Cleveland district comes under fire for ‘poor financial management’ leading to layoffs

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) is doing damage control after many of its own teachers and staffers berated its decision to lay off more than 300 employees.

“I am asking (Cleveland Schools CEO) Dr. Morgan, the CMSD executive team and the CMSD Board of Education to deeply reflect on their poor financial management that ultimately led to these mass layoffs of beloved staff members in these building closures,” said Julie Radca, a special education teacher, as reported by Ideastream Public Media.

Radca, who works at Marion C. Seltzer School, pointed out “‘six-figure’ executive salaries and recent raises” as examples of massive district spending, the article noted.

“Speakers came from a wide variety of schools and had a mix of job titles, from school nurses to teachers to librarians.”

Sara Elaqad, the district’s board of education chair, described the concerns raised during the April 28 meeting as “valid anxieties.”

“The decisions that we make, though difficult, have the underlying goal of long-term student success within the constraints that we are operating with,” she said. “And I also want to say that none of us up here take these decisions lightly. We don’t make a salary. The school board is unpaid. … We are here because we are, we care about education just like you.”

‘An opportunity to do something’

Morgan also defended the district’s actions, saying it must continue reducing expenses to avoid more deficits.

“All the pain we feel in the system right now in this room, I understand that, and there are many kids and families that are hurting, (but) there are generations of families that we have hurt in this community because we have not provided a high quality education,” he said. “This did not just happen. This has happened for years, decades. We are in a moment now where we have an opportunity to do something.”

As previously reported by The Lion, the district has been considering school mergers and closures to save on maintenance costs.

“Right now we got not enough kids and empty buildings. Not enough kids and empty buildings,” Mayor Justin Bibb said at a town hall meeting last year. “So what does that mean? We have to spread peanut butter, which undermines the level of high-quality options and education we can offer our young people, especially on the East Side.”

Ohio districts have been struggling for years now to address declining enrollment along with rising expenses, even as economists argue the state’s public-education system is failing to prepare students for life after high school.

A recent survey found Ohio’s public-school graduates were having difficulty finding jobs since they weren’t fully prepared for the workforce.

“It has always been important for graduates to leave school with the work-ready skills (communication, responsibility, integrity, leadership, teamwork, etc.) that can spell the difference between success and failure in a career,” wrote Bill Lafeyette from Regionomics.

“But now with the pace of technological change, schools need to keep up with the rapidly evolving needs of business, and graduates need to recognize that they must keep their skills current or run the risk of irrelevance.”