by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press November 2025) This fall the Cleveland Metropolitan School District held a series of meetings on its long-term facilities planning process titled Building Brighter Futures: A Pathway to Sustainable Student Success. Meetings were held in each of the six regions that comprise the school district. Some online meetings were also held.

   The purpose of the meetings was to share data used in the planning process and to receive community feedback on the planning process. In urging community members to attend the meetings, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) said “the meetings are designed to gather input from parents, guardians, scholars, and community partners as the district faces a ‘perfect storm’ of rising costs, reduced state and federal funding, and a decades-long decline in enrollment.”

   At the meeting for the Southwest region held at John Marshall High School on October 2^nd, CMSD Chief Executive Officer Dr. Warren Morgan said, “We still have a system where not all students have access to high quality education in high quality buildings.”

   Morgan went on to say that the goal of Building Brighter Futures is to be able to provide a high quality improved educational experience for all students. He said this means providing a safe, successful, and strong educational experience for all students.

   Morgan urged community members to go to the Building Brighter Futures website to view a data snapshot for each school. The website can be accessed at: https://www.clevelandmetroschools.org/building-brighter-futures. The website also contains a survey to offer additional feedback on the facilities planning effort.

   Morgan said over the past year CMSD students improved in every academic category. He said CMSD students outpaced charter school students in their growth in proficiency by achieving a 4% growth in proficiency.

   The challenges faced by CMSD are significant. Costs are increasing over time, while the district is facing funding cuts at both the state and federal levels, said Morgan. He said it will take prudent stewardship of the district’s finances to avoid State of Ohio receivership.

   In recent decades, the number of students in the CMSD has declined from 70,000 students in 2004 to 34,000 students in 2024, said Morgan. He said the district’s market share of students has remained consistent in recent years and said that future projections in decline in student population are expected to come from a decline in birthrate.

   Building Brighter Futures has two objectives, said Warren. He said the first is to improve instructional outcomes for every student, and the second is to improve financial stability for the school district. CMSD’s budget projections call for a need to reduce spending by $150 million over the next two years.

   Warren said the plan will involve merging and consolidating programs and what he referred to as rightsizing school building populations. He said schools with low enrollment can’t offer as many opportunities for students and teachers as a building with full enrollment.

   Those attending the meeting were given a handout with data on student enrollment in the Southwest region of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The handout said, “a school with approximately 450 students – roughly two classes per grade from Kindergarten through 8^th grade (K-8) – can provide more opportunities for students.”

   Dr. Morgan said that in addition to being able to offer more opportunities for students, having at least two classes per grade allows teachers to collaborate and share information with their peers teaching the same grade level. He cited the ability to offer a wider variety of courses and other educational opportunities when the student body is larger.

   On the high school level the handout says, “A school with at least 500 students — about 125 in each grade from 9^th through 12^th – can provide more opportunities for students.” When there are multiple schools in a building, such as the three high schools in the John Marshall Building, each school is judged on the number of students rather than counting the number of students in the whole building.

   By this measure, only two of 13 high schools on the West Side of Cleveland have 500 or more students this year: Max Hayes High School and Rhodes College and Career High School. The three high schools in the John Marshall building—John Marshall Business, John Marshall Engineering and John Marshall IT – each have just under five hundred students. The remaining West Side high schools have student populations ranging from roughly 400 students down to about just over 100 students. From highest to lowest they are: Garrett Morgan Leadership, Garrett Morgan Engineering, Bard Early College, Rhodes Environmental, New Tech West, Lincoln West Global Studies, Lincoln West Science and Health, and Facing History New Tech.

   Of the eight high school buildings on the West Side, three are considered not to be in good condition: Bard Early College, Facing History New Tech @ Mooney, and New Tech West. The remainder are, or soon will be, (per facility building plans), in good condition.

   In the Southwest Region, which includes the Jefferson, Bellaire-Puritas, Kamm’s and Hopkins neighborhoods, three of seven K-8 schools have populations of 450 or more: Garfield, Riverside and Artemus Ward. The remaining four schools have a population of less than 450 students: Robinson G. Jones, Clare E. Westropp, Douglas MacArther Girls Leadership Academy, and Valley View Boys Leadership Academy.

   In the Southwest Region, CMSD considers three of the seven K-8 buildings not to be in good condition. Those buildings are: Valley View Boys Leadership Academy, Douglas MacArthur Girls Leadership Academy, and Clare E. Westropp.

   In the Near West Region, which includes the Cudell, Edgewater, West Boulevard, Detroit Shoreway, Ohio City and Tremont neighborhoods, six out of fourteen K-8 schools have an enrollment of 450 students or more. Those schools are Joseph Gallagher, Orchard, Wilbur Wright, Almira, Luis Munoz Marin, and Scranton. The schools with less than 450 students from highest population to lowest are: Halle, Buhrer Dual Language, Paul Dunbar, Marion C. Seltzer, Tremont Montessori, Waverly, Mary Church Terrell, and Louisa May Alcott.

   In the Near West Region, CMSD considers five of the fourteen K-8 buildings to not be in good shape: Mary Church Terrell, Tremont Montessori, Scranton, Luis Munoz Marin, and Wilbur Wright.

   In the West Region, which includes the Stockyards, Clark Fulton, Brooklyn Centre, and Old Brooklyn neighborhoods, only one out of six K-8 schools have a population of 450 or more: Clark School. The remaining schools ranked from highest to lowest in population are William Rainey Harper, Benjamin Franklin, William Cullen Bryant, Charles A. Mooney and Denison.

   In the West Region CMSD considers three of the six K-8 buildings to not be in good shape: Denison, Charles A. Mooney and Benjamin Franklin.

   Dr. Morgan talked about the quality of buildings and buildings that are not being used to capacity. He said the goal of Building Brighter Futures is to have all students in new or upgraded school buildings. This will mean closing some school buildings.

   At the beginning of next school year (2026-2027 school year), the process of consolidating programs and closing additional buildings will begin, said Morgan.

   Following Morgan’s comments, those in attendance at the meeting held discussions in small groups. Some teachers in small schools, or in older buildings, offered some resistance to the idea that the size of the school, or the age of the building, negatively impacted educational attainment of students. They cited some of the advantages of small schools and said that district performance data does not show a significant difference between student attainment based on the size of the school or the age and condition of the school building. Teachers, teaching the only class at their grade level in their building, said they can collaborate and share information with their peers via zoom.

   Another issue brought up in the community discussion was the limited after school programing offered by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. One teacher said that when her school lost its after school programing, it lost students whose families moved to suburban districts that offered afterschool programming. Other teachers have reported losing students to nearby charter schools that offer after school programs. At one table there was discussion of a broken promise to Cleveland students. The fact that City of Cleveland has failed to fully fund the Comprehensive Extracurricular Activities Program which was put in place in 1995 to compensate CMSD for the new Brown’s Stadium being property tax exempt.