Showing posts with label MPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MPS. Show all posts
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Saturday, April 19, 2025
Friday, March 21, 2025
Friday, September 13, 2024
Monday, January 3, 2022
COVID makes MPS virtual starting Tuesday
From Fox6Now:
MILWAUKEE - All Milwaukee Public Schools students will transition to virtual learning effective Tuesday, Jan. 4 due to COVID-19, according to a statement from the district. MPS was scheduled to resume-in person learning on this date.
Below is the full statement from the district:
Milwaukee Public Schools has announced that all MPS schools will transition to virtual learning beginning Tuesday, January 4, 2022. MPS was scheduled to resume in-person learning on January 4, 2022, but due to an influx of reported positive COVID-19 cases among district staff, this emergency safety measure is being implemented. All district staff that are not in quarantine in accordance with MPS COVID-19 protocol are expected to report to their work location.
MPS will continue providing expanded COVID-19 testing opportunities for MPS students and staff Monday, January 3, 2022, at six MPS locations from 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. When in-person learning resumes, testing will continue to be available for students and staff at each school location.
To support students and families during virtual learning, student meals will be provided daily at various Stop, Grab & Go locations from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. More information on student meals will be posted on the district website, school websites, and social media.
The district's goal is to resume in-person learning Monday, January 10, 2022, we will continue to assess the situation and provide updates as new information becomes available.
From: https://www.fox6now.com/news/covid-makes-mps-virtual-starting-tuesday
Friday, June 19, 2020
MPS to end use of police officers outside its schools
From JSOnline:
Annysa Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Annysa Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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| Demonstrators gather outside Milwaukee Public Schools administrative offices Wednesday to support a resolution ending district contracts with the Milwaukee Police Department for resource officers. (Photo: Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) |
Milwaukee Public Schools will no longer fund police resource officers to patrol outside its schools, under a resolution unanimously approved by board members late Thursday.
MPS is the latest district to sever ties with its local police agency in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last month.
The resolution also bars the district from buying and maintaining what was termed "criminalizing equipment," such as metal detectors, and facial recognition and social media monitoring software.
The decision is a victory for the youth advocacy group Leaders Igniting Transformation, which has pushed for the district to stop the use of school resource officers, metal detectors and other policies it argues criminalize student behaviors and feed what is commonly derided as the school-to-prison pipeline.
"Tonight, young people of color in Milwaukee made history. This has been a long time coming," said Cendi Tena, high school organizing director for LIT, which drew about 500 people for a demonstration and rally at MPS' central offices on the eve of the vote.
"Youth of color advocated very hard against the criminalization of black and brown students. They organized heavily, consistently shared their experiences and their stories. They earned it. This is their victory."
The resolution was put forward by two women of color, board members Sequanna Taylor, who is black, and Paula Phillips, who is Latina.
Thursday's vote followed testimony by more than two dozen speakers, all in support, who argued that school resource officers do not make schools safer and that police violence is disproportionately directed at black and brown people.
More than 700 others flooded the district with emails and letters overwhelmingly supporting the resolution.
In advocating for the measure, Taylor recited the names of black men and women killed by police or vigilantes: Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Dontre Hamilton and others, saying these could have been her own sons, her nephew, her cousin.
"I've heard from many students that having police in schools does not present a positive effect," she said. "And while I understand the need for police, I do not understand the need for them directly in our schools."
The Milwaukee Police Department issued a statement during the meeting, saying it "fully supports the Milwaukee Public School system if it decides to remove all School Resource Officers from its schools."
"We agree with the many voices from our community who believe that the funding should be reinvested into our public school system to support social services. Regardless of the vote, MPD will continue to support MPS and MPS students."
Idiots!
Thursday, June 18, 2020
MPS considers terminating Milwaukee police contract to patrol outside buildings
From JSOnline:
Annysa Johnson and Rory Linnane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Annysa Johnson and Rory Linnane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Public Schools would end the use of school resource officers outside its buildings under a proposal to be taken up Thursday, becoming the latest district to consider severing contracts with local police in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody last month.
On Wednesday,hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the district's north side administrative offices to voice their support for the plan during a rally organized by the youth advocacy group Leaders Igniting Transformation.
"Our voices need to be heard, and this movement needs to bring change," said Roshonti Smith, a 16-year-old student and member of LIT.
Posting police officers outside schools "is not making us feel safe or protected. It's adding tension and aggression to the situation," she said. "The tension between police and students is very bad. On the streets, you're killing us and now you're (at) our schools, which is supposed to be our safe haven."
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| Demonstrators gather outside Milwaukee Public Schools administrative offices Wednesday to support a resolution ending district contracts with the Milwaukee Police Department for resource officers. (Photo: Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) |
The resolution, which will be taken up by the school board, calls for MPS to terminate all contracts with the Milwaukee Police Department for school resource officers. It would also end the buying and maintaining of "criminalizing equipment," such as metal detectors, and facial recognition and social media monitoring software.
Those funds, nearly $500,000 a year for the police contracts alone, would be invested in such things as training in restorative practices and Violence Free Zone programming and mentors.
"It's come to the point with demands across the country that policing has to be approached in a different way," MPS School Board President Larry Miller, who has endorsed the proposal, said Wednesday.
"Saving this funding will help the district head in the right direction," Miller said. "It doesn't come close to giving us the investment our children deserve in these areas. But it's a step."
MPS is the state's largest district, serving almost 75,000 mostly low-income children of color.
Unlike many districts that employ school resource officers, MPS does not post them inside its buildings. It ended that practice in 2016 in response to complaints about police unnecessarily citing and arresting students for incidents that could have been handled by the district.
Today, it funds the salaries and benefits of several officers — the Milwaukee Police Department funds others — who patrol the neighborhoods around some schools, respond quickly if called and stand watch outside buildings at the end of the school day.
Those officers are supposed to have specialized training in de-escalation and restorative practice techniques and working with young people, according to Miller.
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