After tough meeting, MPS board chief to keep pushing for changes

Alan Borsuk:

New Milwaukee School Board President Michael Bonds said Friday he will continue to push for major structural changes in the central office of Milwaukee Public Schools, despite the board balking at his plans.


A meeting on the budget for next year that ended at 2:45 a.m. Friday showed Bonds is nowhere near prevailing with his ideas – and that no major change in either specific matters or the culture of the organization is likely to come quickly or easily.



Things went so poorly for 20 amendments that Bonds had submitted to the $1.2 billion budget proposal from Superintendent William Andrekopoulos that even Bonds didn’t vote for one of his own proposals. On two others, his was the only vote in favor.



“We have a status quo board at this point,” Bonds said afterward. “I don’t think much was accomplished.”



But other board members clearly believed that a lot of Bonds’ ideas were wrong or counterproductive. Bonds has been calling for major change since he was elected board president April 28.