MILWAUKEE — A deal has been reached with new Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius, months earlier than expected.
During a special meeting of the MPS Board of School Directors Tuesday evening, Dr. Cassellius received the unanimous support of the board 8-0; Darryl Jackson was absent from the meeting.
“It is with enormous gratitude and optimism that I take on this responsibility,” said Dr. Cassellius.“I am eager to get to work, to meet our community, find ways to work together, and to start a new chapter for MPS. I am honored to work with the educators and staff who serve our students each and every day and believe there is no higher professional calling than being an educator. I have great expectations for Milwaukee Public Schools, and I know that through hard work, honest conversations, and a commitment to our students, we will accomplish big things together.”
Cassellius previously served as superintendent of Boston Public Schools and as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education. She also previously served as the academic superintendent for middle schools in Memphis City Schools.
As for how much Dr. Cassellius will make per year plus benefits under the contract approved by the Board of School Directors, she is slated to earn $320,000 per year in her new position, plus a transitional salary of $80,000 for work performed from March 15th through June 30th, before her first annual contract year officially begins on July 1st. Her contract also includes $33,000 annually in a retirement plan, provided she is employed as superintendent for the entire fiscal year. By comparison, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson receives just over 169,000 dollars annually after the Common Council approved raises for several city officials last year.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Milwaukee Public Schools names Dr. Brenda Cassellius lone finalist for Superintendent position
Dr. Cassellius’s first day of work on March 15th is the same day Milwaukee County Judge David Borowski set as a deadline for an agreement to be reached by the City of Milwaukee regarding 25 school resource officers being placed in Milwaukee Public Schools. The SROs have been required since the enactment of Act 12 on January 1st, 2024, but have been absent from MPS despite their requirement by law. The MPS board reached an agreement to pay for half of the SROs’ cost on last month, while the Milwaukee Common Council approved a memorandum of understanding on the matter Tuesday.
“I’m used to working with our police community, and so we’re going to make sure that it’s a good implementation [and] that we’re working with the full community and our full school communities on the implementation,” Cassellius told our partners at TMJ4 News after the board’s Tuesday meeting.
The MOU agreed to by the Common Council Tuesday includes splitting the cost for the SROs 50-50 between MPS and the city. It also requires the City and MPS to provide 40 hours of training and a list of which officers are assigned to which schools in the district by March 15th.
The Milwaukee Police Department contacted the National Association of School Resource Officers February 28th regarding SRO training. NASRO agreed to send instructors to Milwaukee to teach the NASRO Basic SRO Course to Milwaukee officers beginning March 10th. A NASRO spokesperson tells WTMJ as of Friday afternoon, the organization was preparing a contract for MPD to sign to host the training. NASRO Executive Director Mo Canady said Friday he didn’t expect to have individual officer registrations until later this week.
As for what the NASRO training for officers entails specifically, each officer will complete a five-day curriculum broken down into eight hours of sessions per day, according to training documents obtained by WTMJ. Students of the Basic School Resource Officer Training program must pass the examination with a score of 705 or higher. Those scoring below 70% will be given 14 days to complete remediation, and attendees can miss no greater than 10% of the total course time or a maximum of 4 hours.
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