On Tuesday, January 5th, 2010, Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Dr. Eugene Sanders unveiled his Academic Transformation Plan and Strategic Development Initiative recommendations. Some news was good and some was extremely troubling.  

The good news first: Collinwood High School and O.H.Perry, which had been rumored to be on the chopping block, have been spared from closing for the immediate future. Memorial K-8 school will be monitored for this year for a year two decision and Hannah Gibbons, the Nottingham K-8 school, has been placed in the “repurpose” category, which means that there will be academic changes and hopefully improvement over the next two years. Collinwood High School is also supposed to be repurposed and the question here is – what does this really mean in the long run? O. H. Perry is defined as a “growth school” which is great news; however, it looks like no additional funds are being recommended to improve the physical building, which as many of you know, I landmarked some years back and is in need of some capital repair.

Now, the bad news: The historic Henry W. Longfellow School on East 140 Street and Darley Ave is slated to be closed and Kenneth W. Clement Boys Leadership Academy (on Woodworth) will be moved to Euclid Park, both Longfellow and Clement are in Ward 10. The closing of Longfellow may impact a small section of Ward 11 in the extreme southwest portion of the ward. However, the greatest loss will be the historic building itself, along with the fact that the children who now attend this school will have to walk much further to either Iowa-Maple or the new East Clark school (East 146th Street).  

The real troubling announcement pertains to Ginn Academy, presently housed in the former Margaret Spellacy middle school at East 162 Street off of Holmes Avenue, which will now be closed. This new and unique approach to education in the City was highly sought after by many communities. We were successful in bringing Ginn to Spellacy. New windows and doors were installed as well as upgrading of all the mechanical systems. The gymnasium was completely redone along with new lockers, new carpeting and the upgrading of classrooms and science labs. At this point, I cannot even begin to tell you how much money went into the upgrades of Spellacy, but I am certainly going to make a public records request, to get the exact dollar amount, if I can. Furthermore, a new parking lot was to be installed this Spring/Summer. The purpose of creating an all-boys academy was to separate the young men and women and to emphasize academic excellence and achieve a much higher graduation rate, especially among young men at risk. For us to hear that CMSD’s plan now is to place Ginn inside of Glenville High School – is absolutely ridiculous and flies in the face of everything that Ginn was supposed to be. We are also told that they will be creating a girls’ academy – also inside Glenville – which doesn’t make any sense either.

Obviously, since I worked extremely hard to bring Ginn to our community – I am going to do everything I can to reverse this recommendation, especially since Ginn Academy is one of the true success stories of the CMSD system and has become a true asset to our community. More so, as you have heard, they are planning on closing sixteen K-8 schools and two high schools, for a total of eighteen schools. This comes on the heels of the ten schools they closed several years ago.
What is even more absurd, they want $70 million to implement this plan PLUS a school levy (which would need to be voted on). Where have you ever heard of closing 18 schools and then needing millions of dollars to implement a reorganization plan – especially one that doesn’t educate or graduate one more student than is already enrolled in the system? Only in Cleveland, I guess!!!

Finally, we have a lot of questions to ask and some answers to demand – not only as residents but also as taxpayers. We fought to keep churches open and we were successful because of our tenacity. Whether we can save Ginn -- only time will tell. The thought of having Margaret Spellacy/Ginn Academy abandoned and possibly bulldozed is absolutely adding insult to injury. Stay alert for future announcements and updates. I would urge all concerned citizens and residents to begin writing emails and letters expressing your viewpoint. This plan, if implemented, in its entirety, will have a profound impact on our City’s future. Dr. Eugene Sanders and the Board of Education need to be held accountable in terms of how this might impact our City and its students in the years to come.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. You may reach me at my office at (216) 664-4236 or via email at council11@clevelandcitycouncil.org.