Cleveland schools launch fall round of community engagement for "Building Brighter Futures" plan

Cleveland Municipal School District leaders outlined the fall phase of community engagement Tuesday as part of the Building Brighter Futures planning process, saying they will share school-level data and host open houses and regional meetings before recommending changes to facility use. Dr. Morgan, the district—s CEO, told the Board of Education during the board—s monthly monitoring that "we will not make any significant decisions without meaningfully engaging our community." The fall outreach includes school open houses, regional meetings across the city from Sept. 24 through Oct. 9, and a State of the Schools presentation on Oct. 21. Staff also will post a 10-minute video and data snapshots on the district website for families who cannot attend in person. The nut of the district—s approach is that recommendations will draw on multiple data points rather than a single metric. As Dr. Morgan said, the district will consider "student enrollment, enrollment trends, building condition, [and] building size and use," alongside community feedback. She cited one example school that had a negative 21% enrollment trend but an excellent building condition score above 80 and capacity for roughly 500 students to illustrate how factors can pull in different directions. Board member Dr. Sridhar questioned outreach scope, noting that about 476 people attended spring and summer sessions and asking how the district will ensure broader public understanding. "500 is is a is a small number compared to the overall community," Dr. Sridhar said. Dr. Morgan responded that the fall open houses (two days of in-person sessions at every school, plus two virtual meetings), regional meetings, a district web page with materials and videos, school-level staff meetings and principal-facilitated family meetings are intended to reach a much broader audience. District staff said results from spring engagement included seven in-person sessions with 408 attendees, three virtual sessions with 68 attendees (476 total), more than 600 pieces of staff feedback gathered at school meetings, and more than 100 pieces of student feedback from the student advisory council. The district also said roughly 70% of students are currently in an upgraded building, and that school snapshots shared at meetings will show whether a school offers pre-K, athletics, college- and career-readiness programs and other services. Officials described the formats for fall engagement: an identical 10-minute video to be played at open houses and posted online; school-level data snapshots to be available at staff and family meetings; regional meetings that will compare schools within regions and to districtwide norms; and ongoing digital feedback via the Let—s Talk platform. Chief Farmer Cole and the external affairs team were identified as the staff leads supporting those public sessions. District leaders emphasized that this phase is monitoring and engagement, not a final decision-making step. Dr. Morgan said the district must balance community input with a fiscal outlook that Chief Stockdale is slated to present at the next board meeting. No formal facility closures, reconfigurations or other binding actions were taken during the work session; the board accepted the presentation and will consider recommendations after the engagement and financial briefings. The board also conducted routine business: it approved the work session consent agenda (minutes and employee-discipline resolutions) by roll call; the motion carried with eight yes votes. The board scheduled its next business meeting for Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Garrett Morgan High School.