Financial Planning and Budget Services

Welcome to the Milwaukee Public Schools Office of Finance web page. The Office of Finance ensures the financial stability and fiscal integrity of MPS. The Office of Finance:

• Safeguards and acts as the steward of the District's assets;
• Ensures the organization has a system of adequate financial internal controls;
• Ensures organizational compliance with various legal and statutory requirements;
• Provides reliable and relevant financial and budgetary information to all District and community stakeholders to for the basis of sound fiscal and operational decisions and to build community support;
• Advises the Superintendent on financial matters, compliance, efficiencies, investments, and strategy.

We are dedicated to the success of our students and the communities where they live and play.

FY16 School Budget Preparation Materials

FY15 Amended Adopted Budget

Detailed budget planning allows MPS to maximize instructional opportunities for children while ensuring prudent use of resources. The Milwaukee Board of School Directors adopted the District’s FY15 proposed budget on May 29, 2014. The FY15 proposed budget can be found in the Past Milwaukee Public Schools column on the right.  The Board amended the budget, based on the actual student enrollment, on October 30, 2014.  The amended adopted budget was the final step in the planning process by the administration to ensure that the District had adequate time to align anticipated resources with goals and objectives.

The budget adopted by the Milwaukee Board of School Directors for the 2014-15 school year focuses on the children and providing every opportunity we can to help student's succeed. Eighty-seven cents of every dollar budgeted in MPS's School Operations Fund does directly to educating children in Milwaukee. This includes supplies and staff; especially our largest group of staff - teachers. Approximately seven cents of every dollar in the fund pays for non-school-based staff and services. The remaining six cents goes to pay for necessary operations expenses such as utilities, insurance, technology licenses, and debt repayment.

Learn more about the amended adopted budget

MPS Board update: budget approval

Thursday, October 30, 2014

MILWAUKEE – At its October meeting, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors received an update on the plan to bring a high-performing school to the Malcolm X site, approved the final 2014-15 budget including yearly fall amendments and approved a plan for a new charter school in the city.

The Board approved its final annual school operations, construction and extension fund budgets with amendments -- as well as the tax levy -- to accurately reflect state aid and enrollment counts that were finalized in the fall, as happens each year. The total cost of the three budgets for the 2014-15 school year – which exclude grant dollars awarded to the district – is down $4.2 million from 2013-14.

The cost of the Milwaukee voucher program (MPCP) to Milwaukee taxpayers, by contrast, grew by $4.5 million. MPS is the only district in Wisconsin that is compelled to levy additional taxes to support vouchers for students attending private schools. Vouchers in every other community are fully funded by the state. If Milwaukee taxpayers were treated in the same manner as all other taxpayers across the state with regard to the voucher program, their tax bills would be $56.4 million lower.

But because Milwaukee Public Schools and Milwaukee taxpayers are treated differently than all other state taxpayers, the $4.5 million voucher tax increase drove the total local voucher cost to $56.4 million. While MPS costs were down compared to last year, the additional local voucher cost drove the overall tax levy approved by the Board up $2.8 million to $302 million, fully 18% of which will go directly to support private schools.

MPS beat its enrollment projection of 76,223 to reach 77,391 for 2014-15, bolstered by growth in key grades such as K5 and 1st grade along with an increase in suburban students attending Milwaukee Public Schools through open enrollment. Overall enrollment in MPS and overall enrollment of Milwaukee students in suburban public schools declined between 2013-14 and 2014-15, though MPS’ drop of 1.4% was far below the outgoing open enrollment drop of 3.4% and the outgoing Chapter 220 drop of 9.6%. That marks the smallest year-to-year drop in enrollment over the past five years, not including the increase in enrollment between 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Learn more about the budget approval