The gym at Max S. Hayes High School was so packed Tuesday night that many of the teachers, parents and students who came to protest a recent round of layoffs by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District had to stand in an overflow area in the school’s cafeteria.
Those layoffs, which include nearly 300 teachers, librarians, counselors and classroom aides, have reverberated throughout the district and the city generating anger and hurt.
At the meeting, CMSD CEO Warren Morgan acknowledged those feelings and shared how his parents lost their jobs when he was a child, disrupting his family’s life. But he also remained resolute that the district would never be able to deliver a high quality education to Cleveland students if it continued operating as it was.
“There are generations of families we’ve hurt,” he said, referring to how the district has, in the past, failed to offer equal opportunities to all Cleveland kids, particularly Black students.
The meeting was the first with public comment since the district announced the layoffs as part of sweeping spending cuts and school consolidations. (The board meeting where the cuts were approved was briefly shut down by crowd chants of “let them speak.”)
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Fallout of the layoffs: ‘Weakening’ community trust
A dozen speakers stepped up to the microphone – some of them teachers or librarians who’d received layoff notices. A few teared up and others raised their voices as the crowd cheered and clapped when it agreed with a point or question raised.
“These decisions are hurting real people, damaging morale, and weakening the trust this community has in you,” said one teacher who read a statement on behalf of Martelle Reed, a student at John Adams College & Career Academy, whose aunt was recently laid off. He attended the meeting but wasn’t able to get a speaking slot.
While many speakers focused on the impacts of larger class sizes or fewer counselors or not enough library staff next year, Reed’s statement focused primarily on the emotional impacts of the layoff decisions. He wrote that the decision to cut teachers who’d given so much time and energy sent a message—not only to those who lost their jobs—but to the entire community.
Kari Ewert-Krocker, a CMSD parent, and teacher pointed out that she hasn’t seen the district publicly present a plan to deal with the emotional turmoil caused by school closures. Even though it’s been well documented by research in Chicago, and other places, that school closures can be emotionally difficult and lead to a dip in academic performance.
“The initial presentations about BBF the focus was on hopeful and ideal outcomes and fundamentally ignored the trauma caused by major overhauls such as this,” she said. “I want to know what is your plan, from here forward, to minimize the harm being caused by these mergers and moves?”
Other speakers were direct in leveling criticism at Morgan or members of the board, calling out the six-figure salaries of administrators and other pricey purchases (a now-infamous massage chair) and the notion that the appointed board members hadn’t listened to community feedback prior to closing schools or laying off educators.
John Bell, a teacher, told the story of a superintendent at his nephew’s rural school district who took a pay cut when the district was faced with similar financial hardships. “What are you willing to sacrifice?” he asked Morgan pointedly, near the end of his statement.
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Several speakers focused on what students will miss out on with deep cuts that will leave the district with fewer librarians, guidance counselors and nurses — and no college and career coordinators.
Hannah Eaton, a laid off librarian, said that with the layoff of librarians and all college and career coordinators acting as media specialists CMSD will only have 12 librarians left to operate a library system that has lent out close to 150,000 books this year alone.
“Each library will be open one day per week,” she said. “This will essentially eliminate daily library access.”
Similarly, Lisa Ellis, a school counselor pointed out that with the layoffs in the counseling department next year there will only be 30 counselors to serve nearly 34,000 students. And Lakisha Tuggle, a licensed practical nurse who lost her job, shared her worries that students who will suffer medical emergencies at school next year might not get the same care with fewer nurses around.
CEO Morgan says some cuts not CMSD’s choice
Following the comments, Morgan said that many of the specific cuts mentioned, like the elimination of all college and career coordinators or the layoff of a seventh grade pre-algebra teacher, were not choices the district made but required were outlined in union contracts and state law.
He also said he’s been meeting with Cleveland Teachers Union President Errol Savage daily, and that depending on enrollment some teachers could be called back to fill open positions.
Students from several schools were in attendance carrying homemade signs and cheering loudly whenever a speaker made a pointed comment at the board.
“I just have a very strong sense of justice,” Camille McGowan, a freshman at Garrett Morgan High School who came to protest, told Signal Cleveland. “And I feel like the school board is being unjust to students and teachers.”
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