CLEVELAND — Cleveland’s Mayor Justin Bibb is weighing in on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s plan to downsize.
District leaders have said it’s needed to address financial challenges and a shrinking student population.
Bibb agrees.
"Now is the time to make the hard choices to ensure CMSD has a brighter future,” Bibb said during an interview last week with News 5.
For months, I’ve been reporting on the district’s long-term facilities plan, which they call the “Building Brighter Futures” initiative.
I’ve sat down with the district’s CEO, Dr. Warren Morgan, to get answers, spoken with the chair of the district’s board of education about their role, and gathered thoughts from parents, students, and residents.
Right now, CMSD operates more than 90 buildings.
Two decades ago, it had 70,000 students. Today, it reports about 34,000 students.
Next month, the district plans to present its recommendations, calling for the closure of a significant number of schools and the relocation of students into other buildings.
“Trust us and trust the process,” Bibb said. “For far too long in this community we’ve delayed hard choices about our footprint inside Cleveland Public Schools. It’s also important that we make this decision right now — this tough decision right now – to make sure that we have equity in terms of access to high-quality education in every neighborhood in our city. We still have too much disparity from east side and west sides — because we have too many buildings, and not enough children.”
Last week, I attended the State of the Schools Address and told you about the goals Dr. Morgan laid out, including all elementary schools offering enrichment courses and all high schools offering college credit courses and career pathways.
“When I see that our kids are not necessarily landing where they should… whether that’s college or career… we need to do more and by providing these programs it’s actually giving them something tangible… skills and credentials that can take them to that next step.”
The district expects to save about $30 million with the Building Brighter Futures initiative.
Any changes approved by the board would take effect next school year.
The district says transition teams will help families navigate the process.
