Struggling Kathryn T. Daniels charter school could lose MPS contract

A struggling Milwaukee charter school affiliated with a prominent religious organization could lose its charter to operate in June, under a measure that moves to the Milwaukee Public Schools board this week.  

The board's Committee on Student Achievement and School Innovation voted last week to reject a two-year extension for Kathryn T. Daniels University Preparatory Academy, a K-8 school that serves about 220 students at N. 35th St. and W. Hampton Ave.

MPS administration supported the extension despite a review that raised significant concerns about students' academic performance, curriculum, teacher turnover, the health and safety of students, and other issues.

While the Daniels Academy received a "meets expectations" on its latest state report card, it failed most of the standards MPS sets for its charter schools.

"I have a number of concerns," 6th District Board Member Tony Baez told colleagues before moving to terminate the contract with the school, which opened in 2011 on the campus of Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ.

"If there's nothing innovative, why do we support it? There is nothing in the data that supports the idea that we should support this contract," he said.

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Committee Chairwoman Carol Voss opposed the motion, and District 2 Board Member Wendell Harris abstained, saying it was hypocritical to punish the Daniels school when many MPS schools perform as poorly or worse.

"If we were all being genuine, without any ulterior motives, we'd be calling for the shutdown of the majority of our own schools," Harris said.

Efforts to reach Kathryn Daniels Academy officials to discuss the vote have been unsuccessful. Principal Mondell Mayfield declined to comment after the committee's vote, saying she was too upset.

MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver appeared visibly disappointed by committee members' comments and the final vote.

"Honestly, I think Director Harris had a really valid point," Driver said after the meeting. "If you look at all of our schools, we have to be willing to measure them by the same stick.

"I think there's work that needs to be done at KT Daniels, there's no question," she said. "But that was acknowledged in the recommendation we brought forward, which is why it was two years and not five."

Kathryn T. Daniels Academy is one of three independent charter school renewals the MPS board is scheduled to take up Thursday. The committee recommended approval of the other two — a five-year extension for the Hmong American Peace Academy and two years for Milwaukee Environmental Sciences Academy, despite concerns about MESA's academic performance.

The Daniels Academy is one of two schools affiliated with Holy Redeemer, a northwest-side church led by Bishop Sedgwick Daniels. The Daniels family, whose members include fast-food executive Valerie Daniels-Carter and retired Quarles & Brady Chairman John Daniels Jr., is among the most prominent families in Wisconsin, with influence in business, social and religious circles.

The church operates Holy Redeemer Christian Academy, a K-12 school serving about 370 students, almost all of whom attend on vouchers through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. 

Together the two schools received about $4.8 million in taxpayer funding in the 2016-'17 school year, according to state records.

MPS has had a long history with members of the Daniels family, including a $7 million lease to sublet space at the Holy Redeemer campus in the late 1990s as part of its Neighborhood Schools initiative. John Daniels was instrumental in securing more than $800,000 in scholarships for MPS students in 2012 to attend Morehouse College. And in July of that year, the School Board honored him with its first Excellence in Education Award.

Board members raised concerns about Kathryn T. Daniels Academy in the past, prompting them to give it just a two-year renewal in 2015. 

Principal Mayfield urged committee members to approve the two-year extension, saying "we are closing the gap."

"Our students’ academic achievement is steadily and consistently moving forward," she said.

But Amy Mizialko, vice president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association —which opposes charter schools in part because they employ non-union staff  — was incredulous that board members would even consider an extension.

"You gave them two years for a reason," said Miziako, who went on to read a litany of deficiencies highlighted in the administration's own charter school review committee's report.

"Their attendance is lower than traditional MPS schools; their mobility rate is worse; their stability rate is worse; their promotion rate at fourth grade is worse. And health and safety has been a failure three years in a row," said Mizialko, who urged board members to begin working on a plan to absorb the school.

"A contingency plan is needed now ... because KTD is heading down the Universal road," she said in reference to another, recently closed, charter school. "That's what is happening next. This is your chance to get it right for our students."

Erin Richards of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.