Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) leaders suggested two ways they could change school calendars next school year.
CMSD Chief Academic Officer Selena Florence presented the options to the Board of Education during a meeting on Tuesday. Both options would cut extended calendars at all but two schools. One option would also shorten the days at about two dozen schools. In the second option, those schools could keep longer days for the 2025-2026 school year.
In both cases, changes would not affect the extended-year schedules at the Downtown Education Center and the School of One. The Downtown Education Center is a school in the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center, and the School of One gives high school students flexible, specialized school plans.
If the district moved most schools to a single calendar with shorter days, it would save $9.3 million. If CMSD’s extended-day schools keep their longer days next school year, it will save $4.1 million.
District staff still have to decide which option they will officially propose to the Board of Education at the board’s March 18 meeting. Then, the board has to vote on those proposed changes at its meeting on April 29. Any approved changes would take effect in the 2025-2026 school year.
“I do want to note that the options are actually three,” said Board Chair Sara Elaqad. “The board does have the option to remain with the current calendars.”
Parents, caregivers, students and teachers who want to give feedback on the calendar decision can sign up to give public comment at the March 18 meeting. People can sign up through an online form on the board’s webpage.
The CMSD school calendar debate goes back more than a year
District officials have been debating about changes to the school calendar for about a year.
CMSD schools operate on five different calendars. About 71 schools in the district have a “traditional” school calendar with a long summer break. About 22 other schools have alternative calendars with different numbers of school days and professional development days for teacher training and planning.
CMSD leaders floated moving to a single calendar about a year ago and eliminating extended and year-round calendars. At the time, parents and teachers urged them to look at the benefits and drawbacks of alternative calendars before making a decision. The district later announced it would work with a research group to examine outcomes for students at schools with different calendars.
Researchers from the Cleveland Alliance for Education Research (CAER) — a partnership between the district, Cleveland State University and the American Institutes for Research — shared results of that study during a CMSD Board of Education meeting on Feb. 25.
The study found that, with a few exceptions, longer school calendars did not translate to better scores on math and reading tests. During that meeting, CMSD staff Nicholas D’Amico and Selena Florence both said the data makes a case to move all the district’s schools onto a single calendar.
Florence, CMSD’s chief academic officer, said a single calendar would help even out the different kinds of experiences students have at different schools. Longer calendars give some students time for things such as internships and job shadowing, she said, but all students don’t have those opportunities.
A universal school calendar could save millions
The district needs to limit spending because it’s facing a budget shortfall. Starting next year, CMSD’s expenses will balloon beyond the money it brings in from government funding and local grants, according to the district’s financial projections.
If that trend continues, CMSD could run out of money by 2028. If the district doesn’t find a way to save at least $96 million before November, the state can take on more direct oversight of its finances, said Kevin Stockdale, the chief financial officer of CMSD.