Governor Evers Appoints Milwaukee Public Schools Auditor

Governor Tony Evers announced Monday that MGT of America Consulting will conduct the audit he ordered into the operations of Milwaukee Public Schools.

It is one of two audits Evers has ordered to get the district “back on track” after learning of major problems with MPS’s financial reporting and early childhood education. A second auditor, yet to be announced, will examine the district’s academic practices.

After proposing the audit idea in early June, Evers decided to move forward when the plan received support from State Superintendent Jill Underly, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and members of the Milwaukee School Board.

Evers said the audits will be the first investigation of MPS of its kind since an initiative 15 years ago, when then-Mayor Tom Barrett and then-Governor Jim Doyle called for an independent review of MPS’s finances and operations.

MGT previously recommended closing MPS school buildings, but has taken control in other school districts

MGT was one of two vendors that submitted proposals for the audit, said Britt Cudaback, communications director for Evers’ office. To move quickly, Evers’ office accepted applications only from companies that had already been vetted through another state contract, a consulting contract for the UW System.

MGT, a Florida consulting firm run by former Republican state legislator Trey Traviesa, has worked with MPS before. The district hired MGT in 2017 to create a long-term facilities plan, though MPS didn’t follow the firm’s recommendation to close or repurpose 20 schools with declining enrollment. MPS is creating a new facilities plan this year with another firm, Perkins Eastman, which launched a website for the process last week.

MGT’s proposal for the new operational evaluation did not specify whether facility utilization would be examined, but it would look at staffing, training, recruitment practices, operational efficiency, budget development, financial management and workflow.

The company specializes in working with educational authorities. It has been engaged by government officials across the country, not only as a consultant for school activities, but in some cases to take over the management of schools.

In Gary, Indiana, state officials in 2017 ordered MGT to take control of the local school system for seven years to help reduce the deficit. Some local officials opposed MGT when they realized that the state’s former Republican schools superintendent was on MGT’s board, the Chicago Tribute reported. MGT handed the reins back to local officials this summer after major budget cuts left the district with excess funding, the Tribune reported.

MGT had a rough landing after running Adams County School District 14 in Colorado under state injunctions. Local officials pushed back against the company’s involvement, raised questions about MGT’s spending of district dollars on subcontractors and sued MGT for releasing records when the company investigated district employees, Chalkbeat Colorado reported. The company paid the district a $1.5 million settlement last year, CBS reported.

Evers has not called for a takeover of MPS, though others have floated the idea. Dale Kooyenga, a former Republican state senator and current president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, told Spectrum News that he plans to convene stakeholders to discuss ideas for changes to MPS, including the possibility of a temporary state takeover, when state lawmakers reconvene in January.

Milwaukee School Board President Marva Herndon said she hoped the MPS audits would help the district find areas for improvement without leading to a takeover, which she said would “deprive the community of its voice” in electing the school board members who currently oversee the district.

“I had no problem with the governor hiring auditors,” Herndon said. “Usually you find something that needs improvement or corrections or processes and procedures that need to be developed.”

In a press release, Evers said he felt MGT brought valuable experience working with public schools and conducting operational assessments with a commitment to a “student-centered approach” and “evidence-based recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the central office.”

“I have made it clear from the beginning that the people selected to conduct the independent, third-party audits of MPS bring expertise and specific experience in classrooms, schools, and helping school districts address significant challenges, which is critical if we are to identify problems and have meaningful conversations about solutions going forward,” Evers said in a statement. “MGT fits that structure.”

According to Evers, audits could be carried out within six months

Cudaback said Monday it was unclear how much the operational audit would cost and how long it would take, as the contract is still in the final stages.

Evers told reporters in June that he hoped both audits would be completed within six months, but added: “You never know with these kinds of things.”

“We want it to be a very, very deep, deep, deep dive for these two companies that are going to do this,” Evers said, according to a transcript provided by Cudaback. “And as far as education, that means talking to a lot of people: parents, teachers, everybody — as many people as possible in the Milwaukee area.”

Cudaback declined to provide details about the source of funding for the audits. An earlier press release said the funding would come from “federal dollars available between underspending on previously awarded contracts and funding already allocated to Milwaukee that has not yet been spent.”

MPS is also monitored by DPI, at a cost of $260,000

As Evers’ audits get underway, MPS is also implementing a corrective action plan, overseen by the state Department of Education, to address urgent vacancies and deficiencies in the district’s finance department and complete standard annual financial audits.

MPS has agreed to pay DPI $260,000 for the time of the department’s staff that monitors the district’s progress on the plan through June of next year. In the payment agreement, DPI noted that MPS requires an “extraordinary level of intervention” to complete its financial reports and that DPI may need to hire staff to work specifically with MPS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Governor Evers Appoints Milwaukee Public Schools Auditor