Building Brighter Futures is a planning process that seeks to improve our schools, while also ensuring the school district’s financial sustainability.

Right now, we are in a perfect storm of serious challenges. Costs are increasing, while funding is being cut. Our enrollment has been declining for decades, more than 50% in the last 20 years.

 We believe we have an opportunity and a responsibility to act in a way that actually improves the experience of our students.

This process will lead to recommendations to consolidate, close, and merge schools. We have seen a steady decline in enrollment over the last decade, and that reduces the amount of funding available and the experiences we can provide to students. This perfect storm means we have to make some tough decisions now.

No recommendations have been made yet. There is still much work to do to engage our community and continue to review our data. We believe we have too many school buildings for our current enrollment, but we do not have a recommendation yet on the number of buildings that will be impacted.

We will continue to engage the community through the Fall. After reviewing all of the feedback and our data, we will make recommendations to the CMSD Board before the end of this calendar year. Recommendations from this process will take effect for the 2026-2027 school year. 

While we have many bright spots to celebrate, we know that these great experiences are not available to all our students across all of our schools. We have work to do. We envision a brighter future, with strong enrollment in all of our buildings. This creates more and better opportunities at all our schools. Some of those improved opportunities could be:

• More college and career opportunities for high school students

• More arts, career exploration, and advanced courses at K-8s

• More activities outside of school hours

• More student support

• More teacher collaboration and specialization

• All students and staff in warm, safe, and dry buildings

Recommendations will be based on a wide range of data and informed by community context and input. The primary data will be student enrollment - both current and historical trends - as well as building utilization and building condition. The district has also assembled a long list of additional data points and context to ensure we are considering a more complete picture of our schools and buildings. These include academic outcomes, school programs and models, as well as the unique characteristics of each building and the surrounding neighborhood. However, we know that no single piece of data tells the full picture of a school. A big part of the community engagement is to help the district build out all of the additional data and context we need to make the best recommendations.

The district will do everything we can to keep as many of our valued employees as possible. We anticipate that normal, year-over-year attrition will create available positions for many of the employees impacted by school consolidations. There will be transitions for staff, and the district will offer dedicated support and clear information to help people navigate this process. We will also work closely with CTU and support staff unions to communicate changes clearly and openly.

Schools have been key anchors in neighborhoods for generations.  Prior to removing a building from service, we will work closely with city planners, community development, and neighborhood groups to find the highest, best use of those properties if they will no longer be used as schools.  We have already established a preliminary working group who will get to work immediately once recommendations are made. Additionally, this community process is a big part of those future decisions.

We completely understand the desire for our staff to stay with their students. In some cases, that may be possible, if we believe most of the students will choose one school and there is enough space in the welcoming school building. However, because students have the choice to enroll anywhere in the district, and because most of our buildings are so small, we cannot guarantee that all staff will be able to travel together as a team to one school. We will share much more information about how staff assignments will be handled in the coming months.

As a reminder, the schools that are recommended to close as part of this process will not be closed until the 2026-27 school year. We will spend the current school year working closely with students and families to ensure every student has a high-quality school to attend in 2026-27. We will share detailed information on school options and timelines as soon as possible after the recommendations are approved.

Our current policy is to provide transportation to students who live within 1-3 miles of the school they attend. We will work with our transportation department, parents, the city’s Safe Route to Schools endeavor, and RTA to ensure safe and smooth transportation.

By law, every school district in Ohio must provide a balanced five-year forecast. The district has made budget reductions in excess of $90 million, including cutting central office costs by more than 13%, along with holding the line on school budgets. Thanks to voters, we secured an additional levy and bond issue to support operations and facilities. The work CMSD has done to improve its financial situation recently resulted in an increase in our S&P bond rating from BBB+ to A-. This upgrade in our bond rating will save the district up to $750,000 in interest payments. However, there is more work to be done. The Building Brighter Futures process is another necessary step to continue to improve the financial picture, streamlining operations and removing the burden of too many buildings.

We reduced central office positions by 12.6% entering this year. We put additional controls in place for contracts, staff travel, and furniture. Out of state staff travel, one of our smallest non-personnel categories, is down 50% YTD, although it represents approximately 0.06% of General Fund spending. Contract spending in 2025 is on track to be more than $10 million lower than we projected.

The current lease was renewed in 2023 prior to Dr. Morgan’s arrival and runs through July 2028. Terminating the current lease early would be cost prohibitive. We are examining all non-CMSD-owned leases for any flexibilities. We are working with the 1111 office landlord to explore how to make the most efficient use under that lease.

We were pleased to welcome approximately 476 families, staff, and community members to our in-person and virtual meetings during the month of April. We requested feedback through small group table discussions and a survey. Here are some of the key insights from the community’s feedback:

• Participants were engaged with the data. They asked insightful questions and wanted this information to be widely shared.

• They wanted more transparency about how we would use this data to make decisions.

• If having fewer schools becomes necessary, they favored mergers over closures.

• They wanted clear explanations for why the recommendations are necessary.

Community members also expressed concerns about the potential impacts of school closures. Some of the most commonly expressed concerns were supporting students through change, safety, class sizes, impacts on all employees and especially their child’s teacher, transportation, competition with charter schools, and reuse of closed buildings. Participants expressed pride in their neighborhood schools and a desire to keep the programs and people that made them successful. They also want speciality schools to be maintained and strengthened.