Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Warren Morgan said the school district's budget, engagement with the community and students, safety measures and school lunches all need improvement and attention in his first annual State of the Schools address hosted by the City Club of Cleveland Thursday.
Morgan said many of those priorities came out of a 100-day listening tour he conducted after starting his job over the summer, which included 30 community engagement events and a total of 1,000 people he talked to face-to-face.
Parents told Morgan the district needs to establish better communication practices.
"I heard parents express frustration over what they frequently see as a failure to build effective lines of communication between the schools and CMSD homes," he said. "That failure in communication often bears responsibility for the security challenges our scholars face at school or to and from school."
Students said they want more varied academic offerings and high-quality academic programs at more schools throughout the district, not just at select magnet schools.
"Three of the high score high school scholars I chatted with love attending Garrett Morgan High School," he said. "They shared that the commute can sometimes take up to an hour, but they said it's worth it. So I asked them if there was a school like Garrett Morgan in your neighborhood, would you take advantage of that? And to a person they all answered, 'Yes.'"
Morgan said CMSD, like other schools, will soon need to contend with the loss of federal pandemic relief money, set to expire at the end of the school year. He said the district will need to consider cuts in the central office and repurposing grants to focus on the district's core academic functions.
"Though there are difficult decisions ahead of us, I am committed to protecting schools and classrooms where possible because the instructional core is our district's most important function," Morgan said.
He said the listening tour helped him establish several five-year goals for the district, including:
- Getting 90% of scholars enrolled in college, employed or enlisted in armed forces after graduation, and increasing four-year and five-year graduation rates to 90%. Cleveland's current four-year graduation rate is 74.45%, according to Cleveland's most recent Ohio Department of Education report card.
- Improving English and math proficiency scores in kindergarten through eighth grade to 65% and in high school grades to 55%. He said at some schools, those measures are under 10%.
- Improving the culture and climate at schools to reduce the number of serious "safety incidents" at schools and increase students' emotional wellbeing.
- Increase the total number of schools exceeding state growth expectations in math and English while reducing racial gaps between students when it comes to academic achievement and discipline rates. Morgan also said the district wants to boost English language learners' proficiency stats.
Morgan recently visited Ginn Academy to have lunch with students after he heard complaints about the district-provided food. He said student athletes are concerned about caloric content while other students want more fresh produce, and more choices in general.
"Our CMSD Department of Nutrition prioritizes increasing the volume of fresh farm to table produce that is served to our scholars daily," Morgan said. "But we're also exploring ways to continue to make the student dining experience more fulfilling, culturally relevant and also satisfying."
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Finally, on the topic of safety, Morgan said many students shared that they are "scared to go to school" due to gun violence in their neighborhoods. He said the district is developing close partnerships with the city of Cleveland and other partners like the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to strengthen safe routes to school for students.
Students and community members asked Morgan follow-up questions after his address. Cleveland Councilman Richard Starr asked Morgan how he would improve the district’s athletics program, calling it one of the “worst” in the state of Ohio. He said students are running track without track shoes, while some teachers who coach don’t have experience in the sports they coach.
“If (former Lakers coach) Phil Jackson wanted to come coach in our Senate athletics (league), just because he’s not in the teacher union, he’s not qualified to be a coach in our schools,” he said.
Morgan said the district needs to assess its athletics program, noting its importance in keeping students engaged.
Cleveland Teachers Union President Shari Obrenski in a response after the event said the district’s current contract with the union allows for up to three non-union members to be coaches each year. She said a provision that requires most coaches to be union members has “never stood in the way of trying to put forth a quality sports program” for students.
“And honestly, if Phil Jackson wanted to come to Cleveland and coach, we'd be more than happy to talk about it, and we'd be more than happy to have him as a member of the Cleveland Teachers Union,” she said.
Meryl Johnson, a state board of education member who represents the area, asked Morgan if he’s visited students at the Cuyahoga County Detention Center for juveniles, saying those young people are often ignored.
Morgan responded that he hasn’t visited yet, but would; he agreed that he’d like to look at what opportunities the district has to help those students.
