Cleveland Metropolitan School District's Board of Education approved $2.5 million for a new salary structure for almost 500 administrators, which will result in raises for many of those employees.
The new salary structure comes at a time when the district is facing budget challenges, and in spite of annual raises those staff already receive.
The district argued the changes were needed because the minimum and maximum salary those employees can earn hasn’t increased since 2018, officials said during a May 20 board meeting. Stephen Christian, talent and human resources officer, told the board the outdated salary structure has led to issues retaining staff and left CMSD unable to hire the best talent. He said 55% of potential hires who are offered administrative jobs accept them, versus an industry standard acceptance rate of 70% to 80%.
"We have experienced over the last three years an annual turnover rate of over 17%," Christian said. "And when we complete exit interviews, just short of 40% of our staff have completed those, and of those, 60% have either cited limited opportunities for development or advancement and a dissatisfaction with salary. Those two are indicated as primary reasons."
The raises resulting from the new salary structure are on top of annual raises that all administrators and other employees will receive from the district: 2% in the 2025-2026 school year and 3% in 2026-2027. Those raises are part of a common practice at the district, giving employees raises that mirror what the teachers’ union negotiates. Last year, the Cleveland Teachers Union negotiated three years of salary increases, starting with 4% in the 2024-2025 school year.
Errol W. Savage, a CMSD librarian who’s been at the district for 25 years and who is on the Cleveland Teachers Union's executive board, said he was concerned about the raises coming at a time when the district has said it will need to cut between $150 million and $160 million from its budget over the next three year.
"We just passed a levy telling the public that we're in a dire financial situation. The public voted for that levy overwhelmingly to get us out of a dire financial situation, which we're back into again," Savage said. "And while every Cleveland teacher and other non-administrative employee received standard raises of approximately two, three, four percent, these administrators are also receiving that two, three, four percent. But now what the district is creatively calling a salary band is going to also be adjusted upwards. I'll say I think it's a little bit suspect."
Savage noted the salary increase comes as the district cut programming, with the board voting to end extended-year and extended minutes some schools receive in late April.
Christian said the additional $2.5 million to increase the salaries and update the salary structure was included in the district's new five-year forecast, also approved by the board last week. That forecast shows the district running out of cash completely by the end of the 2027-2028 school year, $15 million in the red.
CMSD Board Chair Sara Elaqad asked Christian during the May 20 meeting if the salary structure would "undermine" the reductions the district made to its central office last year, when it cut 62 positions (which included 23 active staff.) That district said it would save $5 million at the time.
Christian said the salary bumps and new structure for administrators would not reduce the impact of those budget cuts; the district will still have a smaller number of staff than it's had previously.
The new salary structure "places us just ahead of where we were in total salary, and I can confirm this for you, but I believe in the 2018, 2019 range," he said.
CMSD spokesperson Jon Benedict confirmed "most" of the 500 administrators will receive a pay increase. However, he argued the district is being financially responsible with its administrative expenses.
“We have and continue to try to reduce administrative costs and operate with fewer administrators as possible," Benedict wrote in a May 23 email. "That makes it all the more critical that we are able to attract and retain the best talent for these fewer positions, and with a salary schedule that (hasn't) changed for a decade, we’ve seen notable increases in both rejected hiring proposals and resignations, most tied to salary issues. This change is meant to ensure that our salary schedule is competitive and fair, so that we can get and keep the highly talented personnel we need to run a leaner administration."
Christian said of the $2.5 million approved by the board, "over 50%" would be used to bump administrators up to the new pay scale for their jobs. That does not account for the increased cost of those salaries down the road, however.
Board Member Diana Welch Howell said the district will also be saving money by incurring fewer expenses relating to constantly recruiting and hiring new staff.
"As folks consider what we're doing here, there is a slight increase in costs, but there is decrease in costs when we reduce that turnover. So I just wanna make sure that as folks are listening to us make that decision, that that's clear too, that there will be some savings over time if we can get those turnover rates down," she said.
Benedict said the district's "chiefs and officers," which include Morgan and his executive leadership team, would not be subject to the increased pay scale; together, those top 13 staff earn $2.65 million collectively, according to 2024-2025 salary data of central office staff obtained by Polly Karr, a CMSD parent who writes about the district's operations on her blog, "Publicly Cleveland."
That datasheet, shared with Ideastream Public Media by Karr, shows 383 administrators. Not including the 13 chiefs and officers, the average salary of those employees is $73,387, with 55 earning more than $100,000 per year. The data set does not include about 100 building principals or other school building-based administrators.
