PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Tuesday, December 9, 2025; Cleveland Board of Education Meeting, Max Hayes High School, 2211 W. 65^th Street: Hispanic Roundtable Chairman José Feliciano urges the Board of Education and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to be mindful of the needs of bilingual English language learners, to retain sufficient properly trained bilingual teachers, and to provide information to Hispanic families in both English and Spanish.

PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Tuesday, December 9, 2025; Cleveland Board of Education Meeting, Max Hayes High School, 2211 W. 65^th Street: Cleveland Board of Education Chairperson Sara Elaqad explains the Board of Education’s role in monitoring the implementation of the Building Brighter Futures plan.

PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Tuesday, December 9, 2025; Cleveland Board of Education Meeting, Max Hayes High School, 2211 W. 65^th Street: Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) Chief Operating Officer Warren Morgan urges families with children whose schools will be transitioning to another building to visit the CMSD School Choice portal between January 5^th and February 27^th to indicate if they are accepting CMSD’s placement offer or are making another school choice. The School Choice portal will be on the CMSD website at: www.clevelandmetroschools.org.

by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press January 2026) The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) Board of Education adopted the Building Brighter Futures Plan with a unanimous 9-0 vote at its December 9^th meeting held at Max Hayes High School at W. 65^th and Clark Avenue. The Board of Education voted on the Building Brighter Futures Plan as a package. There were just minor changes in the plan since it was first introduced to the public on November 5^th, 2025.

   In the lead up to the vote, the Board of Education and CMSD Chief Executive Officer Warren Morgan listened to a great deal of testimony from Teacher’s Union President Shari Obrenski, students, parents, teachers, school staff, and community members. Despite moving testimony, no schools slated to close, or merge, were spared from that fate.

   Board Chair Sara Elaqad cited the overall health of the entire district as a reason for not giving in and sparing individual schools. She noted if one school was spared, others would say how about us. The most recent five-year projection of the CMSD budget predicted a negative fund balance of $150 million if cuts in expenses were not made. With both State and Federal education funding declining and any growth from local property taxes being diverted from the School District via 15-year tax abatements, CMSD is faced with little choice but to dramatically reduce expenses. The school closings and consolidations are expected to reduce expenses for the School District by about $30 million per year.

   Both the Board of Education and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Warren Morgan offered a whole range of benefits they believe the consolidation of schools will provide. They say the new facilities plan will allow for more students to be in higher quality buildings. The increased size of student bodies and teaching staffs will allow for more academic course offerings and extracurricular activities in each school. They believe the consolidation of schools will also allow the School District to maximize the use of its limited resources.

   They cited some grim academic performance statistics that they hope to be able to improve by means of the Building Brighter Futures Plan. The Plan calls for progress toward the following District goals: “1) Early Literacy Goal: The percentage of 3^rd graders who are proficient in English Language Arts will increase from 35% in August 2024 to 60% by August 2030; Math Proficiency Goal: The percentage of first-time test takers proficient in Algebra 1 will increase from 26% in August 2024 to 50% by August 2030; and 3) College Readiness Goal: The percentage of the 4-year graduation cohort who will meet at least one college-ready indicator – American College Testing(ACT)/Stanford Achievement Test(SAT) College Ready, Honors Diploma, Advanced Placement (AP)/(Individualized Program (IP) College Ready, or 12+ college credits – will increase from 8.2% in August 2024 to 25% by August 2030.”

   CEO Warren Morgan said many of the issues brought up by students, teachers, parents, staff members and the public will be addressed in the implementation of the Building Brighter Futures Plan. Some of the concerns raised included size of buildings, available parking for teachers, longer distances for students to travel, provisions for English learners and bilingual education, retention of Hispanic educators, and dissemination of information to families in Spanish and other languages.

   While the plan calls for transitioning schools to move to welcoming schools, it became evident from public testimony that there may not be space to accommodate all Special Education students in the welcoming schools – testimony indicated that this was upsetting to parents, teachers and students. Special Education teachers testifying before the Board of Education say that while enrollment in CMSD has declined overall, the number of Special Education students has remained relatively the same over the past 20 years. Currently over 8,000 CMSD students qualify as Special Education students. Board Chair Sara Elaqad says 27% of CMSD students are students with disabilities. She said public schools are required to accommodate students with disabilities. She also stressed that CMSD could not function properly without meeting the needs of students who make up such a large portion of the student population.

   CEO Morgan explained that Special Education students have three different educational settings – students in regular education, students in small group room settings, and students in separate Special Education classroom. The settings students learn in are determined by the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP). He said Special Education students in regular education classrooms and in small group settings will be moving with the student body from their current school to a welcoming school for next school year. The uncertainty lies with the students requiring separate Special Education classrooms as to whether there will be space in the welcoming school building.

   CEO Morgan said that the District would have a better idea as to being able to have sufficient space for the Special Education students who require separate classrooms when families complete the process of choosing their school for next school year. He said the Family Choice window will be from January 5^th to February 27^th of 2026. He urged all families impacted by school changes to make a choice during that period. Students can choose their welcoming school or another school as CMSD is an open enrollment district. CEO Morgan stressed the importance of families picking a school during the Family Choice window. He said this will allow the School District to properly staff buildings and offer space to special programs.

   If there is not space for the Special Education students in the welcoming school that their current school is moving to, they will be assigned to another school. As CMSD is an open enrollment school district, parents will be able to exercise other choices where appropriate special education classrooms are located. Morgan said letters will go out to families with Special Education students with notifications of assigned schools. CMSD staff will also follow up with phone calls beginning on January 12th to discuss further options that may be available.

   Another facility space issue was brought up in testimony by CMSD School Psychologists. They stressed the need for private spaces in the school buildings where they can have private meetings with students. CEO Morgan again said the District would be looking at filling that need during the implementation of the Building Brighter Futures Plan.

   Students also expressed some concerns about the continuity of academic plans and the class rankings of students when merging with another high school. This was of particular concern to students in the Campus International High School International Baccalaureate (IB) Program that will be merged into John Hay High School.

High School Consolidations

   The Building Brighter Futures Plan calls for several high schools already located in the same building to consolidated into one high school. Other high schools will be closed and merged into welcoming schools.

   The three high schools housed in the John Marshall building at 3952 W. 140^th Street – John Marshall School of Engineering, John Marshall School of Civic and Business Leadership, and John Marschll School of Information Technology — will become one school, John Marshall High School.

   The two high schools now housed in the Lincoln West building – Lincoln West School of Global Studies and Lincoln West School of Science and Health – will be merged to become Lincoln West High School. Next school year, Lincoln West High School will be housed in a swing school site at 4016 Woodbine Avenue. It will remain there until a new Lincoln West High School is built at 3202 W. 30^th Street.

   Two high schools now in the James Ford Rhodes building at 5100 Biddulph Avenue – the James Ford Rhodes School of Environmental Studies and the James Ford Rhodes College and Career Academy will be merged to become James Ford Rhodes High School. In addition, James Ford Rhodes will become the welcoming school for two high schools that are slated to close – New Tech West High School at 11801 Worthington Avenue and Facing History New Tech High School at 3213 Montclair Avenue.

   Garrett Morgan School of Leadership and Innovation and Garrett Morgan School of Engineering and Innovation will be merged to become Garrett Morgan High School and remain at the current location at 4600 Detroit Avenue.

   Three schools now housed in the John Hay building at 2075 Stokes Boulevard – Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, Cleveland School of Architecture and Design and Cleveland Early college High School will be merged to become John Hay High School. In addition, John Hay will become the welcoming school for Campus International High School which is now at 3100 Chester Avenue.

   Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School and Cleveland High School for Digital Arts will be merged to become Benjamin O. Davis Jr. High School and remain in the same building at 1440 Lakeside Avenue.

   East Technical High School at 2439 E. 55^th Street will become the welcoming school for the MC2 STEM High School now housed at three locations in downtown Cleveland.

   Collinwood High School at 15210 St. Clair Avenue and will close and merged into Glenville High School at 650 E. 113^th Street. The School of One in the Collinwood building will also move to be housed in the Glenville High School building.

Pre-K to Grade Eight Schools

   Next school year, all the CMSD elementary schools will be pre-kindergarten to grade eight schools except Campus International which will not serve pre-kindergarten students.

   On the West Side of Cleveland several elementary schools will be closing and transitioning to another welcoming school building for next school year.

   Louisa May Alcott (Kindergarten to Grade 5) at 10308 Baltic and Waverly School at 1805 W. 57^th will be merging with Joseph M. Gallagher School at 6601 Franklin Boulevard.

   Tremont Montessori School at 2409 W. 10^th will be moving to the Waverly School building at 1807 W. 57^th. The name of the school will be changed to Waverly Montessori.

   Mary Church Terrell School at 3595 Bosworth Road will be closing and merging with Wilbur Wright School at 11005 Parkhurst Drive. The merged school will be called Wilbur Wright School of the Arts.

   Charles A. Mooney School at 3212 Montclair Avenue will be closing and merging with Denison School at 3799 Denison Avenue.

   Valley View Boys Leadership Academy at 17200 Valleyview Avenue will close and along with the Kenneth W. Clement Boys’ Leadership Academy at 14311 Woodworth will move to the former Mary Bethune building at 11815 Moulton Avenue in the Glenville neighborhood on the East Side of Cleveland. The merged schools will be called Kenneth W. Clement Boys’ Leadership Academy.

   On the East Side of Cleveland ten additional school buildings will be closed while the students transition to a welcoming school.

   Hannah Gibbons-Nottingham at 1401 Larchmont Road will close and merge with Memorial School at 410 W. 152^nd Street.

   Euclid Park School at 17914 Euclid Avenue will close and merge with East Clark School at 885 E. 146^th Street.

   Stephanie Tubbs Jones at 11901 Durant Avenue will close and merge with Franklin D. Roosevelt at 800 Linn Drive. The merged school will be called Stephanie Tubs Jones School.

   The vacated Stephanie Tubbs Jones School building at 11901 Durant Avenue will become the Michael R. White Montessori School. Relocating to that building will be the Stonebrook-White Montessori School which will be vacating two buildings, the Michael R. White building at 1000 E. 92^nd and the Stonebrook Building at 975 East Boulevard.

   Mary McLeod Bethune School at 11815 Moulton Ave will move and merge with Daniel E. Morgan at 8912 Morris Court. As mentioned above the Mary Bethune School Building will become the new Kenneth W. Clement Boys’ Leadership Academy.

   Mary B. Martin School at 8200 Brookline Avenue will close and merge with Wade Park School at 7600 Wade Park Avenue.

   Alfred A. Benesch School at 5393 Quincy Avenue will close and merge with George Washington Carver School at 2200 E. 55^th Street.

   Bolton School at 9803 Quebec Avenue will close and merge with Harvey Rice School at 2730 E. 116^th Street.

   Charles Dickens school at 13013 Corlett Avenue will close and merge with Andrew J. Rickoff School at 3500 E. 147^th Street.

   Adlai Stevenson School at 18300 Woda Avenue will close and merge with Whitney M. Young Leadership Academy at 17900 Harvard Avenue.

   Miles School at 11918 Miles Avenue will close and merge with Robert H. Jamison at 4092 W. 146^th Street.

   Dike School of the Arts at 2501 W. 61^st Street will close and merge with Mound School at 5935 Ackley Road. The merged school will be called Mound School of the Arts.

   In addition to all the movement and merging of schools, two schools, although not moving or merging, will be renamed. The Warner Girls’ Leadership Academy at 8313 Jeffres Avenue will be renamed the Mary B. Martin Girls’ Leadership Academy. The Douglas MacArthur Girls’ Leadership Academy at 4401 Valleyside Road will be renamed the Mary McLeod Bethune Girls’ Leadership Academy.