Cleveland Metropolitan School District leaders made the case for why tough decisions on layoffs and building closures are necessary, during a tough time for public schools in general, at a City Club of Cleveland forum Tuesday.
The district on Tuesday also confirmed it sent layoff notices to another 51 full-time, central office administrators over the last month, adding to the 315 layoffs the district's board had approved in early April despite protests from teachers and students.
The district confirmed some additional news later Tuesday, announcing it will be able to bring back 60 teachers who had previously received layoff notices for next fall as limited-time substitute teachers. The teachers will be allowed to continue their jobs as "enhanced building substitutes," earning their current pay and benefits for "at least" the entirety of the 2026-2027 school year, the district and Cleveland Teachers Union said in a joint press release.
"The District’s goal has been to find a path forward that reduces the impact of layoffs on CTU members while providing the district with the staffing flexibility necessary to meet enrollment needs and achieving the financial savings required to keep CMSD on solid footing," the union and district said in the release. "We both recognize that this time of uncertainty is challenging for all staff. However, we appreciate the good-faith efforts of both organizations to reach a balanced and beneficial outcome."
The two entities added their hope is for "most of the teachers in these roles will be recalled to full time teaching positions" by the start of the 2027-2028 school year.
The discussion at the City Club earlier in the day was about the district's Building Brighter Futures consolidation plan, which will mean 29 fewer schools next year as the district closes buildings and merges programs. It comes as districts across the country face similar decisions, with layoffs and consolidations happening from Columbus to Los Angeles, as public schools have seen declining enrollment for decades.
Morgan was joined by Board Chair Sara Elaqad and Ray Hart of the Council of Great City Schools, a nonprofit advocacy organization representing the nation's largest urban schools, including Cleveland. Hart said urban districts across the country have seen an "out-migration" of millions of people since the pandemic, with the advent of remote work.
"The first thing we knew was that birth rates were going down. In many of our communities around the country, we actually are having more deaths than births now, which is something that hasn't happened in our nation in a number years. In addition to that, we've also seen, as I shared earlier, the out-migration of students, but we've seen a change in policies. The immigration policies that have changed the number of immigrants into our communities," Hart said.
Elaqad and Morgan said the state's funding priorities have also hit the district hard. Morgan said the district is missing out on more than $150 million in state support it could have received if the fair-school funding model was fully funded. Elaqad also noted the state is spending more than $1 billion per year to fund private-school vouchers now. She said the $8,408 scholarship that high-school students receive to attend private schools is more than what the state provides per-student to CMSD. The state is providing $8,241 per-student on average at CMSD, according to an April 2026 report on the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce website.
"We're not operating with the same level of resources for our public school kids who are going to need to rely on our public schools, and we've got a responsibility as a district to do the best we can with those dollars that we do get, but we are in a little bit of a tough situation in Ohio," Elaqad said.
Morgan was also asked about criticisms his administration and past administrations have weathered over excessive administrative spending, including a state audit calling on CMSD to cut 77.5 administrators. Morgan responded that the district has cut more than that amount. A spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that a total of 86 administrators received layoff notices this spring.
Morgan said the district has also put other "controls" into place under his tenure to curb excessive spending on items like administrative travel, food and other amenities.
"We have put protocols in place to eliminate (that) spending. But it wouldn't have amounted to the amount that we would need to either keep schools open or keep jobs," Morgan said.
How CMSD got to this point, and what's next
CMSD's enrollment has dropped by more than half over the last two decades, as more charter schools opened in the city and the state expanded support for school vouchers. CMSD’s enrollment was declining significantly long before that, however, dropping by almost 50,000 students between when desegregation measures were implemented in 1978 and when school vouchers were introduced in Cleveland in 1996. The district also faced challenges getting levies passed.
Morgan said the legacy of families leaving the city is clear, with more than 250 schools in the Cleveland area which he said is "too many schools for our area."
The layoffs and consolidations were preceded by decades of financial challenges for Cleveland schools, despite a period of academic improvement under former CMSD CEO Eric Gordon. Gordon said in a 2022 State of the Schools speech that he was handing off a district that was in strong shape. Elaqad defended that statement when asked to reconcile that statement with the layoffs happening now.
"He was right in what he said, right? We were stronger than we had been in the past. We had made a great deal of progress as a district, but we weren't quite where we needed to be, and we're seeing that through the actions that we're taking today to get our schools to the level that our students deserve them to be with the opportunities that they deserve," she said.
Quincy Boyd, a senior at the School of Architecture and Design at John Hay, was also a member of the panel at the City Club. He said students are concerned about the impact of the recent layoffs, and how far some will have travel to school after consolidation. But he also said he understood how consolidation might improve resources at schools that remain, which has been a big pitch from Morgan and the district as to how consolidation can improve the district.
Morgan said academic improvement remains at the core of the consolidation plan. He said CMSD's Building Brighter Futures plan will mean increased or equal opportunities at all schools for things like arts electives, Advanced Placement courses and career exploration.
"The outrage I hear people say over and over, and I understand the passion, the challenges around jobs, I get it. That's tough. I've experienced that as a child when my parents lost their jobs, so I get that," Morgan said. "I want that same energy and that same passion for our kids that do not have all the opportunities that they need to succeed, especially kids who have been historically marginalized. And that is the conversation that we need to be having."
