PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Tuesday, March 18, 2025, Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) Board of Education Meeting, Memorial School, 410 E. 152^nd Street: CMSD Chief Executive Officer Warren Morgan outlines some measures that could be used to reduce a projected negative cash balance of $96 million in the 2028 fiscal year.

by Chuck Hoven

     (Plain Press April 2025) At the February 18^th Board of Education meeting, Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Warren Morgan talked about two seemingly incompatible goals for which he is asking the community for it’s input and suggestions. Morgan would like community members to “work to put our system on a path to financial sustainability while increasing access to student experience and outcomes.”

     Specifically, CEO Morgan is asking the community’s input in April public meetings or online on the CMSD Long Term Facilities Planning effort dubbed Building Brighter Futures – a Pathway to sustainable student success.

     While building a brighter future for students, Morgan is also calling for cutting $160 million in spending out of the CMSD budget so the school district will be able to project a positive cash balance in Fiscal Year 2028 by the end of next school year. Morgan said State of Ohio law requires the school district to be able to show it will have a positive cash balance for two upcoming fiscal years at the end of each school year. CMSD’s current annual revenue is $734,911,616 and the revenue is projected to decline to $715,321.780 by fiscal year 2028.

     Morgan says the CMSD five-year forecast made in November of last year showed the district facing a negative cash balance of $96 million in fiscal year 2028. He said since that time the State of Ohio has proposed a budget for the next two years that will reduce Cleveland’s annual state allocation by $10.7 million. He believes CMSD must carve out $160 million from its budgets over the next three years to assure the ability to project a positive cash balance for fiscal year 2028 by the end of next fiscal year,

     Uncertain federal funding could also impact CMSD’s budget. Morgan noted that the United States House of Representatives has called for reducing Title I funds by 25% and called for the elimination of Title II and Title III funding. CMSD receives $34.1 million in Title I funds each year. The funding is to support economically disadvantaged students. CMSD receives $900,000 a year in Title II funding to help ensure teacher quality. CMSD also receives $5.8 million a year in Title III funding to support English Language Learners. Morgan stressed that the legislation has not yet been adopted. However, uncertainty lingers around federal funding.

     While laying out this bleak fiscal picture, Morgan also touted the promise of the Building Brighter Futures plan to offer more opportunities for students while also helping to right the fiscal woes of the CMSD.

     The Build Brighter Futures plan calls for “clear pathways for post-secondary readiness (careers ad college readiness), opportunities to follow co-curricular passions, support for teachers and staff, and buildings worthy of our scholars and staff.”

     According to Morgan, the Build Brighter Futures plan also calls for high quality curriculum in all schools and grades and in English Language Arts and Math. It calls for Kindergarten to Grade 8 schools to offer high school credits in foreign language, algebra I and physical science. It calls for increased career paths and student activities, computer science for all students and increased art, music, and athletics — including Senate intermural sports and e- sports. It also promises increased opportunities in the trades and for internships.

     Despite all the promised opportunities from Build Brighter Futures, Morgan says the plan will save the CMSD about $30 million a year. He talked about opportunities of scale to be realized by the plan. He said in many CMSD schools a teacher may be the only teacher in a grade teaching a subject, thus opportunities for collaborating with other teachers on the subject matter are not available. He also said that some extracurricular activities are not offered in schools because there is not a large enough number of students signed up to make the program possible. While Morgan used the language “opportunities of scale,” he did not specifically say this would mean school closings and program consolidations. However, this seems to be implied.

School Calendars

     CEO Warren Morgan’s first proposal for cost cutting is to have uniform calendars for all the district’s 94 schools. Currently there are 67 schools that have traditional school calendars 27 schools that have additional hours or additional school days. Morgan says this move will save the school district $9 million a year or $27 million over the next three years toward the goal of eliminating $160 million in spending over that period.

     At its February meeting the School Board listened to a consultant present data that indicated that the extended school days and hours did not translate into significantly better test scores. The consultant also talked of reduced attendance at nontraditional schools during periods that they were in session, but traditional schools were not in session.

     The proposal to have uniform calendars met significant resistance during the public comment period on the proposed calendar change.

     Cleveland Teachers Union President Shari Obrenski said when the school district offered this same proposal last year those resisting the changes convinced the Board of Education to do due diligence and come up with a new plan in a year’s time. She said instead of looking at each school; why it has an extended calendar; and the impact on that schools programing, the district lumped all the schools with extended hours or days together and used a one size fits all analysis. She called for the Board of Education to postpone the decision for another year and order the school district to do a deep dive at each school to determine whether changes are warranted.

     Testimony from educators indicated a need to take a closer look at each school.

     Captain Drew Ferguson of Argonaut, a community partner of Davis Aerospace and Maritime (A & M) High School, talked passionately about how the year-round calendar is essential to their experiential education program that includes activities such as boating, swimming, and flying planes. He also noted that students at Davis A & M, which has no entrance criterion, preform above the district average on state tests and college entrance tests. A teacher at the school also testified as to the love students have for the school and the growth the school has obtained. He talked of the importance of the extended school year for students who may be out on a freighter or flying a plane and urged the school district to look elsewhere to find savings.

     A teacher from Rhodes High School talked about the importance of the extended hours in allowing him to bring in multiple speakers to his American Government class and involve his students in a variety of experiences. The teacher lamented the over reliance on test scores in making decisions about schools. He said the job of teachers is “to do our very best to prepare students for the world they will inherit as productive and responsible citizens who genuinely care for their communities. Please consider keeping the extended day and year for their sakes.”

     One teacher who works at John Adams, an extended year school, too much of the extended school year is spent in professional development. She would rather use the extra school days to work with students to assure their academic progress.

     The principal at John Adams spoke of the challenges of the year-round model. He spoke of the time and effort he must put into planning professional development for staff. He also expressed concern that students were missing school because parents were not aware of the different schedule the school was on, or students who had to stay home to watch younger siblings when the traditional schools were not in session, but the year-round school was in session. He also spoke of lost summer opportunities for students because the year-round school was still in session when some summer programs were beginning.

     Dr. Irene Javier, a principal at of Lincoln West High School, said with students coming from 31 countries the added confusion of a year-round schedule was a problem for Lincoln West as well. She cited the same problems with summer opportunities for students and students that had to watch siblings with different school schedules so their parents could go to work.

     The Cleveland School Board plans to vote on changes to school calendars at its April 29^th meeting. School Board member Nigamanth Sdidhar, who chaired the March 18^th Board Meeting, said the Board of Education’s Goals and Guardrails will be discussed at the Board’s Process and Implementation Committee meeting at 6:30 p.m. on April 1^st. He urged the public to attend.

Public Input

     Community members who would learn more about the CMSD plans for the future, or community members who wish to offer their input on those plans will have an opportunity to join in Community Conversations with a regional focus at the following meetings: Thursday, April 10 at 6 p.m. at Garrett Morgan High School, April 17y at 4 p.m. at John Marshall High School and April 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Rhodes High School.

     There will be an opportunity to engage in district wide virtual digital input on Wednesday April 16^th at11:30 A.M.; Monday April 21 at 1:30 a.m.; and Thursday April 24^th at 9:30 a.m. To access the virtual meetings, go to: ClevelandMetroSchools.org/Building-Brighter-Futures.

     CEO Warren Morgan also encouraged CMSD staff and community members with ideas on how the district can save money to reduce its spending by $160 million over the next three years to submit those ideas at: Savings@Clevelandmetroschools.org.