Madison Prep asks for non-instrumentality status ahead of final vote on Dec. 19

Ahead of a December 19 school board vote on the future of Madison Prep, the Board of Directors of Madison Preparatory Academy, Inc. about-faced and voted unanimously to pursue non-instrumentality status with the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD).

The previous plan for instrumentality status would have had Madison Prep personnel employed by MMSD, giving the proposed charter school less flexibility in hiring its staff and more direct oversight from the district. Madison Prep now wants more hiring flexibility in the face of unexpected budget increases. 

Madison Prep plans to have longer school days and years, so under current collective bargaining agreements, Madison Prep teachers would have to be paid more than their colleagues at traditional MMSD schools, said Laura Deroche-Perez of the Urban League of Greater Madison.

However, early budgeting for Madison Prep did not account for higher salaries for staff, leaving Madison Prep short an extra $13.1 million in faculty compensation over five years. To fill that gap, Madison Prep hopes to operate as a non-instrumentality school, so that they can have more flexibility in hiring and paying their staff without the constraints of standing collective barganing agreements in the district.

If the proposed charter school receives non-instrumentality status, on average, teachers at Madison Prep will make $47,050 annually, with a $1,500 signing bonus and $2,353 in potential group bonus if staff and students meet achievement goals. According to MMSD, the average district teacher makes $54, 531.

Deroche-Perez says there will be no shortage of teachers willing to work longer days and years for similar salaries as their peers across Madison.

“I get calls and emails daily from educators who want to teach at Madison Prep, saying, ‘I’d love to be in an environment where there’s more flexibility. I’d love to be working with kids who might otherwise fall through the cracks,’” Deroche-Perez said.

According to Deroche-Perez, the school will still be accountable to the MMSD, regardless of instrumentality status. However, plans for how MMSD would exercise oversight at Madison Prep have yet to be finalized.

Madison Teachers Inc., the teachers union for MMSD, opposes the idea of Madison Prep as a non-instrumentality charter school.

“There’s the problem of accountability because they would not be using school district staff, they would be hiring their own,” said Madison Teachers Inc. Executive Director, John Matthews. 

Matthews also expressed concern about transferring funds from other schools to Madison Prep.

“The only place the school district can get money is to take money away from other programs to give it to Madison Prep, or raise property taxes. They have very limited authority under the statutes to raise property taxes,” Matthews said.

Days before the Dec. 19 school board vote, it is unclear whether Madison Prep will be approved. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, only two of the seven school board members have publicly said they will vote for the proposed charter school.

School Board President James Howard supports Madison Prep, and says that in order to stay on budget, they did not have a choice in pursuing non-instrumentality status.

“It isn’t, ‘Madison Prep made it expensive,’ but that the arrangement made it expensive,” Howard said. “They couldn’t accomplish their business plan under the [union] contract.”

Howard said something needs to be done about the soaring dropout rate for African American and Latino students in Madison, and he sees Madison Prep as a potential solution.

“It’s about narrowing that achievement gap,” Howard said. “We can’t lose sight of that.”