Honored to deliver my 4th State of the Schools address and share the progress happening across @CLEMetroSchools. We announced CMSD's highest graduation rate in district history, with the Class of 2026 currently at 84%, along with other notable student achievement gains and progress towards District Goals and Guardrails. (Note our grad rate may continue to vary slightly until it's reflected on next year's report card). For the first time ever, 100% of CMSD high schools offer college and career pathways, and 100% of elementary schools offer enrichment programming through our Building Brighter Futures initiative. We also launched the CEO I.M.P.A.C.T. Council to elevate student leadership and voice. While I'm proud of this progress, we're committed to ensuring every student has access to advanced coursework and greater opportunities for social and economic mobility. Our district's participation in the The Aspen Institute Education & Society Program Social Mobility Leadership Network will support this work. Let's continue to LET 'EM KNOW about CMSD's successes while doing the work needed to address our challenges. I am grateful for the continued leadership of our CMSD Board of Education, Mayor Bibb, civic leaders, community partners, and to Congresswoman Brown who spoke to our scholars. I am also thankful for the support and prayers of my family, who were able to attend the event. Below is the link to watch the full address. #CMSD #BuildingBrighterFutures #LetEmKnow #ProudCEO youtu.be/ABFUoP2JopA?si=e_NI…

It was great reconnecting with an incredible colleague, friend, brother, and fellow White House Fellow alum, @GovWesMoore! He was here in Cleveland today. I'm grateful for and inspired by his remarkable leadership and service!

Yesterday, we celebrated and sent our @CLEMetroSchools Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Selena Florence, off back home with so much love. I am also thrilled to announce our Interim Chief Academic Officer Megan Traum (pictured left in the 2nd picture). But first, I would like to share a few words of gratitude for Dr. Florence. Many do not see the hard work, late nights, and very early mornings that Dr. Florence put in to ensure our CMSD scholars have a quality education. Dr. Florence has been with our CMSD family for 3 school years and I am so incredibly proud of her leadership. Her leadership brought coherence to our Academic strategy, helped our district achieve a 3 star rating for the first time in history and led efforts that achieved significant growth in proficiency, graduation rates and college and career readiness (through our Goals and Guardrails). Above all, she worked closely with me, our ELT, and the community to ensure 100% of CMSD schools now have access to college, career, and enrichment programs through our Building Brighter Futures initiative. Her leadership will be missed and we're so proud that she has the opportunity to lead Academics in her home district down south. The look on Dr. Florence's face when we surprised her yesterday was priceless ☺️ CMSD is in incredible hands with Megan Traum stepping in to lead Academics. She is an experienced Cleveland educator who has had years of experience as a classroom teacher, District Administrator, Strategic Advisor, and now will be stepping into a critical role to ensure our scholars continue to achieve academic momentum and proficiency on our goals and our BBF initiative. Looking forward to working with her! As I told Megan yesterday, "Buckle up... we have great work ahead of us!" 😃 We will soon be posting the application for the permanent CAO role. If you're interested in learning more, stay tuned and don't hesitate to reach out!

It was great returning to @butleru for Homecoming this weekend. I graduated from Butler a little over 20 years ago, served as SGA/ student-body President my Senior year, and was crowned Homecoming King 21 years ago. I learned so much about life, resilience, and leadership from Butler. Through it all, I am beyond grateful for the experience and opportunities I was afforded. This is why it is so important to me that all our @CLEMetroSchools scholars have access to high-quality opportunities. All children are bundles of potential, but if they are never exposed to opportunity, they may never be all that they can be! #BuildingBrighterFutures #LetEmKnow #CMSD

Our state report card was released for the 2025-26 school year and I am proud to report that @CLEMetroSchools had another year of significant academic achievement gains! Check out these highlights! ✔️Our graduation rate has nearly returned to pre-pandemic rates and preliminary data shows the Class of 2026 is on track to have a historic grad rate! (C/O 2026 grad rate will be on next year's report card). ✔️Last year the new report card measure on College and Career Readiness was introduced and just 1 year in, we achieved a 12.9% gain! ✔️Last year was also the first year of our District and Board Goals and Guardrails. We MET our yearly target for Early Literacy, EXCEEDED our College Readiness Target, and we're less than 1% away from our Math target. ✔️ Above all, last year was a year of major change in CMSD, as we closed 29 schools at the end of the year. Yet, we showed academic growth and moved our Gap Closing measure from 3 stars to 4 stars! I am so proud of the hard work and resilience of the CMSD community! Let's keep working hard for our scholars. Through Building Brighter Futures, 100% of CMSD schools offer college, career, and enrichment opportunities. I look forward to seeing the continued growth and progress of our students and schools! #CMSD #BuildingBrighterFutures #LetEmKnow #ProudCEO

Sending gratitude to the phenomenal @chloearnold, @maudiepooh, and the @SyncLadies for helping me spread the word to our @CLEMetroSchools scholars about the importance of Attendance. It also meant the world that you spoke to our HS scholars at the Cleveland School of the Arts. Your story of resilience, hard work, and believing in what's possible, despite the odds, was inspiring. We will be sharing some of the footage of your talk with CSA students soon. Thank you for pouring into our scholars! It was fun dusting off my tap shoes and collaborating with you. #CMSD #BuildingBrighterFutures #LetEmKnow #SyncopatedLadies

It was great to celebrate the legacy of service, leadership, and impact of the @NaacpCleveland at this year's Freedom Fund Dinner. Dr. Otis Moss Jr. and Edwina Moss were honored and @OtisMoss3 delivered a powerful keynote! I am grateful for the work @CLEMetroSchools does to educate and serve the Cleveland community. Here's to continued collective work and empowerment in our great city.