MILWAUKEE — Class is back in session for Milwaukee Public Schools.
Governor Tony Evers joined district leaders Tuesday morning at Browning Elementary School to help kick-off the first day of classes.
The governor says the state continues to address an ongoing teacher shortage.
“At the end of the day, we really need to have people understanding what an important job teaching is and working in a school district is,” said Evers. “Because it’s our future and it’s all about our kids. Across the state of Wisconsin, yeah, there’s still a shortage, but we’re working on it the best we can.”
In MPS there are currently 98 open teaching positions. Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius says some central office employees, who are certified teachers, are currently filling those roles.
“I have made it a priority that we would fill every single vacancy,” said Cassellius. “Our HR department has worked really hard to fill all vacancies. We have about 98 classroom vacancies still. So we took licensed staff and were able to get them into classrooms so that kiddos had a classroom teacher in front of them. We will continue to try to fill those vacancies over the next month.”
This is also the first full school year in MPS for Cassellius as she started her job as superintendent back in March.
“We’ve already made some huge strides just in the last six months in MPS,” she said. “Really creating safe buildings, addressing the lead crisis, and addressing our financial crisis that we had.”
