Cleveland schools seek public input on buidling plan; Collinwood open house June 18

The crowd at the Harvard Community Services Center on June 3.

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CMSD NEWS BUREAU The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has embarked on a second round of community meetings to seek input on the proposed facilities master plan.  

The informational sessions will come to the Collinwood-Euclid communities from 5:30-7:30 p.m. June 18 at Collinwood High School and school officials want  to hear from residents and concerned citizens in the neighborhood.    You can read about the plan and download a schedule and PDF documents at http://bit.ly/facilitiesPlan 

On Tuesday, June 3, the Lee-Miles neighborhood came out in numbers to the Harvard Community Services Center on Tuesday evening for the third of 14 open houses that District officials will use to finalize a master facilities plan.

The Lee-Miles area is among a dozen “clusters” where CMSD is holding open houses on different scenarios, or options, for construction, renovation and maintenance of buildings. The scenarios were displayed around the room, along with demographics and other facts about the area.  

Residents discussed scenarios and much more with key CMSD officials, including Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon, Chief Operating Officer Patrick Zohn, Chief Academic Officer Michelle Pierre-Farid and others.

Ward 1 Councilman Councilman Terrell Pruitt told his constituents: “CMSD is in the midst of a transformation, and we're all part of the process.”

“These are generational decisions – decisions that will last for the next 40 years,” he said. “These decisions you will help make will have a major impact on our community.”

The open houses follow a previous round of 14 community sessions, a survey that drew 900 responses and a telephone poll of 2,700 voters. The District also consulted City Council members and religious and philanthropic leaders.

Gordon has said the revised plan places more emphasis than ever on what the community wants, and he reminded the crowd Tuesday that input from previous sessions has already made a very real difference in the District's planning.

“We have already changed the scenarios from meetings in clusters we have had, based on the feedback,” he said.

“This is by no means a done recommendation," he added. "But this is a key part of the process, so then I can go back to the board (the Board of Education) and say that after many, many ways of trying to capture feedback, this is what we believe is the best for working with every community in our neighborhoods.”

The districtwide scenarios, released at the end of May, suggest building 19 schools, while closing four or five and relocating or replacing several others. Planners honored the public’s wishes to keep closings to a minimum and spare high schools altogether.

The five-year plan, which is subject to approval by the Board of Education, would complete a building program begun more than a decade ago. It would continue work after state money that has typically covered two-thirds of the cost of construction and renovation runs out.

To pay for new projects, the Board would, in effect, ask voters to extend property-tax payments they agreed to when they passed Issue 14 in 2001. The current levy will drop significantly in January 2015.  

The District is trying to maximize efficiency, save on operating expenses and respond to declining enrollment while also ensuring quality school options in every neighborhood -- a promise central to The Cleveland Plan, CMSD’s state-approved blueprint for reform.  

Gordon ordered that the building plan be flexible so the District could downsize if enrollment continues to shrink and accommodate growth if academic reform reverses the trend.
The board could vote on a final plan June 24, but would have until Aug. 6 to place tax issues on the November ballot.

The tax issues would raise $200 million. Gordon said the amount includes money to finish the job started with Issue 14, maintain schools and, where possible, build features like auditoriums and athletic fields that the community wants but the state would not fund.