Cleveland Metropolitan School District Board Work Session meeting

Before

• Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) announced the “Building Brighter Futures” (BBF) plan to merge or shift schools in the district on Nov. 5. 
• The school board will vote on the plan at the Dec. 9 meeting. 
• Since 1997, members of CMSD’s school board have been appointed by the mayor. 

During 

The CMSD meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m. Chair Sara Elaqad said that the board does not usually allow for public comment at board work sessions but that she is making an exception at this meeting. Elaqad said that they would cut commenters off at three minutes to ensure that the meeting ended on time. One audience member booed. 

Public Comment

Two students from Campus International High School shared concerns about the integrity of the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program after the planned merger of John Hay High School and Campus International High School. One student, Marilia Tsirikos, said she was worried about what would happen to rising seniors’ class rank when the two schools merged. 

Many parents and teachers from Louisa May Alcott Elementary School spoke against the proposal to merge the school with two other elementary schools, citing the importance of the school’s small class sizes and extensive support system for students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). One parent, Caitlyn Hunt, said she felt decisions had been made about the merged schools before community meetings began. 

Benjamin Chronister, a teacher at Cleveland High School for Digital Arts, said that the need to merge schools has been clear for a while, but that it is important to let merged schools choose their own name to eliminate “winners and losers” from the Building Brighter Futures plan. Another teacher from Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School said that she hoped the district would continue to honor Mary McLeod Bethune through the school name. 

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Jennifer Woody, the principal at Euclid Park School, said that closing the school would result in there being no other CMSD schools south of Euclid Avenue. Woody said that at least one member of the school board should attend the school’s community meeting on Dec. 3. “Since families are not here. Please come to where they will be,” Woody said. 

Cleveland Teachers Union President Shari Obrenski said that there was a need to merge schools but that there was a lack of clear planning for students with special needs. She said that the message was amplified to parents of students with special needs that their children may not be transferring to the same school as their peers. “This plan must demonstrate that all of our students are important and deserve more,” Obrenski said. 

A speaker from Bolton Elementary School stood to speak, but she was denied the floor since she had not signed up to speak prior to the meeting. 

Public comment concluded at 7:32 p.m. 

Chair Elaqad presented the proposal to approve the board’s work session agenda. All board members approved; the motion passed. 

Building Brighter Futures Presentation 

CMSD Chief Executive Officer Warren Morgan presented a slideshow to address concerns raised by the district’s Building Brighter Futures Plan. “We are listening. Each individual community is very important, and we are taking that into consideration,” he said. Morgan said that many families have said they know the mergers are necessary but did not want them to affect their school. “Change is never easy,” he said. 

Board Member Nigamanth Sridhar said the district needs to invest in individualized communication to CMSD families. He said that students’ concerns regarding class rank were valid. Elaqad asked Morgan what the plan for seniors’ class rank was in 2026 following the merger. Morgan said it was dependent upon the school: the state would release an official class rank, but there was a possibility of recognizing other students through different criteria, which would be shaped by community feedback. 

Board Member Jerry Billups said that he was concerned about parents who would not meet the school choice deadlines, the period of time when students can choose to enroll in any school in the district. Morgan said that families would be placed by default at their welcoming school if they did not make a choice. He said that in order to estimate projected school enrollment and figure out staffing, it is important for families to make a choice during the school choice period. 

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Morgan presented the board’s Goals and Guardrails, which showed CMSD college and career readiness data as predicted by the NWEA MAP assessment and proposed goals for increasing students’ college and career readiness. Elaqad said that the data was incredibly disappointing and that she wants Morgan to think about scaffolding learning in earlier grades before MAP testing in high school. Sridhar agreed with Elaqad and said that students are not college- and career-ready because CMSD does not have resources. Sridhar also said that he would like to see more data about AP courses and their impact on students’ college readiness because schools that offered AP courses were not appearing as high performers on the data displayed during the presentation. 

After all questions were addressed, Elaqad asked if there was any old or new business and heard none. She announced the next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m. 

These notes are by Documenter Ava Carubia.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcleveland.org  with “Correction Request” in the subject line.