obviously making sure that the Corrective Action Plan, those are completed so that we get to a place where we’re back on track financially and then we’re on our way there.
Third is to rebuild trust in the community but also build morale within our organization, right? We have great people that work here, so we don’t want one event, although major, to impact the way that they feel about the work because it’s valuable. It’s the most important thing we could be doing.
Spectrum News: Let’s talk about some of that financial stuff, too, because a lot of people in the community are wondering where things stand right now. In terms of the eight months of financial data that DPI said in May they did not have from the district, where do things stand with that right now?
Galvan: We’re working directly with DPI. We meet with them daily. We also work with their team to make sure that what we are giving them is what they need, so again, what we discovered is that no funds at this point have been missing or stolen. This is simply a matter of we didn’t have the workforce at the time; through vacancies, our systems didn’t really communicate with DPI, so those are all things that are being corrected. Most importantly, we’re going to be in a better place because part of that support is helping us build those operations back and to train internally those people that need to do the work so that eventually, we will be in a better place.
Spectrum News: Per DPI too, it’s likely that MPS will receive $42 million fewer state dollar next year. Will that affect the district and how it functions and, if so, how?
Galvan: So, that number again is an estimate. We are hopeful that number may be a little bit lower, but regardless, we’re prepared to move different levers if we need to with an organization to make sure it doesn’t impact student programming or staffing.
Spectrum News: Two board members last night voted against your appointment. What message do you have to not only them, but to anyone within the community who doesn’t support you taking over this position again?
Galvan: I don’t know why they acted in that way and that’s entirely their right. All I can say to everybody is: I dedicated my life to this organization. I’ve been here for over 30 years, and I care deeply about the students and the families and the people that work within MPS because, again, our city is important, our students are important, so I’m going to do the best that I can for our families and our students.
Spectrum News: There will be a national search to find a permanent superintendent. Will you be involved in that search, number one, and, number two, are you planning to apply?
Galvan: I will not be involved in the search, in terms of that’s a board function, so they will set up that process. They will contract with whoever they decide to and then, as far as my role in that in applying, when that time comes, I’ll make that decision.
Spectrum News: I’d like to go back to what happened in May when we first learned of all these financial issues within the district. From your perspective, where do you think things went off track?
Galvan: I can’t speak to specifics because I wasn’t involved in that, but what we’ve learned through this process with the CAP and DPI and our own internal people is that there was a lack of staff and simply a lack of sometimes capacity and training and so we’re rectifying that. We also had a system that didn’t communicate properly or more effectively with the DPI system technology-wise and those are all being repaired.
Spectrum News: How do you plan to restore faith with the community?
Galvan: Most importantly, I think once students are in buildings, once families sees that they’re still going to have a school to go to, still have the teachers that they love and know and those opportunities will still be there, that will be a large part of it. Also, we’re going to be much more open about when there are issues. I know people call for transparency and a big part of that is understanding what that means to each individual. Sometimes, we hear that word “transparency” and it may be different for you or for someone else, so we have to do a better job of understanding exactly what is being asked of us.
Spectrum News: There are two open to positions right now, the CFO position and the comptroller position. Where do things stand right now in filling those?
Galvan: Hopefully, [we] will have some good news in terms of the CFO soon. I can’t give you a deadline because obviously we’re working through that, but we have done some interviews there. In terms of comptroller, equally as hopeful, so will hopefully have good news soon.
Spectrum News: I know last night, too, the board discussed the Corrective Action Plan. Where is the district at in the process of completing that?
Galvan: We are moving forward. Again, many of the goals have been met. Many of the guidelines we are adjusting because we had to build back capacity. We have CLA [Christian Larsen Associates] that came in as well and they’re making tremendous progress and part of what they’re doing is also training our internal staff so that as we move out of this, we will be able to do that work.
Spectrum News: What is your message to the community moving forward?
Galvan: I want people to understand that our finances, there were mistakes made there, we are correcting those. The most important thing is any child [who] attends Milwaukee Public Schools will get a high-quality education. They have teachers and administrators and people that want to be there for them, that want to work with them and that will make sure that we provide what they need.
Spectrum News: This district has been under so much scrutiny over the past couple of months. You obviously have a long history with the district as well. I imagine it’s a big task taking on this role in a district that has faced a lot of upheaval over the past couple of months. Why did you want to take this on?
Galvan: I have spent my entire adult life here, worked here, come to know the community and come to know the community of MPS. The work that we do is so important. I think sometimes what gets lost amongst all the criticism is the wonderful things that we do, in the service that we as a district and as an organization provide for our families. That goes beyond the classroom and sometimes isn’t always seen. Those relationships between teachers and students and families and communities at the school are the most important thing, and we need that here in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is a beautiful place. It’s a wonderful place and I feel very passionate about the fact that we can do this work and so, that’s why I took that on: To make sure that we move forward.