Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Warren Morgan on Friday framed the district’s proposed school levy as a worthwhile investment that the district has proven that it deserves in his most public address since the levy was announced in May.
Morgan spoke to a crowd peppered with students who attend Cleveland schools and nonprofit and business leaders at the City Club of Cleveland, highlighting CMSD’s recent improvements. He was joined by Sara Elaqad, the chair of the CMSD Board of Education, and Shakorie Davis, a CMSD graduate and president of a local construction company, Next Generation Construction.
They used the announcement Friday that CMSD—for the first time—achieved a three-star overall rating on its Ohio School Report Card for the last school year. The state report card ranks school districts and individual schools in five areas: achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation and early literacy. CMSD’s early literacy and graduation ratings scored fewer than three stars.
The levy is only one piece of CMSD’s financial puzzle, but it’s a big piece
CMSD’s state report card shows the district’s strides, the speakers said. Still, the district, which serves about 36,000 students, faces a projected $110 million budget hole in 2027. The levy, which will appear on November ballots as Issue 49, would help shrink that deficit, Morgan said, although it won’t be enough to cover all of the district’s expenses.
“There’s work that we’re doing when it comes to looking at our programs, when it comes to looking at our building footprint, when it comes to looking at school optimization,” Morgan said. “This is definitely a collective effort.”
Morgan stopped short of addressing questions parents and students may have about potential school closures.
CMSD will still have to find other ways to tighten its budget, Morgan said, but the levy will help cushion the impact budget cuts could have on students. If the levy fails, Morgan has said, the district may have to cut up to 700 teaching positions.
“We absolutely cannot go back,” Elaqad said. “If we have to make more cuts, it’s going to be incredibly detrimental to our students and to the future of our city.”
Levy campaign is heating up
Before Friday’s forum, Morgan spoke briefly about the levy at Board of Education meetings, and he has mentioned it to media, but, other than that, he has kept a low profile.
Behind the scenes, Morgan has spent months pitching the levy to community leaders. In late July, he tried to ease Cleveland City Council members’ concerns about tax exhaustion at a council caucus meeting. The levy campaign now lists 13 of council’s 17 members as supporters. Morgan, Elaqad and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb have also secured levy endorsements from dozens of local faith leaders.
If voters approve Issue 49, the second CMSD levy in four years, Cleveland homeowners would pay an additional annual tax costing about $301 per $100,000 of their home’s appraised value. That tax would last 10 years, raising about $52 million each year for CMSD.
The most common question about the levy is how rising property values affect the cost for homeowners, Morgan said. The levy was certified based on current home values, he said, so even though property values are set to increase in Cuyahoga County, the cost of the levy will remain the same.
The district also hopes to renew a bond issue, used for building construction and maintenance, as part of Issue 49. Renewing the bond issue means that residents would continue paying a tax they already pay for the next 35 years. That tax costs $93 annually for a $100,000 property.
The campaign for Issue 49 is gearing up to knock on doors every Saturday from late September through Election Day on Nov. 5.
