Cleveland Metropolitan School District announced Thursday that it's relaunching the "Get More Opportunities" program after criticism from students, families and Cleveland City Council about the loss of the fund, meant to provide grants to students and teachers to pay for things like travel and professional development.
The program launched in late 2022 with a $20 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Amid concern over a growing deficit following the end of pandemic relief funds, the district said in November 2023 it would need to keep the money in its general fund and discontinue the program. Cleveland City Council members called Morgan to a caucus meeting this week to raise concerns about the ending of the program and the deficit.
“In response to concerns from students, families, educators, and partners, we are 100 percent committed to relaunching the Get More Opportunities program," the district and the CMSD Board of Education said in a Feb. 29 release. "The District will preserve the intent of the MacKenzie Scott gift to both meet the current and future needs of the District and to provide the opportunity for student voice and choice, where all schools receive new and enriching experiences."
It wasn't immediately clear in the district's release how much it will devote to the relaunch of the program. Officials said about $17 million was left from the grant after an initial wave of grants it gave out in 2023.
"The Board of Education, the CEO, the District’s senior leadership and our larger CMSD community learned a great deal from the Get More Opportunities pilot, including significant opportunities for improvement and equity in how funds are distributed," the release explained. "The Board of Education expects to review a new scope for the relaunch of the Get More Opportunities program before the end of the school year.”
CMSD CEO Warren Morgan and the board of education discussed some of those concerns with equity Tuesday, noting the majority of the grants went to only seven of 100 schools. Some teachers at JFK and John Adams have raised concerns during that board meeting about a trip to Greece they had planned for 15 students, which they had hoped to fund with grants from the Get More Opportunities fund, despite having requests rejected multiple times.
"One school got 23 grants, and the other schools were kind of left high and dry," John Adams High School teacher Andrea Dockery-Murray said. "My school was denied three times."
