CLEVELAND — To address serious financial issues, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is consolidating schools and closing buildings, but it has yet to announce plans to address the size of its administrative staff, which is larger and better paid than that of its peer districts.
A state audit found CMSD has more administrators than its peer districts and pays them higher salaries.
News 5 Investigators also found CMSD employs significantly more administrators than Columbus City Schools, despite serving fewer students.
Cleveland vs. Columbus
We requested public records from CMSD and Columbus City Schools.
We found that Cleveland employs 177 principals and vice-principals and 25 executive directors, and a nine-person leadership team.
The leadership team alone makes approximately $1.9 million, including CEO Dr. Warren Morgan, who will earn $299,250 during the 2025-26 school year.
Columbus City Schools serves more students — 46,000 compared to Cleveland's 33,339 — but employs fewer administrators.
Records show Columbus employs 146 principals and 14 executive directors. The district's CEO, Dr. Angela Chapman, will earn $274,000 this school year.
CMSD watchdog
Despite CMSD's financial problems, some executive directors still received substantial raises.
For example, Brent Dean, executive director of College & Career Readiness, previously earned $98,000.
Now, he earns $127,836.60 — a 30% increase.
"We're top heavy and we are paying them as if we are Chicago or New York and we are not," Polly Karr said.
After Cleveland cut instructional minutes to save money last year, the mom of two Campus International students started asking questions and requesting public records to learn more about the district's spending.
She described the size of the CMSD administration as "mind-blowing" and created Polly Karr's Substack to inform parents and taxpayers.
"The amount of people between my principal and CEO Morgan in some places can be five million dollars worth of salaries," she said. "It can be 10 to 12 people in layer upon layer upon layer upon layer, and they're all administrators."
Cleveland Teachers Union
Shari Obrenski, president of the Cleveland Teachers Union, said the administration has grown since Morgan became CEO in 2023.
"I would say so," Obrenski said when asked if CMSD is top-heavy.
She said that as the layers of bureaucracy within the district have increased, it has become more difficult to work together on problems facing students and schools.
"You have meetings with people. They can't make decisions. They have to talk to their supervisor who has to talk to their supervisor who has to talk to their supervisor," Obrenski said. "It just makes the bureaucracy much more challenging to navigate and much more cumbersome in terms of making decisions and quick implementation."
OH Auditor of State
In a performance audit released last fall, Ohio's auditor also found that CMSD's administration is bloated compared to those of its peer districts.
The report recommended cutting 77 administrators, which could save approximately $12 million a year beginning in fiscal year 2027.
The audit found CMSD employs 407.88 full-time central office administrators and building administrators, including 125.88 supervisors/managers.
It found CMSD's peer districts employ 330.30 full-time administrators.
Read the full audit report below:
CMSD CEO's response
When I asked Morgan about whether he will reduce the district's central office staff, he said officials are still in the budgeting process for the 2026-27 school year.
CMSD students can select the school they want to attend and have until Feb. 27 to complete the student registration and enrollment for the 2026-27 school year.
After the enrollment period ends, Morgan said the district will have a better handle on its staffing needs.
"We have our vacancies and resignations before we can get to anything with staffing so that's one of the things we'll be talking about," he said.
When asked why there is not already a plan in place to address staffing, Morgan said, "Oh, we have a plan. Haven't you been watching? So just watch and see what our plan is. We're just starting our budgeting process."
Building Brighter Futures
The district is already in the process of implementing another one of the audit's recommendations. The auditor recommended that the district reduce its physical footprint to save money.
Last fall, the district announced its plan to close 18 buildings and five leased spaces and will move or merge 39 schools for the 2026-27 school year. The plan is expected to save $30 million a year.
The plan puts Cleveland back in the black temporarily, but Morgan recently told a city council committee meeting the district will be in the red again by 2029.
WATCH:
RELATED: CMSD approves restructuring plan for 2026-2027 school year
