MILWAUKEE – The state’s largest school district introduced to the public the three finalists for its superintendent position on Thursday.
The three candidates are:
-Brenda Cassellius, former superintendent of Boston Public Schools.
-Andraé Townsel, superintendent of Calvert County Public Schools in Maryland.
-Joshua Starr, former superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.
Kyle Wallace, host of Truth to Power with Kyle Wallace on 101.7 The Truth, joined WTMJ’s Wis. Morning News on Thursday to discuss the decision making process.
ERIK BILSTAD: All right, Kyle, walk us through what the candidates will be doing Thursday.
KYLE WALLACE: Yeah. Thursday, the candidates will have a community forum with all the finalists for the superintendent position for Milwaukee Public Schools. So this would be an opportunity for the public. Yes, the public to actually come out and have a Q and A session and hear more about these candidates that will be leading the largest school district in the state of Wisconsin. And really a school district that educates the most students, in Milwaukee, but also the most African American students in Milwaukee, where we’re seeing a huge opportunity gap over the last 20 years.
BILSTAD: These three candidates, all from the east coast, two of them are former superintendents, the third is a current superintendent. What do we know about these three?
WALLACE: Yeah, so they all have experience in the position, Right? You just said they come from the East Coast. But I think the biggest thing that if you do a little research and what you’ll find is that they’ve all run some decently sized school districts, especially, Dr. Brenda Cassellius, who is from the Massachusetts area, ran a pretty large school district. Also Joshua Starr ran Montgomery County Public Schools, which is a larger district. But the biggest thing is, I really push people to do their own research, because what you’ll find is, is that the separations for the first two that I just listed, they didn’t really just leave on their own. They had a conversation with the school board. And so really, when you look at the history of Milwaukee Public Schools and how, Gregory Thornton left with a little controversy, how Darienne Driver left with controversy, and we do know Dr. Keith Posley, who was the most recent superintendent, definitely left with controversy, where he was somewhat kind of pushed out. I think that should be alarming for some of the. The constituents in Milwaukee, those who vote in Milwaukee, whose property taxes go towards Milwaukee Public Schools, who saw their property taxes go up based off a referendum that was passed as well. So, we just have to ask these questions about who are these candidates, and how are they truly going to impact the school district in a positive way?
BILSTAD: Kyle, you’ve followed Milwaukee education closely, what does the district need at this point?
WALLACE: The district just needs a complete makeover. We’re seeing them fail time after time after time. I am an advocate for Milwaukee Public Schools. Though I did not attend Milwaukee Public Schools. I grew up in Milwaukee. I have families who were principals and teachers and people who I know inside that district and students that I’m friends with that went to that district. MPS is phenomenal and produces great students, but too often, we’re not talking about the 30% of students that are not succeeding from MPS. So I believe it’s time for MPS to reimagine themselves where they get stuff in on time. Like the Head Start program that they lost funding for over a year ago. Or we’re talking about the fact that they haven’t gotten police inside the schools. I know there’s more to that, but that is a law that says they need to get police in schools, and it couldn’t do that. They couldn’t turn in their homework on time last year when it came to the state, which helped funding for all of the schools across the state. So I think it’s time for somebody who can come in and clean house and probably roll with a little bit more of an iron fist. Right. Because there needs to be more accountability from the top inside central office. But more importantly, we need to make sure we’re holding parents and students more accountable. So I think it’s a time for a little bit of tough love inside of the Milwaukee Public School District, because I think tough love will clean up a lot of things, but in the end, get the results that we need for the students, which is higher test scores, higher graduation rates, students going on to get a two year or four year education, or going on to get some type of skill. I think there needs to be a mindset shift and we need to understand that we need to start holding students and families accountable for their own success. But it starts with somebody to stop babying the community and start focusing on, we need to succeed.
BILSTAD: Is it telling Kyle that none of the candidates are local or from the district?
WALLACE: I think it somewhat is, but honestly, MPS has gone the route where they’ve moved in local people. You’ve seen a Dr. Howard Fuller, you also saw Keith Posley, who was already within the system before. And so you’ve seen people who have come up and they kind of passed the torch to them. So sometimes, when they brought in Gregory Thornton from the east coast before, and Darienne Driver, who was brought in by him, you saw some outsiders who came in. It ebbs and flows and there’s a change. And I think this time the change is we’re going to look for somebody outside of Wisconsin versus somebody inside of Wisconsin, because I know there were candidates who were here in the state of Wisconsin that were interested in the position. But overall, I just think, the wind kind of blew toward trying something different. As you said, all three are from the east coast. And the last one, I know I haven’t mentioned them yet, but Andraé Townsel, he’s also from, Maryland, Calvert County Public Schools, which is a smaller school district out in Maryland. I think he has about less than 18,000 students there.
BILSTAD: Whoa.. that’s a bit of a change (compared to MPS)
WALLACE: Yeah, ‘whoa’ is right. That’s a big change. Big change.
BILSTAD: Thanks, Kyle. Appreciate it.
WALLACE: Thank you so much for having me and having this conversation. It’s so important about the future of Milwaukee because these students are the future of Milwaukee. So thanks for having this conversation today.
TOP STORIES FROM THE WTMJ NEWSROOM:
- Altered image of Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate in new ad raises ethics concerns
- Wisconsin man charged with illegally selling firearms overseas
- Harley-Davidson sales continue to plunge
- What’s new for tax season in Wisconsin?
- Bucks Handle Hornets 112-102 After Giannis is Scratched Prior to Tipoff
