MILWAUKEE— With the start of school set for September 2nd, Milwaukee Public Schools is already hands on deck for enrolling new students in to the district for the new academic year.
MPS Chief of Staff Michael Harris says the district has a clear goal of making sure that students learn to become literate this year.
“We have a literacy focus this year and we’re bringing in some really excellent talent this year to lead that charge,” said Harris. “With literacy being our focus, all will read this year and so we’re looking forward to that work.”
Harris also point out that MPS is making sure that resources through the district and through district partners are fully available for students and parents.
“We know our communities need additional resources and we want to bring those resources to them,” said Harris. “One of our efforts this year will be to connect with community organizations. We understand that we have schools across almost every neighborhood in Milwaukee, and we want to make sure that our community knows that Milwaukee Public Schools is there to help and support their needs.”
External resources such as Milwaukee Public Libraries and Milwaukee Recreation were on sight to make sure that families had information about before and after school activities for children.
Another challenge Harris acknowledges is the district hiring and retaining teachers and other educators.
“Our goal is to make sure that every classroom across Milwaukee has a highly qualified teacher,” said Harris. “Right now we just launched as of yesterday our employee referral program where we are offering employees a thousand dollars to those who refer a fully licensed teacher to join our school district this year.”
Shantee Williams is the principal over at Hawthorne Elementary school and says her school is fully staffed with qualified personnel who can assist students of all groups.
“We want to make sure that students feel comfortable with the educator they have when working on a specific topic. Whether that’s reading, math, phonics, coding comprehension. Our school has after school activities that help. Parents simply sign up, bring their kid after school to meet with an education coordinator and we make sure that the student is ready for success,” said Williams. ” We want to make sure that our students know what they are learning so we will have data chats with them to point out where they’ve exceeded the most and where they can do to improve their skill set.”
As of right now, Milwaukee Public Schools is looking to hire at least 200 teachers to help guide and students for the academic year.
