MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) said it submitted an updated draft of a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) on Tuesday. A spokesperson with Wisconsin DPI said officials are currently working through the drafted CAP. 

Conversations between Wisconsin DPI and MPS are ongoing, but Wisconsin DPI said it wants to reach an agreed-upon plan by the end of the week. 

This comes after DPI said it could pull state funding after MPS failed to submit the required financial information. It was nearly nine months past due. Since then, the district’s superintendent resigned and the comptroller position subsequently became vacant. Additionally, DPI notified MPS that it will temporarily withhold MPS’ June special education aid funds. The district's June 2024 Special Education Aid Payment amounts to $16,623,612. MPS said it knew beforehand this payment would likely be delayed. 

MPS said the new CAP draft outlines steps MPS plans to take to “address overdue financial data submission and compliance issues.”

The school district said its plan was “designed to facilitate the timely release of the district’s general and special aid payments as well as identify and address challenges in the district that led to the delayed submission of audited financials.”

“We are committed to resolving the issues surrounding the delayed financial data submission,” said board president Marva Herndon. “In addition to submitting the Corrective Action Plan to DPI, we are actively analyzing the root causes behind this situation, and we pledge to keep our families, staff and the public informed as we progress.”

According to the CAP, many positions in the office of finance are vacant. In addition to MPS' comptroller, MPS also has an open project management specialist position and an open data support analyst position. 

The CAP also suggested the CFO could be replaced. Martha Kreitzman is the current CFO, and the CAP said her role is being evaluated with a likely change of leadership. The CAP also listed a plan to identify an interim replacement.

MPS said it worked with DPI, an external financial consultant, the MPS office of finance, the MPS office of accountability and efficiency and MPS audit services to develop the CAP draft. MPS said all of those involved not only want to address immediate concerns, but they also want to restructure the MPS office of finance so it is efficient and accurate long term.

The school district said an "inexperienced team" got the district into the current situation. MPS said it is unclear if all steps to perform the required tasks were documented in detailed standard operating procedures. 

The board of school directors said the finance team missed scheduled deadlines when submitting information to external auditor Baker Tilly. This meant Tilly had limited availability to work with MPS because of other client commitments. 

The CAP also revealed MPS has been utilizing multiple excel spreadsheets instead of using the software that Wisconsin DPI uses. This can increase the risk of data errors. 

Moving forward, MPS said it wants to continue working with its partners as efficiently as possible. MPS said by looking at the present and future, the district will aim to have accurate and timely financial reporting going forward. The district said it also wants to ensure it gets state funding, such as that June 2024 Special Education Aid Payment that's currently on hold. 

Wisconsin DPI emphasized it is important the required reports are submitted in a timely manner since MPS is the largest school district in the state and gets the most aid. Those reports could affect how much funding other school districts get across the state.

MPS’ school board will allow public comment on the 2024-25 budget during its June 13 meeting this week. The board plans to vote on the budget at that meeting. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m.

“First and foremost, our top priorities are our students, families and staff. As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability, we look forward to hearing from our valued stakeholders,” said board vice president Jilly Gokalgandhi. “We trust the engagement will be polite, respectful and related to the matter at hand, which is the 2024-25 budget.”

Read MPS' CAP draft below: