“When I saw the opportunity to come to MPS, I jumped at it,” says Maniscalco in an interview with Urban Milwaukee. His high school English teacher became superintendent of Niles Township school district and asked him to head its HR department. Niles is a high school district of three schools, 70 spoken languages and 4,600 students. Ninety-eight percent of MPS schools are staffed with full-time teachers. Terry Falk served for years on the Milwaukee school board, and before that on the executive board of the MTEA.