With fidelity and rigor
Inflection is everything
Last Tuesday night was a school board meeting I will never forget. It was held at John Adams, which is a block away from where we used to live. The foreclosure house we bought in Cleveland because we needed to save money, and we believed in the Cleveland Plan for the educational future of our three children. For a little while, it did work out just as we had planned.
It was also a remarkable evening because we finally arrived early enough to mingle before the board meeting began. I met people I’ve only ever interacted with on the Facebook group, Cle Plan - Cleveland Parents Leadership Action Network. That group is where we all go to complain about the continuing bus route issues, individual building issues, and during Covid, where we could complain about the schools being closed. I exchanged greetings with another Campus International School parent who gave me one of the CIS swag can koozies she designed with her excellent logo, back in the day. I will treasure that. I got to wave hello to Connor Morris. It was so nice to have time to spare.
It is clear that Mayor Bibb’s education chief, Michele Pomerantz and Dr. Morgan intend to cut the instructional minutes at the extended day and extended year schools. They have tasked Dr. Nick D’Amico with providing real data (not averages of stars) to support their position. Dr. D’Amico has brought in Adma Voight from Cleveland State University to give to give the veneer of respectability to their task. Two white guys who will make their data tell you that students at 4 and 5 star schools on the east side of Cleveland, which are majority Black, should lose their extra instructional minutes in the name of equity. It’s disgusting. Nobody is even talking about trying to get more instructional minutes for all CMSD students.
When it was my turn to speak during public comment, I talked about the $200,000 contract Dr. Morgan signed with The Sister Accord in January 2024, even though he was about to cut several jobs in central administration due to budget cuts. I had wondered why Dr. Morgan was able to sign a contract that large without having to bring it to the board for approval, but I was assured by board attorney, Kevin Burtzlaff, that the board had given Dr. Morgan approval to do that with consulting contracts.
When the CEO signs contracts without board approval, there is no public announcement of the contract. It just happens in darkness and lots of money gets spent without the public knowing anything about it. And if you don’t know anything about it, you can’t make a public record request of it. Had I not been scrolling through LinkedIn and clicking on connections, I wouldn’t have ever known about how big the CMSD contract with The Sister Accord was. All I would know about is the rather innocuous CEO message from March.
There is no way to guess from that message that the contract was for $200,000 to provide training for 25 selected women from 1111 Superior for two hours a month of empowerment sessions, including curriculum materials (copies of 51 Ways To LOVE Yours Sister Book & Facilitator Workbook, $1,000 per person), ongoing consultation, licensing fees, air travel/rental cars, and lodging for Sonia Jackson Myles. Bypassing school board approval and making it so citizens can’t keep an eye on spending through board docs feels sneaky and a gateway to Byrd-Bennett levels of corruption. In fact, there are two additional contracts with The Sister Accord, made in July ($29,000) and August ($24,350) 2024, that are signed by Kevin Stockdale the CFO, not Dr. Morgan. How is he allowed to just do that without board approval?
As I said during my public comment, I don’t even understand how we justify spending that much money to empower a small group of administrators who are already pretty empowered and with the exception of Kitty Arnold (suddenly no longer with CMSD) making enough money to pay for their own empowerment guru.
I still have questions about whether it is proper to spend any public dollars on a quasi-religious organization. I definitely don’t think that 51 Ways To LOVE Your Sister is worth spending that much money for 25 women administrators and all of the additional contracts for 19 selected female students. It’s too much money and there is no way to measure whether or not it is successful. Even if we there was a metric to measure the program’s success, and even if it wasn’t for a small group of administrators, and even if it weren’t quasi-religious, we should still demand that the unaccountable school board withdraw this contracting power from the CEO. An appointed board should never grant that much power to a CEO, any CEO.
Voices carry
The other speakers during public comment included my wife, Dr. Stacey Steggert, who spoke about her continuing research on the importance of instructional minutes. Famika Bonner, who spoke about safety and security issues, but also brought up that the students in her school get the same serving of 2 chicken tenders whether they are in pre-school or adult sized 8th graders. Donese Harris spoke again about the grading system in the district. Even though there is supposed to be a uniform policy, it is still a hodge podge and it creates “grading chaos” in her school. She would like the district to send out an official email to everyone in the district with the grading policy spelled out so that the chaos can be calmed. Andrea Dockery Murray questioned why the levy messaging wasn’t more visible. Courtney Gaurdillo, a teacher and track coach at Rhodes, shamed the district by telling the board that it has been 50+ years since the cement track at Rhodes was resurfaced, while JFK just got a new football field and state of the art track. There is no proper track on the west side.
But the fire came when Alicia Dodson stepped up to the mic to ask what is the plan should the levy fail. Dr. Morgan has said that 700 teachers could be laid off if the levy fails. Who will teach the students? Will the administrators head back to the classroom to provide instruction? Will they bring their cooling, massaging chairs to the buildings without air conditioning? Will Dr. Florence go into the ELA classrooms to deliver the terrible HMH curriculum with fidelity and rigor? Oh my, the way those words dripped from her tongue. I swooned. It was a powerful moment. It even earned Ms. Dodson a hallway follow-up with Dr. Florence.
There were voices missing from public comment. Names called but nobody spoke. I am left to wonder if those people, some of them working in the district, received one of those “helpful” phone calls from 1111 Superior to help them “solve” their issues without public comment.
Requests denied
Though I am not quite ready to put it in print, I have reason to suspect there is a prior, personal relationship between The Sister Accord and a member of the Executive Leadership Team. Which makes me even more suspicious of the contract. Another relationship I found between The Sister Accord and CMSD is with a consulting group called Equity Matters. CMSD must be an important contract for Equity Matters because they are always posting about their connections, training, and workshops.
Carrie Cunningham is the name I saw all over the purchase orders for the expensive desks and chairs for Dr. Trent Mosley. When he moved into his new division, Carrie was promoted to Director of Equity & Culture. Way back on September 14th, I requested records about the hiring in the Division of Equity & Culture, suspecting it was a lot like the creation of Lisa Farmer’s position and division of External Affairs. I still haven’t received a response for that request.
I am a naturally curious person. I also think that Cleveland residents and CMSD parents have a right to know how money is being spent, especially if it isn’t money being spent directly on the students. So I asked to see the contracts for Equity Matters. I asked using the exact same language (and typos) I have asked for lots of other contracts.
But I was denied.
I asked for invoices from the book I see in multiple CMSD and Equity Matters photos, titled Serving Educational Equity. But I was again denied because my request for book invoices was overly broad. I resubmitted my request and narrowed the scope down to invoices from one specific school.
There is a photo of them at the school, with their copies of Serving Education Equity!
I’ve asked the State Auditor to help me with this and they suggested that I needed to file a complaint with the Ohio Court of Claims, which I may end up doing. It’s pretty ridiculous. I just want an accounting of the spending of public dollars.
Parachutes
Dealing with the administrators of CMSD is frustrating and my spirits rise and plummet with every hour. It was bookfair week at school, which is always joyous. I met so many new parent volunteers and had some very interesting discussions with parents I have known since 2017. My constant refrain: have your parachute ready. Find your schooling alternative because the changes are bad and likely to get worse. Perhaps too bad to justify keeping their child in CMSD after this year. I know I’m looking at alternatives for my twins for next year. If Dr. Morgan cuts the instructional minutes and institutes terrible math and science curricula, like the ELA curriculum, there is no way for Campus International School to remain the school I chose for my children. I’m under no obligation to subject my children to the whims of bad leadership. I am happy to help other parents find their parachutes. Think of me as the Cleveland Transformation Alliance refreshed, like the refreshed Cleveland Plan under Dr. Morgan.
I had an interlocutor this week in our Publicly Cleveland Conversations group on Facebook. I think they were trying to provoke an argument, not a discussion, about my Two White Guys post, but they asked me if I was listening to people with different opinions. I replied that I had not yet met a parent who wanted the instructional minutes cut at the school they chose for their child. But now I’m putting it out there: I would love to have a cup of coffee with you and talk, if you are a parent who doesn’t think there is value in 150 extra instructional minutes per week. Message me and let me know when you can meet.
When I am asked what my goal is with this blog, what I am really trying to do, I always say that I want people to get to see the information I am collecting from public records. We can have different opinions on the value of the information, but we should be well informed about how our money is being spent and the decisions that are being made by an appointed school board. We cannot hold them accountable. We cannot hold Dr. Morgan accountable. But we must pay attention and know what is going on for the things we do get some say on, like the levy and the 2025 mayoral election.