Board adopts unified 2025–26 school calendar, citing $9 million annual savings; students and parents voice opposition

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt the district’s 2025–26 school calendar, moving most schools to a single traditional schedule and eliminating several extended‑time calendar models.

The board approved resolution 6.01, adopting the 2025–26 CMSD calendar. Board member Victor Briggs moved the motion and Ms. Welch Howe seconded it; the roll call recorded nine “yes” votes from Chair Ellicott, Mr. Billups, Mr. Briggs, Ms. Jones, Pastor Jones, Mrs. Lebron, Mrs. Peake, Dr. Sridhar and Ms. Welch Howe.

What the district said

CEO Warren Morgan told the board the unified calendar is one of several measures designed to help the district close a multiyear budget gap. He said independent researchers (work supervised by Cleveland State University and the American Institutes for Research) found “no evidence that there was a substantial, meaningful difference in the academic outcomes” across the district’s different calendar types for CMSD’s context. Morgan cited an estimated $9 million in annual savings from unifying calendars, saying that over three years that amounts to roughly $27 million toward a $150 million target in required savings.

On pay schedules, Morgan said teachers who have been on year‑round or extended calendars have historically received pay on an accelerated schedule (for example, earlier…