How do City Council members feel about Cleveland’s latest school levy? Joe Jones of Ward 1 summarized it best during council’s meeting Tuesday with Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Warren Morgan:
“I’m going to support the school district,” Jones said. “But…”
Council members offered qualified backing for the property tax increase during the more than 90-minute meeting with Morgan. They also warned that the school district must earn the trust of tax-fatigued voters reeling from the county’s latest hike in home values.
The full Democratic caucus – which includes every member of council – did not take a formal endorsement vote on the levy. Seven members, including Council President Blaine Griffin, said they would support it. Only one council member said outright that he wouldn’t campaign for the tax increase: Michael Polensek of Ward 8.
“If the gentleman across the hall thinks I’m walking the street for this levy, he’s got another thing coming,” Polensek said in a reference to Mayor Justin Bibb, who supports the tax increase.
Morgan offered his own words of caution. The levy, which will raise $52 million a year, won’t erase all of the red ink from CMSD’s financial projections. He acknowledged that consolidating schools has been “part of the conversation” within the district.
“The levy is part of a strategy,” the CEO said, emphasizing the word part. “A levy alone – and I don’t know how people have thought about levies before in the past – but they do not solve all the problems.”
Morgan, who just completed his first year leading the 36,000-student district, said the school system has already made budget cuts. He argued that CMSD had seen academic gains over the last year – albeit modest ones, according to figures he presented.
“This is progress you can trust,” he said. “We can transform the district. We’ve shown financial progress and we’ve shown academic progress.”
Council warns about tax exhaustion
If passed in November, the 8.6-mill levy will apply to this year’s property values – not to the new 2025 values recently proposed by Cuyahoga County.
Even so, the reappraisals will in all likelihood generate political headwinds for the school levy campaign. Cleveland property values are jumping 49% on average, leading to an increase in taxes on the unvoted part of homeowners tax bills.
Residents are being “hammered” by inflation and property taxes, Ward 3 Council Member Kerry McCormack said. He questioned whether this was the right time to ask voters for a school levy increase.
“I have had so many residents reach out to me that they are leaving their homes because they can’t afford the taxes,” he said.
As part of the same ballot measure as the tax increase, CMSD is also asking voters for a 35-year extension on an existing bond issue. Residents already pay for this tax, so extending it would not create a new cost to homeowners.
‘We can’t keep every school open,’ councilman says
Multiple council members floated the idea of closing school buildings. There are too many buildings and not enough students, they said. Morgan did not disagree with them.
Ward 13 Council Member Kris Harsh, a CMSD parent and levy supporter, said that families had voted with their feet by choosing not to enroll their students in Cleveland schools.
“We can’t keep every school open and we all know this,” Harsh said. “This is as clear as the light of day.”
Bibb has said that CMSD should reevaluate its “footprint,” but neither he nor Morgan has spelled out publicly what a smaller district footprint would look like.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Morgan said he previously chose not to close schools when considering CMSD’s financial options over the last year. But for future decisions on school closures, the CEO said he would look to council members and the broader community for input.
“I will be calling on you guys to say, ‘Hey, what are some of the ideas?’” Morgan told council. “I will be calling on the community to think about this, because it’s work that we have to do. We have buildings that are under capacity, and we have older buildings, but it is definitely a decision that we need to walk carefully.”
McCormack said he’d rather focus on maintaining quality schools rather than keeping seriously under-enrolled schools open. Morgan agreed.
CEO says academic performance headed in the right direction
Morgan argued that CMSD had seen academic improvement in numerous arenas over the last year, although the statistics did not seem to impress council members.
School attendance increased to 84% in the 2023-2024 school year, up from 82% the year before. Chronic absenteeism fell from 56% to 51%. Math proficiency rose from 18% to 21%, and English arts proficiency grew from 27% to 30%.
Morgan conceded that the district has more work to do, but asked council members to share the good news with their constituents.
“When you’re asking, ‘Is progress happening? Are students actually growing? Are more students meeting the mark?’ Yes they are,” he said. “And that’s the message you need to run and share with constituencies as you’re talking about the work that’s happening.”
Ward 5 Council Member Richard Starr, a CMSD graduate, said the district should offer more vocational trade education and make after-school programs a top priority. It’s difficult to make the case for a new levy after voters just approved one in 2020, he said.
“People are looking like, ‘I keep giving to this, but I’m not seeing the result,’” Starr said.
Morgan replied that CMSD received 2.5 out of 5 stars in its latest state rating, which he said equates to about a C grade. In other words, the district has room to improve but did not receive a failing mark.
“We’re not a failing school district anymore,” Morgan said.
