I-Team: Hard questions for Cleveland Schools CEO

Yahoo

03-04-2025

CLEVELAND (WJW) — The CEO of Cleveland schools finally faced questions from the FOX 8 I-Team about big spending on travel.
We recently revealed how much of your money was spent on travel, even as the Cleveland Metropolitan School District asked taxpayers for more money.
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The District also plans more cuts that will affect kids.
For months, Dr. Warren Morgan avoided the I-Team, but he agreed to sit down with us for 15 minutes.
We found him defiant as he scolded us, 'You talk about fair and factual reporting. Report the facts.'
We reminded him, 'These are the facts,' and asked, 'Shouldn't you be watching every penny?'
To that, Dr. Morgan replied, 'And, we are.'
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In 2024, voters approved a new levy for Cleveland schools. Yet records show in the year leading up to the vote on the levy, the School District spent more than $800,000 on travel.
Teachers, administrators and even secretaries flew around the country to conferences and more.In fact, more than 100 people went to one conference.
The I-Team reminded Dr. Morgan, 'In June, more than a hundred people went to the Model Schools Conference, and November was the levy. Just making sure I have that right.'
He responded, 'Yeah, 0.06 of the budget, and that was also last year's budget. And, we continue to make restrictions on that.'
We followed up with, 'When the District is saying it has no money, didn't somebody say, 'Well, maybe we shouldn't send 100 some people to one conference?''
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The CEO said, 'Mr. Gallek, I want to first talk about our need for professional development.'
Dr. Morgan defends travel for employees to go and learn. But, he also says, now, travel has been cut in half.
At the same time, the district is still struggling with money. Considering saving more money by cutting a half-hour out of every school day for a couple of dozen schools.
Polly Karr, a mother and school district watchdog, spoke about the cuts in school days saying,'I'm very disappointed. He will save less than one penny for every dollar the school district spends, and he's taking away instructional time for it.'
We asked, 'Why are we shortening that? Parents are concerned there's less time.'
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The CEO responded, '30 minutes in 24 schools. It costs us over $4 million. That is what we have to look at.'
We also took a look at the latest spending on travel. Those records show a lot less travel than before. Yet, we still saw a couple of more trips for secretaries and one for the CEO.
On that we asked, 'Why are there six hotel rooms under your name for that conference if you're watching every penny?'
Dr. Morgan said, 'We're watching every penny. You want to know how many people went the year before that in prior years?'
The District faces more hard decisions on spending your money.
You decide how much you agree with the CEO claiming, 'I think a lot has been done since the moment I've taken office.'
Dr. Morgan told us, simply passing the levy last November is not enough. So, we keep watching for what cuts might be next.
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