A department in a downward spiral at a crisis point — that’s how work within Minneapolis Public Schools is described in a report looking into the district’s finance division.
Hiring a law firm to do “workplace climate and culture assessment,” MPS received the results last summer — from high turnover, poor communication and disrespectful management, investigators highlight systemic issues impacting morale, performance and stability.
Investigators did praise the department for handling its core functions while working through the difficulties, but the bad far outweighed the good in the report.
Sharing in part, “… turnover and resulting chaos have caused a deterioration in the Division’s ability to serve schools.”
Employees telling investigators, “… suicidal ideation or extreme physical illness have resulted from the stress of these working conditions.”
They also reported being “…scolded or ridiculed for asking questions.” Which investigators shared, “… leads to an inevitable pattern of errors.”
All of that was happening in the background amid work to cut a deficit that once was as high as $110 million.
Earlier this month, the district acknowledged a repeated error on paperwork that cost them tens of millions of dollars in special education funding from the state. We’re still working to learn exactly when that started and whether anyone has been disciplined.
RELATED: Questions remain as clarity emerges on multi-million dollar MPS budgeting error
After combing through the workplace climate and culture assessment, we asked MPS what steps have been taken to address the findings, and a district spokesperson shared the following:
“Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is working closely with members of the Finance Division to address the assessment’s findings.“
While we push for more clarity surrounding its finance department’s work, the district has said it will not be doing any future interviews surrounding the special education funding. Still, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has multiple pending public data requests with MPS surrounding these issues, so stay tuned for future coverage.
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