Cleveland teachers and others turned out to a board of education meeting Tuesday night to voice concerns about a proposal to cut the extra days and extra minutes at a quarter of Cleveland Metropolitan School District schools.
The proposal comes as the district faces a significant budget deficit, with CEO Warren Morgan arguing earlier Tuesday the district needs to cut at least $150 million over the next two years.
The proposal would affect 27 of CMSD’s 94 schools, including schools like the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, one of the district's highest-performing schools. More than half of the schools that receive additional minutes earned three out of five stars, or higher, on the state of Ohio's annual report card last year, CMSD CEO Warren Morgan said.
However, the district commissioned a study last year that suggested for most of the extended-year school models, there is little academic benefit to go with the increased costs of operations. The study found that many of the extra days ended up being used for professional development for teachers. Morgan said the district will save almost $9.3 million by moving the schools to the same school calendar.
“When we're looking at the amount of cuts that we need to make, is this something of an investment that is actually having value added in our system?” Morgan said.
Shari Obrenski, president of the Cleveland Teachers Union, said the district needs to look at each school individually to evaluate how effective their individual models are. She urged the district to hold off on any decisions until that can be done.
“The academics department still hasn't done the due diligence to figure out the schools in our portfolio, how and why they were created as they were, why their calendars were different from traditional schools, and whether or not based on all available data these schools should continue with those different calendars,” Obrenski said.
Drew Ferguson, CEO of Argonaut, a nonprofit that is the district’s partner with Davis Aerospace & Maritime High School, said the year-round calendar provides critical time for students to experience hands-on learning. And the extra professional development time allows staff to come up with impactful lessons.
“Davis has consistently and substantially outperformed the district averages in nearly all measurable metrics, including all OST (Ohio State Test) cores, SAT scores, suspensions, attendance, and graduation rates,” Ferguson said.
Ben Chronister, a teacher at the Cleveland High School for Digital Arts , said the district will lose a significant number of teachers if it eliminates all of the various extended-year school models. He said it will amount to a significant pay cut for many teachers. He estimated he'd lose about 18% of his yearly salary.
"I will, after 10 years of teaching in CMSD, be making less money next year than I did in my first year in this district," he said.
Not all who spoke during the meeting believed the model is working for all students, however. Brian Evans, principal of John Adams High School, said his school’s year-round model leads to confusion for families.
“Many new families who are enrolling in our school during the summer months or early fall are not aware that we are year-round school and show up mid-August or as late as the end of August, having already missed three to four weeks of instruction,” Evans explained.
He said it also causes trouble for students seeking summer employment or for families seeking to line up calendars with students’ siblings in other school buildings.
Andrea Dockery-Murray, an art teacher at John Adams, noted her school only has three more school days than the district’s traditional-calendar schools; the rest are taken up by professional development for teachers. She said keeping the extended calendar, but changing professional development days to classroom days could help.
“I would rather have those extra days supporting students with what they need," she said. "We could have academic boot camps, we could have support rooms for children that are struggling with credit recovery.”
The CMSD Board of Education is expected to vote on the calendar recommendation at its April 29 meeting, officials said during the meeting.
