Milwaukee School Board approves Brenda Cassellius' superintendent contract

Yahoo

05-03-2025

The Milwaukee School Board has approved the contract for new Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent Brenda Cassellius.
Board members approved her contract 8-0 at a special meeting Tuesday evening. Board member Darryl Jackson was absent.
"With Dr. Cassellius at the helm, the board is confident that our district will continue to rise to the challenge of ever-changing educational landscape," Milwaukee School Board president Marva Herndon said at the meeting.
Cassellius will begin leading MPS March 15. Her contract is for two years, which will not exceed the duration required by state law, a news release from the Milwaukee Public Schools' Office of Board Governance said. The news release did not say what Cassellius' salary will be.
The last permanent superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, Keith Posley, had an annual salary of $302,358 for the 2023-24 school year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's staff salary database.
According to state statute, a school board's employment contract with a school district administrator, or superintendent, a business manager and school principals and assistants may not exceed two years.
The board's approval of Cassellius' contract comes after the board selected her in February out of three finalists for the position. The other two finalists were Joshua Starr, former superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and Andrae Townsel, superintendent of Calvert County Public Schools in Maryland.
Interim Milwaukee Public Schools' superintendent Eduardo Galvan will assist with the transition, the news release said.
Cassellius said she was excited to get started sooner, as opposed to start in July with the new school year, to get a team in place faster and address issues so teachers are supported and principals have what they need before schools open next fall.
'I'm really just super excited to work with the community across all sectors and to get the work done on behalf of our children and our families," Cassellius said in a phone interview Tuesday night.
Cassellius' hiring and contract approval ends a months-long process to find a new permanent superintendent that started when Posley resigned last June. The board appointed Galvan the following month as the district's interim superintendent.
Contact Alec Johnson at [phone] or [e-mail]. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee School Board approves Brenda Cassellius' superintendent contract