Angelina Vaughn is rounding out her last semester at Facing History New Tech High School. She will earn her diploma this spring along with about 16 classmates, she said.
Facing History New Tech is the smallest high school in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) with roughly 131 students. That’s well below the district’s average high school enrollment of around 345.
With school funding tied to enrollment and so few students at Facing History New Tech, the school can only offer the bare minimum, Vaughn said. No college credit classes and no after-school activities. Students can join sports and clubs at Rhodes High School, but that’s about a mile away and students have to find their own way there, she said.
Vaughn earned straight As, she said, but when she started applying to colleges, she learned that wasn’t enough. Schools were looking for students with AP classes and internships.
“It made me feel like, now I’m not good enough for these academic schools that are very selective,” she said. “My teachers weren’t very supportive of my academic dreams, either. My guidance counselor told me to actually stop looking for schools that were more selective.”
Empty seats mean fewer opportunities, officials say
CMSD officials have cited low building enrollment and limited availability of some courses and extracurricular activities as key factors in the district’s plans to close and consolidate schools. CMSD also needs to save money to avoid a $96 million budget shortfall in 2028.
CMSD hasn’t announced how many or which schools it might close or consolidate. District leaders will recommend closures and mergers during next school year. The changes wouldn’t take effect until the 2026-2027 school year, Morgan said.
When the dust settles, the schools that remain will have fewer empty seats, CEO Warren Morgan said at a community meeting last month. That means students will have more or less the same opportunities for extra courses and extracurricular activities at every CMSD school, he said.
Parents and teachers raised concerns about this school closing process to Signal Cleveland. They asked how merging schools could affect class sizes and specialized education plans for students with disabilities. Some are also wondering if there’s room in this process to separate elementary and middle schools in CMSD, which mostly groups K-8 students in the same buildings. Parents with students who have disabilities want to make sure their children’s learning needs are met during what could be a big transition.
Morgan wants to see courses such as algebra, computer science, band and foreign language offered at every CMSD K-8 school. Right now, only 38% have those options in addition to the basics of math, science, reading, art, music and gym.
Will class sizes increase if CMSD closes schools?
The district wants at least 450 students enrolled in every K-8 school and 500 students in every high school, Morgan said. This year, nine of 63 schools serving students in kindergarten through 8th grade meet that enrollment goal. And only three of 27 high schools do, according to district data.
With at least 450 students at a K-8 school, 50 students would be in each grade, according to CMSD Chief Academic Officer Selena Florence. Each grade would have two teachers, one for each class, with at least 25 students per class, she said in a community meeting.
In 2021, the average elementary school class in Ohio had about 19 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Ohio’s average middle school class size at the time was around 26. For high school, it was about 16.
To Areej Shouman, a teacher at Louisa May Alcott Elementary School, the district’s enrollment goals seem high. Alcott serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade and currently has nearly 190 students.
If there’s only one teacher for 25 students, some will inevitably get left behind, Shouman said.
“They’re looking at the numbers that make sense to pay for the building and pay for the staff,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense when you’re looking at passing tests and learning and engaging.”
Shouman’s daughter is currently in third grade at Alcott. She specifically chose the school for her daughter because of its small student body. She wanted her daughter to get individualized attention in the classroom, she said.
“It really starts there for the kids when they feel that they’re cared about, they’re seen,” she said. “That’s how you build relationships in the classroom, and that’s where you get the academics really going because you’ve built a trusting relationship or rapport with them and their families.”
Shouman is already looking at schools outside CMSD for her daughter if the class sizes at Alcott increase, she said. The other schools she’s looking at tout small class sizes as a selling point, she said.
Would CMSD consider standalone elementary and middle schools again?
Alcott is the only CMSD school specifically for grades K-5. All the other elementary schools in the district include students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
CMSD had separate elementary and middle schools until the early 2000s, when former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett began combining them into K-8 schools.
Part of the reasoning was that siblings at different ages could all go to the same schools, said Vincent Stokes, a local pastor and educator who’s taught in CMSD elementary schools for about eight years. The idea had good intentions behind it, he said, but it’s had some unintended consequences for students.
Students in middle school have different needs than students in elementary schools, he said. It’s easier to meet the needs of those different age groups if they’re in separate schools.
“You can have, literally, a 16-year-old in the school with a four-year-old,” Stokes said. “It’s just not conducive for the learning environment. It’s not conducive for their developmental growth.”
As CMSD officials talk about reshaping the district’s footprint, Stokes hopes that “everything could be on the table,” including bringing back separate elementary and middle schools, he said.
Will CMSD be able to meet every student’s needs?
Larger class sizes can also make it difficult for children with disabilities to succeed in general education classrooms, said Alex Mize, the mother of four current CMSD students.
According to federal law, schools have to educate students with disabilities in the “least restrictive environment” possible. That term can mean different things for each student, but Ohio law says schools shouldn’t automatically separate students with disabilities from their peers.
Parents, teachers and specialists usually work together on an individualized education program, or IEP, for students with disabilities. These plans factor in a student’s strengths and needs, usually with the intention of keeping them in a classroom alongside non-disabled peers. IEPs can involve matching up a student with a special education expert or teacher aide in their classroom.
If the district has to relocate students as a part of closing and consolidating schools, CMSD officials need to keep in mind that changing schools can throw a wrench into students’ IEPs, Mize said.
District officials need to plan individually with each student to make sure that new schools and bigger classes have enough specialists and teacher aides to meet every student’s needs, she said.
“They would truthfully have to go through every special education student to see how they would be able to place and benefit everybody,” Mize said, “Not just the students, but the teachers, so that as a whole, the district can do better.”
