CMSD presents two finalist 2025‑26 calendar options; board requests more disaggregated data

Cleveland Metropolitan School District staff presented two finalist calendar options for the 2025‑26 school year and outlined anticipated cost savings, equity considerations and next steps for public input.

CEO Morgan and Dr. Florence told the board the district currently operates five calendar types across schools, creating variation in instructional time, teacher professional development days and operating costs. Staff said those variations cost the district an estimated $27 million over three years in added complexity and inefficiency and that consolidating calendar types could help meet near‑term budget reduction targets.

Option 1, as presented, would move all schools to a traditional calendar except for two specialized programs: the School of One and the Downtown Education Center (DEC), which would remain on the 02/2005 calendar. Staff said Option 1 could yield about $9.3 million in potential cost savings and would also allow schools to provide additional professional development or enrichment where needed.

Option 2 would also transition most schools to a traditional calendar while keeping School of One and the DEC on the existing schedule, but would remove extra days for students and teachers and allow schools that currently have additional daily minutes to keep those minutes for 2025‑26. Staff estimated Option 2 would save about $4.1 million. Both options, staff said, would end payment for extra days to employees on nontraditional calendars; Option 1 would additionally remove extra minutes for schools that have them.

Board members pressed staff for more detailed data. Dr. Sridhar asked which two of the 23 schools operating nontraditional calendars were at or above 80 percent capacity; staff said they would provide that list and incorporate it into the slide deck for the community. Sridhar also asked for a disaggregated analysis of student outcomes by calendar type and for a clearer breakdown explaining why removing extra days yields significantly larger savings than removing extra minutes alone; he asked that the community be able to see that analysis.

In an IT follow‑up, Janelle Green, IT, explained the district's proposed E‑rate funding requests for next year are for multiple services in an amount not to exceed $4,000,000 before federal discounts. She said roughly $182,000 of the total represented an expansion for wireless internet on school buses; managed internal broadband services accounted for about $2.3 million. Green said CMSD historically receives 85–90 percent discounts under the federal E‑rate program and that the district plans to budget the required local share.

Dr. Florence and Morgan said the next steps are staff will present a final recommendation next week; the board will begin a 30‑day listening period and hold a public hearing on March 18 focused on the calendar before a final vote scheduled for the April 29 board meeting.

No calendar decision was taken at the work session; board members asked staff to publish the requested disaggregated enrollment, capacity and performance data before the public hearing so the community could review it in advance.