Schools Make Madison Summit facilitates conversation between MMSD and community

FITCHBURG, Wis. (WMTV) - Nearly 200 people gathered Thursday morning to hear directly from the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) at the 2nd annual Schools Make Madison Summit.

The summit, hosted by the Madison Public Schools Foundation at Thermo Fisher Scientific, touched on some largely unknown realities that affect public schools daily. This included MMSD staff discussing the support and services students receive, as well as the obstacles many students face.

“When students are not attending school it’s not because they don’t want to,” said Social Worker District Lead for MMSD Laura Glaub. “There is a reason our children are not attending school and so as social workers, we are working with students and families to find out what is happening.”

The summit worked to facilitate engagement in school and learning, as well as provide people with a better understanding of the current education landscape.

“Housing, transportation, food access, resources to leadership to job our healthcare system,” added Glaub. “This is all impacting our families when they show up to our school doors.”

Some MMSD staff added concerns about what could become of school finances without voter support, with the two options being staffing reductions or going to another referendum.

“Without continued voter support we are going to have to make some significant reductions in staffing,” said MMSD Assistant Superintendent of Financial Services Bob Soldner. “Or go to referendum again.”

At one MMSD school, students residing at a nearby shelter were attending school78% of the year due to a lack of transportation.

“In the last two years, with this ride in place, they are now attending over 92%,” said MMSD Kennedy Elementary School Social Worker Bridget Cremin.

One Sennett Middle Schooler said he’s seen first hand how the budget gap in districts has affected school performance.

“If schools had similar budgets, I’d imagine each student would have similar education and less schools and less difference in graduation rates,” said Wyatt Milewski.

The foundation said it was excited for this second annual summit after seeing the results from last year.

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