With Cleveland Metropolitan School District planning to close 29 schools, district CEO Warren Morgan faced questions Tuesday about what will happen to newly closed buildings, how many staff might be laid off and why CMSD has lost so much enrollment.
Cleveland City Council's Workforce, Education, Training and Youth Development committee hosted Morgan as the district works to implement a large scale consolidation plan called "Building Brighter Futures." Morgan explained the plan to close a third of CMSD schools is a big bet to improve academic quality with the district having lost almost half its enrollment since the early 2000s. He said the district is stretching its resources too thin across too many buildings. He pointed to the most recent state report card showing just 36% of students in the 2024 class graduated ready for college, the workforce or the military.
"I say status quo is not an option, 36% is not okay, that means we are not serving all kids and so this is work we have to do,"
Even with the plan to cut roughly $30 million in expenses annually, Morgan said the district is still projecting it will be almost out of cash by the end of the 2028-2029 school year. Committee Chair Richard Starr questioned what other cuts could come.
"Even if we make this sudden change, come a couple years later, we're going to have to make another tough decision. I mean, we possibly might, if we don't have enrollment or anything, we might be closing more schools," Starr said.
Morgan said the district has more work to do on cutting costs but also needs to advocate for more funding at the state level. The state recently cut funding for urban school districts like CMSD, on top of federal education program cuts.
Councilmember Mike Polensek, a longstanding critic of the school district and its approach on the city's East Side, said the school district has long failed the city and its children. The district is closing four schools in his ward, he said, after decades of disinvestment and closing other schools in the neighborhood.
"The number one reason for families leaving this city has been a dysfunctional school system. Just talking to the number of families that have moved from Glenville into Euclid, South Euclid, Richmond Heights. What do they all cite? The schools, schools, schools. So here we are again now. We're confronted with another 18 schools being closed. And I continue to ask, and I'm gonna state this to the mayor and to the administration - what is the game plan for the East Side, the overall East Side?"
Morgan acknowledged Polensek's concerns. He said consolidation is the district's best shot at improving academics. He said more schools will have career pathways, extracurriculars and classes outside the core curriculum once resources are refocused. But he also said painting the entire school system as failing isn't doing students any good.
"When they hear things about, our system is a mess or a travesty, that's not also instilling the brightness in their future," Morgan said. "So I want to state for the record here, our kids have all the potential, they're beautiful, they're bright and they have excellence in them."
Councilmember Tanmay Shah said the district losing enrollment and people leaving the city isn't the school district's fault alone.
"I think that's just a much indictment of the elected officials from the mayor's administration to the city council over the last few decades, as much as it is of CMSD," he said.
Starr also asked about layoffs. The district announced it was cutting 24 principal positions in December, and Morgan said more dean and assistant principal positions will be cut. The district won't make final decisions on layoffs for teaching staff until after it gets a more solid idea of enrollment for next school year.
Council members also raised concerns about the blight left by buildings vacated by the school district. The city mayor's office and school district are currently seeking public feedback on that front.
Councilmember Stephanie Howse said that won't solve the larger issue: there might not be enough interest in, or funding for, rehabbing those huge buildings in the city.
"People just do not have literally the millions of dollars of capital investment needed to repurpose and actually operate and maintain a building," she said.
