The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) kicked off a process this week that could end in closing some school buildings.
The district’s Board of Education has been gearing up for what it has called “long-term facilities planning” for months, and board members voted on Tuesday to allow CEO Warren Morgan to get to work on the plan.
The resolution the board passed does not say the district will close school buildings, but it does note that most of the district’s schools don’t have enough students to fill all of their seats. Varying levels of under-enrollment across the district make it hard to offer the same level of academics and extracurriculars at every school, according to the resolution.
It’s unclear how long the process will take or, if the district decides to shutter buildings, when that would happen. But it will involve some kind of community engagement with CMSD students, staff and families, according to the resolution.
Board members did not provide any further information about this process during the meeting, but Morgan said, “We look forward to embarking on the community engagement sessions coming up.”
Why does CMSD need to think about closing schools?
CMSD, like many public school districts in Ohio, has seen a decline in enrollment in recent decades. Last school year, the district had about 3,300 fewer students than it did 10 years ago, according to state data.
Still, the district maintains more school buildings than other districts of similar size. Cincinnati Public Schools, for example, has 61 schools for its 34,761 students, according to state data. CMSD has 105 schools for 34,598 students. Some CMSD schools share facilities, so the district has around 90 buildings.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who appoints Board of Education members, recently chimed in on CMSD’s enrollment problems in an interview with Signal Cleveland.
“It’s very clear that we have some buildings in our city, in our footprint at CMSD, that are way too big with not enough students,” Bibb said.
Rising costs also complicate the situation for CMSD officials trying to stave off a budget shortfall that would put the district $96 million in the red in 2028. Kevin Stockdale, the district’s chief financial officer, projected expenses such as employee wages and maintenance costs to steadily increase over the next five years. At the same time, the district is getting less state aid than it anticipated.
If CMSD officials don’t find ways to save money, the district will have to dip into its savings to cover expenses starting next year.
CMSD can’t ‘cut our way through’
Morgan mentioned that CMSD has been looking into the costs and conditions of its buildings during a Board of Education meeting in December. Signal Cleveland has requested a copy of the facilities study Morgan mentioned.
During that meeting, Morgan said the decision to close school buildings isn’t easy. Closing a school would save about $1 million to $2 million, Morgan said, which isn’t much compared to the looming $96 million deficit.
“Closing schools is not going to close that gap,” Morgan said. “If we’re talking about increasing the student experience, we can’t necessarily cut our way through all the programming for this. It really needs to be a multifaceted approach.”