Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Warren Morgan praised students’ academic growth but noted during his annual State of the Schools address that the district still does not have quality schools for all students across the city.The City Club of Cleveland hosted the speech at the Huntington Convention Center in downtown Cleveland on Tuesday. Students, local officials and CMSD supporters filled the audience. Morgan talked up CMSD’s recent three-star rating on the state report card. Before he went to the podium, CMSD played congratulations videos from officials such as U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. President Joe Biden sent the district a letter, which was shared at the event. Beyond the report card, Morgan highlighted students’ achievements in both academics and athletics over the last year. He praised East Tech High School’s robotics team for taking home a state title. At Clark School, he said, 7th and 8th grade students scored well above the state’s average in math and science. Morgan also acknowledged that not all students have access to schools at that level. “We must confront a difficult truth,” Morgan said. “And that is that we have pockets of excellence in our school system, but we do not have excellence at scale.”He pointed out that only three of CMSD’s 63 elementary schools offer basics such as Algebra 1 to 8th graders. Only five elementary schools teach foreign languages in middle school. As far as extracurriculars, less than half of CMSD’s high schools offer cheerleading as a sport, and just about a third offer band as a class. Balancing the budget while improving schoolsMorgan set a lofty goal to improve schools so all students can get a high-quality education, regardless of their ZIP code. At the same time, he’s got to balance the district’s books to avert a looming $110 million budget deficit in 2027. That’s achievable, he said, pointing to how his administration made a dent in the deficit this year without taking money from the budgets of individual schools. To do that, he eliminated administrative positions and cut funding for before- and after-school programs hosted by community organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cleveland. Doing so bought CMSD time to shave more off the deficit. “We weathered this one and got our district out of fiscal watch with the state,” Morgan said. Morgan has said that budget cuts could begin to impact students more significantly if the district’s levy, Issue 49, does not pass this year. If it fails, CMSD may have to cut up to 700 teachers and staff. What do students think?School cafeteria food has been improving, too, Morgan said. This year, 21 schools have fresh fruit and vegetable bars, and seven schools receive produce straight from local farmers. Christopher Salary Jr., a sophomore at MC^2 STEM High School, said his school’s food isn’t fresh. Students recently got food poisoning from eating it, he said.“Kids were throwing up everywhere,” said Tallyah Belton Jenkins, a junior at MC^2 STEM High School. Their school has also faced problems with technology this year. Laptop chargers haven’t been working, and some software students need for projects is blocked on school computers, they said. A different type of technology – cell phones – have created issues for students at the Cleveland School of Science & Medicine, one of the district’s five-star schools. Sophomore Jashmina Bista and junior Kirk Pinnock would like to see the district do more to address cyberbullying. Pinnock said some students make social media pages for students to bully each other on. It’s “rampant” he said, and CMSD’s new cell phone restrictions aren’t helping.“Even having Yondr pouches, kids still find a way to have their phone in school,” Bista said. “They break the pouches or they sneak them in. … I see many, many kids with their phones in the bathroom.”Bista applauded her school for extracurricular programs focused on mental health and conflict resolution. BeltonJenkins also praised the robotics program at MC^2 STEM High School. She traveled to the Dominican Republic through the program, and next summer she’s heading to Los Angeles.“It’s been pretty good,” Belton Jenkins said of this school year so far. “Been ups and downs, but for the most part, it’s smooth sailing.”The post CMSD CEO Warren Morgan notes district has ‘pockets of excellence’ but more work to do appeared first on Signal Cleveland.