CMSD seeks comments on building proposals

Options that the Cleveland Metropolitan School District has proposed for District buildings would preserve schools in the Collinwood neighborhood and perhaps replace one with new construction.

CMSD is holding a series of open houses to answer questions and field comments on possible scenarios for construction, renovation and maintenance. The schedule includes a session that will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 18 at Collinwood High School.

The proposals call for maintaining Ginn Academy and Kenneth W. Clement Boys’ Leadership Academy and possibly building a 350-seat replacement for O.H. Perry School. The document also proposes continuing to operate four schools -- East Clark, Euclid Park, Hannah Gibbons STEM and Memorial -- built since 2005.

Collinwood High School would stay open, and the district would try to boost enrollment. The proposals point to potential for increasing the number of high-performing programs in the school and suggest discussing how parts of the building may be used for neighborhood development.

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, a blueprint for reform. 

The open houses will help finalize a five-year plan that the Board of Education could vote on June 24. 

The plan, which is subject to approval by the Board of Education, would complete a building program that the state and CMSD began more than a decade ago. 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 board would have until Aug. 6 to place a tax issue on the November ballot.

Thomas Ott is director of the CMSD News Bureau.