by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press December 2025) On November 5^th, Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) Chief Executive Officer Doctor Warren Morgan submitted to the Cleveland Board of Education his administration’s recommendations for the Building Brighter Futures plan for the future of the school district.

   Upon receiving the plan CMSD Board of Education Chair Sara Elaqad said that the Board of Education wants to hear input from members of the public as to their concerns about the plan. Elaqad noted, “These proposed recommendations include school mergers, moves, and consolidations; significant changes that have the potential to impact families, educators, and neighborhoods.”

   Elaqad said, “The Board has now received these recommendations, and our responsibility is to review them carefully, analyze the data, and make the best decision possible – one that ensures that every scholar in CMSD receives the high-quality education and opportunities they deserve. Doing nothing is not an option. The time to act is now, and we want to do it thoughtfully and with your continued input.”

   In order to hear the concerns of Clevelanders, Elaqad said that for the next three Board of Education meetings, the number of public comment slots available to the public would be increased from the normal 10 slots to 20 slots at the  upcoming Board  Business meetings, and the Board of Education will also allow twenty public comment slots at the Board Work Session, which usually does not allow any public comment.

   At the time of Elaqad’s announcement, the next three meetings for the Board of Education scheduled were: November 19^th at Max Hayes High School, December 2^nd at the Arnold R. Pinkney East Professional Center, and December 9^th at Max Hayes High School. She said the Board of Education would vote on the Building Brighter Futures Plan at the December 9^th meeting. Each meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. To speak, you must sign up at the CMSD website prior to the meeting. The website is: https://www.clevelandmetroschools.org/Building-Brighter-Futures.

   Elaqad said, “We encourage educators, families, staff and community members to share their thoughts and perspectives with us. Your input will help guide us as we make this critical decision and implement changes.”

   The Building Brighter Futures plan submitted by Dr. Morgan includes academic goals as well as plans to reduce the number of facilities and in doing so, reducing the number of school administrators. In its latest five year plan the CMSD projected a future negative fund balance of $150 million. Thus, either significant budget cuts or significant increases in revenue are needed to have a positive fund balance as required by law.

PreK-8 Schools

   The plan proposes a significant reduction in the number of school buildings, mergers of schools, and consolidation of educational programs. The Building Brighter Futures plan calls for reducing the number of Prekindergarten thru Grade 8 (PreK-8) schools from 61 this school year to 45 next school year.

   In the proposed plan, sixteen K-8 schools are to each move and merge with existing K-8 schools. Four K-8 specialty schools are each slated to move from their current location to other buildings.

   On the West Side of Cleveland four K-8 schools and one K-5 school are moving and merging with an existing school.

   The plan calls for Mary Church Terrell at 3595 Bosworth Road to close and merge with Wilbur Wright at 11005 Parkhurst Drive. The new school would be called Wilbur Wright School of the Arts.

   Another proposal is for Waverly School at 1805 W. 57^th and Louisa May Alcott School, a Kindergarten thru Grade 5 school at 10308 Baltic Road, to merge into Joseph Gallagher School at W. 65^th and Franklin Boulevard. The plan calls for the Louisa May Alcott School building to close and the Waverly School building to be used for the Montessori school now housed at Tremont Montessori School (see Specialty K-8 Schools below for more information).

   The plan calls for Charles Mooney School at 3213 Montclair Avenue in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood to close and merge with Denison School at 3799 W. 33^rd Street in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood.

   Valley View Boys Leadership Academy at 17200 Valleyview Avenue in the Kamms-Corner neighborhood is to close and merge with Kenneth Clement Boy’s Leadership Academy at 14311 Woodworth Avenue in the Collinwood, Nottingham & Euclid Green cluster on the East Side of Cleveland. The plan calls for the merged school to occupy the current Mary M. Buthune building at 11815 Moulton Avenue in the Glenville neighborhood. (see specialty schools below for more information).

Specialty K-8 Schools

   In the proposed plan, four school buildings–from which K-8 schools have moved to merge with other schools, will house Specialty K-8 Schools.

   The plan calls for the merged Valleyview Boys Leadership Academy and Kenneth Clement Boy’s Leadership Academy to be housed in the Mary M. Buthune building in the Glenville neighborhood.  The new school will be named the Kenneth Clement Boys’ Leadership Academy.

   The proposed plan calls for Tremont Montessori School building at 2409 W. 10^th in the Tremont neighborhood to close and the students to move to the Waverly building at 1805 W. 57^th Street in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. The plan calls for the new school to be named Waverly Montessori.

   The Stonebrook-White Montessori School, currently at 1000 E. 92^nd in the Glenville neighborhood, is also slated to receive a new home. The proposed location is in the current Stephanie Tubbs Jones building at 11901 Durant Avenue, also in the Glenville neighborhood. The plan calls for the new school to be called Michael R. White Montessori.

   The Dike School of the Arts, currently at 2561 E.  61^st Street in the Central neighborhood, is proposed to move to the Mound School building at 5935 Ackley Road in the Broadway/Slavic Village neighborhood. The school building will be renamed Dike School of the Arts.

High Schools.

   The plan calls for reducing the number of high schools from 27 schools in 23 locations to 14 schools.

   According to the plan, this includes the mergers of “14 high schools currently on co-located campuses to merge within their 6 respective campuses.”

   The Building Brighter Futures plan proposes that three schools on the John Hay Campus in the University Circle neighborhood – Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, Cleveland School of Architecture and Design, and the Cleveland Early College High School – merge to become John Hay High School.

   It calls for the two schools in the Lakeside Campus – Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School and Cleveland High School for the Digital Arts – merge to become the Benjamin O. Davis High School.

   It proposes that the three high schools in the John Marshall building – the John Marshall School of Civic and Business Leadership, John Marshall School of Engineering, and John Marshall School of Information Technology – merge to become Marshall High School.

   The plan proposes that the two schools on the Lincoln West Campus – Lincoln West School of Global Studies and Lincoln West School of Science and Health – merge to become Lincoln West High School.

   At the James Ford Rhodes Campus the plan calls for the merger of the two high schools in the building — James Ford Rhodes College and Career Academy and James Ford Rhodes School of Environmental Studies – to form James Ford Rhodes High School.

   The plan proposes that the two schools at the Garrett Morgan Campus – Garrett Morgan School of Engineering and Innovation and Garrett Morgan School of Leadership and Innovation – merge to become Garrett Morgan High School.

   The plan calls for five high schools to vacate their current location, move to another building and merge with the school in that building.

   Collinwood High School at 15210 St. Clair is slated to move into Glenville High School at 650 E. 113^th Street.

   The proposal calls for Campus International High School, meant to be a continuation of the K-8 Campus International School on the Cleveland State Campus, to move from 3100 Chester Avenue to become part of the John Hay Campus in University Circle. This would mean four existing high schools merging at the John Hay Campus.

   The MC2STEM High School, which currently has classes at the Great Lakes Science Center, Tri-C, and Cleveland State University, is slated to merge to become part of East Technical High School at 2439 E. 55^th Street.

   The plan calls for two more high schools to be closed and merged to become part of Rhodes High School. The two high schools are: New Technology West High School at 11801 Worthington Avenue and Facing History High School in the Charles Mooney building at 3213 Montclair Avenue. This means that the plan calls for four existing high schools to be merged to form Rhodes High School.