MILWAUKEE — Since June of this year, the Milwaukee Public School district has been under fire by the public and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for not turning in its financial audit report for the 2023 academic year on time. DPI threatened to withhold more than $42.6 million from MPS for not submitting its financial audit reports.
This ultimately resulted in former Superintendent Dr. Keith Posley resigning as well leaders of the finance office.
MPS along with DPI hosted a virtual online press conference Monday to give an update on where the District is in its timely submission of finance reports, the restructuring of the finance office, and progress made on the Corrective Action Plan (CAP).
MPS Interim Superintendent Eduardo Galvan said a lack of staffing within the MPS finance offices led to the delay of submitting the 2023 finance reports. “There was a number of vacancies at upper and higher finance positions and so a lot of the staff were left kind of without guidance or a way to move forward,” said Galvan. “We’ve identified that many of the remaining staff is in need of professional development.”
But even those positions could be at risk as MPS waits for its general aid certification for DPI to be released on October 15th. MPS Chief Financial Officer Aycha Sawa said she is taking a look over the financial office while still looking to hire a new comptroller. “I will be evaluating and making decisions that will be taking place in the short term,” said Sawa.
As for the unsubmitted 2023 MPS financial audit reports, Interim DPI Assistant State Superintendent Tricia Collins says a number of documents still need to be submitted. “We would need the auditor aid certification, the annual report and the audited financials,” said Collins. “And then there’s ongoing fiscal financial reports that need to be submitted to different programs and so forth.”
Both MPS and DPI officials said that they are working together to make sure that all issues from the Corrective Action Plan from June are in place, but failed to specify which parts of the plan still have yet to be completed.
MPS has said that the district plans to submit its 2023 financial audited reports by Thanksgiving of this year and is working ahead on the 2024 financial report to make sure that is turned in on time in 2025.
