Mayor Justin Bibb says he’ll be knocking on doors for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s new levy this year. 

The CMSD board on Tuesday took a step toward putting a 10-year, 8.6-mill property tax increase on the Nov. 5 ballot. The district will also ask voters to decide on a $295 million bond issuance.

As head of the school district, the mayor has in recent history served as the top pitch man for levy campaigns. This will be Bibb’s first school levy as mayor. 

Voters approved a levy increase just four years ago in 2020. Property values are poised to rise this year with the latest round of county reappraisals. In his first public remarks on the new levy, the mayor acknowledged the taxpayer cost of the proposition. 

“I know it’s a hard time right now for Cleveland’s families in terms of the economy,” Bibb told Signal Cleveland on Wednesday. “But this is an investment we desperately need for Cleveland’s children. This is about public safety. This is about jobs. This is about opportunity. This is about the viability of our city long-term.” 

The district currently estimates that the levy will increase property taxes by $301 per $100,000 of property value. The bond issue would cost $93 annually for a $100,000 property, according to Chief Financial Officer Kevin Stockdale.

The school board is set to take a final vote June 11 to send the levy to the ballot.

There’s been no public polling on Cleveland voters’ appetite for a school tax increase this year. The last three CMSD levies passed by double-digit margins, including the 2012 increase that laid the foundation for then-Mayor Frank Jackson’s school transformation plan. 

But Bibb isn’t declaring victory early. 

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy.”

The mayor said he’ll need to build a coalition with schools CEO Warren Morgan, the CMSD board, City Council members, clergy and business and civic leaders to “hit the pavement” for the levy. They’ll also need to raise money for expensive television airtime and other advertising. 

If an opposition campaign is brewing, it hasn’t yet raised its head. Four years ago, a dark money group paid for ads undermining CMSD’s last levy campaign.

‘Hard look’ at CMSD operations needed, CEO says 

The district has already made cuts in an effort to close a projected budget hole left by the expiration of federal pandemic aid. Red ink remains, however. If nothing changes, CMSD will be staring down a $110 million negative cash balance by 2027. 

Bibb and Morgan aren’t just looking at the revenue side of the balance sheet. In his State of the City speech, the mayor hinted that the district may need to close buildings – in his words, “reimagining the footprint of CMSD.”

Morgan reiterated the message at CMSD’s board meeting this week. He said the district needs to examine its buildings and programming in light of its current enrollment. 

“There’s work that we need to do in terms of taking a hard look at ourselves and thinking, ‘How can we operate differently?’” he said. 

Cleveland schools need both the levy and the “hard look,” Morgan said.