Committee moves to revoke Central City Cyber School charter after board failed to complete dissolution steps

The Milwaukee Common Council Steering & Rules Committee on Oct. 20 recommended revoking the city charter and terminating the City of Milwaukee contract with Central City Cyber School after the committee found the school dissolved operations without completing the contract’s required dissolution steps.

Kevin Ingram, chair of the Charter School Review Committee, told the committee the committee voted Aug. 27 to revoke the charter because Central City’s board decided to dissolve but did not follow the contract’s dissolution process. “Once they vote to dissolve, that information is then reported to DPI,” Ingram said. He said the required steps include transferring student records, documenting financial records for the Department of Public Instruction, and ensuring bills and outstanding obligations are resolved.

The committee heard that Central City transferred operations and most students to Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy but never recorded a board vote to dissolve and did not submit the dissolution documentation DPI requires. Ingram said Howard Fuller has taken on students and that, once student ID numbers are provided to DPI, DPI will reimburse the operating school for those students. “They did not do that,” Ingram said of Central City’s board taking the dissolution vote that DPI requested.

Committee members asked whether students were enrolled, whether staff were hired by the receiving school, and whether state funding would follow students. Ingram told members the students were being educated at the new sites but that reimbursement from DPI to the receiving school depends on DPI receiving the formal board dissolution vote and associated student identifiers. Committee members asked whether the committee or city staff had authority to require the Central City board to convene and take the dissolution vote; staff said they did not have the power to force the board to meet and that the chartering process requires the board itself to take that vote.

Ingram described the city’s oversight mechanisms: each charter pays an annual 2% fee used for charter oversight work and to pay an accounting firm that handles financial records and audits. He said the city and DPI had asked Central City throughout the summer to follow the dissolution plan (identified in the city contract as Appendix C), but the board did not present the formal vote or full documentation.

Alderman Stamper moved approval of file 250771, the substitute motion to revoke the charter and terminate the city contract. Committee members raised questions but recorded no objections to the motion; the chair ordered the motion adopted by general consent.

The committee’s recommendation will be the procedural step the city requires to proceed with formal revocation. Ingram and members emphasized that the immediate priority was ensuring students remained enrolled and that records and financial documentation be transferred so DPI and the receiving school can process reimbursements.