Sept. 24: Cleveland Metropolitan School District Board of Education meeting

Covered by Documenters Laurie Redmond (notes) and Brandy Smith (notes)

CMSD Teacher aides need more support

Sherry McCutcheon works as a paraprofessional, commonly called a teacher aide, at CMSD. During public comment, at the Sept. 24 meeting, she said the district’s aides don’t make enough money. She advocated for higher pay during a school board meeting last year, as well. 

Many of her fellow aides work multiple jobs to make ends meet, she said. 

“There’s a whole lot of talk at CMSD about equality and fairness, but in my experience, I don’t see it,” she said.

‘A game-changer’: Student wants to keep after-school civics program going 

Marilia Tsirikos Karapanos, a sophomore at Campus International High School, signed up for public comment to advocate for Civics 2.0, an after-school program that teaches students about government and civic engagement. The program relies on grant funding to give each participant a $500 stipend and cover an annual trip to Columbus. 

Karapanos asked CMSD officials to keep funding Civics 2.0, saying she’s concerned about its future. The program made a big impact on her, so she wants future students to have the opportunity to take part in it. 

She’d always seen herself working in a science-related career but now, she wants to study political science and law. 

“This program has changed my perspective on my own life in ways I thought were unimaginable,” Karapanos said.

Officials applaud student progress

CMSD’s Chief of External Affairs Lisa Farmer Cole, filling in for CEO Warren Morgan who was out sick, congratulated students for earning a three-star rating on the state report card. Earning three stars means the district now “meets state standards.” 

The state report card is an annual ranking put out by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW). Each school district gets an overall rating from one to five stars, and individual ratings in five categories. CMSD earned 2.5 stars last year. 

“We outpaced the other urban districts in the State of Ohio,” Farmer Cole said. 

Nicholas D’Amico, CMSD’s executive director of school performance, said he was most surprised to see CMSD’s score in the progress category of the state report card. That category reflects students’ academic growth relative to students statewide. 

“I was expecting that … our progress would not stay as good [it] as has been over the past few years,” D’Amico said. “The fact that even after we’re out of what we’d expect as kind of the COVID recovery bounce back, we’re continuing to see very strong progress scores.”

Read the notes from Documenter Laurie Redmond:

Read the notes from Documenter Brandy Smith:

Watch the full meeting on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s YouTube.

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K-12 Education and Youth Reporter (he/him)
As a local visual journalist, I see my purpose in building relationships as much as reporting news. I’ve made my most impactful work only after pouring myself into my community.

Cleveland Documenters pays and trains people to cover public meetings where government officials discuss important issues and decide how to spend taxpayer money.