Cleveland Metropolitan School District's Board of Education voted this week to grant CMSD CEO Warren Morgan a 5% raise, even as the district faces the need to cut its budget significantly.
CMSD Board Chair Sara Elaqad in a statement Friday said Morgan has earned the raise, after forgoing a raise last year, calling him “one of the hardest working leaders in Cleveland.” It will make his base salary $299,250, an increase of $14,250.
"He oversees the management and success of a large and complex school system and has skillfully navigated its responsibilities and challenges, while also leading the district away from a fiscal cliff—resulting in an increase in our credit rating which is saving CMSD hundreds of thousands of dollars, the passage of a levy, supporting the Board's transition to Student-Outcomes Focused Governance, crafting our Building Brighter Futures plan, and putting the district on a path to improved student outcomes," Elaqad said in an email.
The district was criticized recently for increasing the salary of administrators (not including Morgan or his executive leadership team) after it said it needed to update those employees' pay scales.
The district earned its first ever three-out-of-five-star rating from the state on the annual report card in 2024, one year after Morgan was hired.
Morgan has overseen several waves of cuts at the district, including in 2024 when the district cut after-school programs and several positions at the central office level, after pandemic-relief funding expired. In late April, the district cut the extra days and hours that some schools receive, a decision which proved unpopular with students and staff.
The district says it needs to cut even more over the next several years, about $150 million or more, to avoid a deficit, although the extended-year calendar cuts will generate about $9 million in savings per year. CMSD also will not be receiving any significant increase in state funding over the next two years, under any version of the state's proposed biennial budget.
Morgan announced the district's "Building Brighter Futures" initiative earlier this year, which calls for consolidating schools as a way to save money and improve the quality of academics at the schools that remain. The board has not yet approved that plan or any decisions on closing schools.
