MILWAUKEE — For over two weeks now, Milwaukee Public School’s board director Aisha Carr thought her referendum town hall was going to be held at Washington High School.
"And I know there were concerns about the topic at hand,” Carr explained.
It was canceled by the district just hours before it was set to begin.
"I have had issues in the past with scheduling things but I have never had anything quite like this,” Carr said.
She shared the permit needed to use the space with TMJ4’s Megan Lee. As well as an email sent by the Washington High School principal.
In the email, the principal said, “So the 27th would be a great day to have the event as we are on Spring Break.”
According to a release from the MPS Office of Board Governance, they were made aware of the potential town hall meetings this week and said that no town hall meetings were scheduled due to MPS being on spring break.
"It's very unfortunate because it really looks bad on the district,” Carr said.
The logistics were messed up, nevertheless, Carr was able to meet with the community and show what she believes are faults within the district budget.
"I am concerned that this is going to be a referendum that is going to be allocated inequitably and then we're going to be back up for another referendum in three years and that just speaks to the lack of transparency and not having a clear comprehensive plan,” Carr explained.
The non-partisan group, Wisconsin Policy Forum has some questions for the district as well.
"I think the unknowns are scary speaking as a Milwaukee Voter,” Senior Researcher for the Wisconsin Policy Forum, Sarah Shaw explained.
Shaw researched the $252 million referendum.
"And we found that the district claims that it has not been receiving as much funding in total today as it did 20 years ago is true. It’s receiving about 46% less than it used to,” Shaw explained.
MPS is claiming that a failed referendum will cause disastrous cuts.
"Some questions there on whether a failed referendum will be 200 million dollars worth of cuts. 200 million dollars worth of not being able to do things the district wishes it could be able to do or something in between” Shaw questioned.
She encourages voters to truly understand what the district is asking for.
"These are our children on the line. And there are also property taxes that lol effect housing stability and the city on the line,” Shaw explained.
TMJ4 did reach out to MPS multiple times Wednesday afternoon and did not get a response before airtime.
The next town hall organized by Carr is planned for Thursday, March 28th. It is from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Wisconsin Black Historical Center.
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