Two days after he won a second term, Mayor Justin Bibb launched a new, likely less popular, campaign: selling to Cleveland Metropolitan School District families the plan to merge 39 schools.
The mergers, announced the day after Election Day, would reshape a district that officials said has lost half of its enrollment in the last 20 years. The CMSD board, which the mayor appoints, is set to vote on the plan Dec. 9.
Bibb and the district’s pitch is that CMSD has too few students — and too large a budget hole — to justify keeping so many buildings open. With fewer buildings, the argument goes, CMSD can offer students a fuller array of curricula and programs in the schools that remain.
Along with a dozen pastors, the mayor made that case at a press conference at Mt. Sinai-Friendship United Church on Woodland Avenue. Not far away, the plan calls for Alfred A. Benesch elementary school to merge into George Washington Carver.
Bibb said it was “imperative” that students affected by the mergers go to better buildings with higher-quality education.
“I know change is very hard in Cleveland,” Bibb said, as the pastors voiced their assent. “But our children are suffering as a result of us not having the political courage to make hard decisions about the future of this district.”
One question remains only partially answered: What happens to the buildings the district won’t need anymore? State law requires districts to offer school properties to charter schools first before selling them to other buyers — leaving open the possibility new charters could siphon enrollment from the district.
Bibb said he will release a plan in the coming weeks outlining a “broader community development strategy” for those buildings.
Rev. C. Jay Matthews, Mt. Sinai-Friendship United’s pastor, called the plan “the way forward” for CMSD’s kids.
“Some will choose to fight it. Some will choose to be for it,” he said. “But while you’re choosing, whatever your side is, we choose to stand with our mayor, our CEO and our children.”
Resistance to CMSD’s plans brewing
Already there are signs of fight. Council Member Michael Polensek, fresh off his own reelection win, told Signal Cleveland that he was “outraged” over plans to merge Collinwood and Glenville high schools.
District officials have said the new, merged school will offer vocational training — something Polensek has long called for. CMSD also plans to construct a new building for the merged high school.
But the 75-year-old council member, a Collinwood High alumnus, said that he’s heard it all before. He called the merger of Collinwood a “fait accompli” after it was allowed to decline for years. The district tried to close Collinwood in 2019, but backed off the plan after neighborhood opposition.
District officials have chalked the enrollment decline up to smaller family sizes, and Cleveland’s East Side has seen significant population decline. But Polensek said the loss of programs over the years hasn’t given parents a reason to stay in CMSD, either.
“The proof is in the pudding of what they’ve done to the East Side,” he said in an interview. “Look, I could go one empty lot after another, point you to where there was once a school sitting there.”
And now with fewer buildings in the neighborhood, Polensek said, families will go elsewhere, including to the suburbs.
“You’re going to have people going into the charter schools,” he said. “They’re going to go into Shaw High School [in East Cleveland], or they’re going to go try to get into Euclid.”
Bibb, Morgan start making their case
At Thursday’s news conference, schools CEO Warren Morgan pitched his plan as an attraction for families, not a repellent. For instance, after the mergers, all high schools will offer college and career opportunities, he said.
“Not only do we have a richer system for our scholars that we have,” Morgan said, “I say attract more families into our system, because we’re offering it and we have room.”
A year ago, voters approved a property tax increase to help CMSD manage the loss of federal money. Even with that new money, there’s still a budget gap to close.
Without action, Bibb warned of consequences with Columbus. If the district can’t cut $150 million over the next few years, it eventually could face a state takeover.
The mayor said that he would campaign to convince families and Cleveland residents of the necessity of his plans. Two upcoming town halls may end up functioning as campaign stops. Bibb plans to speak at Collinwood High School on Nov. 11 and Tremont Montessori on Nov. 13, both at 6 p.m.
