School News

The Collinwood High School Chapter of the National Honor Society welcomed thirteen new members at a special induction ceremony held recently at the school.  Juniors and Seniors recognized for their outstanding achievement in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service and character were these 2016 inductees:  Juanicia Casebolt; Rodney Chandler; Da’Zhah Gamble; Tyra Henderson; Kiarah Jones; Raymel Menefee; Rayonna Sanders; Brandin Smith; Shialetha Steel; Kayla Vaughn; Charlena Watts; Deja’nae Wilson and Edwin Woods.

KeyBank will give Ginn Academy $250,000 for college test preparation, summer internships, scholarships and an investment club.

Students at the all-male high school cheered enthusiastically when the announcement was made Monday at a regular school assembly, better known as the morning meeting. It is the largest single donation the school has ever received.

“It creates opportunities for each of you to thrive on your own terms,” said Christopher M. Gorman, president of Key Corporate Bank, which focuses mostly on corporations and services that include capital market investments, mergers and acquisitions. “We can’t wait to see where this investment takes us all.”

The grant was made through the KeyBank Foundation, which Gorman serves as president. The award, spanning five years, will fund:

• tutoring for juniors and seniors to improve scores on the ACT and SAT college-admissions tests;
• summer internships with local companies and development of skills such as resume writing;
• $1,000 scholarships for up to 10 seniors a year to help fill in gaps in their education funding; 
• and operation of an investment club and instruction in money management for ninth- and 10th-graders.

Ted Ginn Sr., the school’s executive director and founder, said the grant “helps us in the areas we need help in.” He thanked KeyBank for “believing in our students.”

Collinwood High School is giving the community an inside look at the school and its programs by arranging for groups to conduct “instructional rounds.”

Memorial School held a program on March 4 to mark the 108th anniversary of the Collinwood School fire, a massive tragedy that took the lives of 172 children and two teachers. The program featured remarks by Councilman Mike Polensek, a presentation by Mary Louise Jesek Daley, president of the Collinwood Nottingham Historical Society, and lessons on fire safety from the Cleveland Division of Fire

With one grading period left in the school year, CMSD’s attendance campaign is on track to achieve its goal of reducing chronic absenteeism by 10 percent.

The “Get to School! You Can Make It!” campaign, launched in July, is designed to prevent students from missing 10 or more days in a school year. Students who had missed more than seven days by the end of the third quarter were considered to be at risk of exceeding the threshold.

When the third quarter ended this month, 53.2 percent of District students had missed seven or fewer days. That compares with an average of 47.3 percent at the same point the previous three years. In a district with 38,525 students, the difference is 2,273 more students.

For CMSD to remain on a course to hit the target, more than 52.6 percent had to be on track in attendance at the end of the quarter.

St. John Nottingham Lutheran School has been serving North Collinwood for over 123 years.  The school has a proud tradition of academic and athletic success.  The faculty and staff are caring Christian educators who work dilligently for their students.

Come and meet the faculty of St. John Nottingham and tour the facility at one of our open houses on:

Sunday April 3, 2016

Sunday April 10, 2016

St. John is located at the corner of Nottingham Road and East 176th Street (1027 East 176th Street).  Times are from 1:00-4:00 PM.  Learn how your children can attend St. John Nottingham for FREE!!!!

For more information contact 216-531-8204. Be a part of the proud tradition of St. John Nottingham!

Dancing Wheels Company and School, as part of Collinwood 2015, just completed their 10 week residency at O.H. Perry. The schools fifth grade class got to learn about Newton's Laws of Motion, incivility, and dance. The residency concluded with a performance for the school, teaching their fellow scholars about physics.

On Saturday, March 19th, families with pre-k children learned about robots at O.H. Perry. Not only did they discovered how robots can "clean the beach" they also saw some big robots up close. "Cosmo and the Robot," a children's book about a boy living in space with robots, was the inspiration for the day's activities.

The cold didn't stop anyone from going outside to see some robots up close. Children and parents alike were in awe as Tim Willis brought out the big robots and put them to action. The youth rode on the robot dog and discovered all their moving pieces. They even got to drive in a go-cart.

With a hex bug, craft supplies, and their imaginations, the kids created a machine that picked up cheerios, which emulated cleaning the beach. They also made their very own robot puppets. The event concluded with everyone enjoying lunch catered by Gus's Diner. 

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District will present the 17th annual All-City Musical  April 22 – 24 at the Ohio Theatre on Playhouse Square.

The production of “Kiss Me Kate,” with the music of Cole Porter, will feature the talents of nearly 50 CMSD studentsfrom across the District. Note: The performance dates are one month earlier than in previous years.

 Kimberly Sias, Director of All-City Arts, directs the production.  The Musical Theater Project joins the Human Fund this year as a producing partner.

The musical is presented with generous support from The Helen F. and Louis Stolier Family Foundation, The Edwin D. Northrop II Fund, The George Gund Foundation and Playhouse Square. Community partners include the City of Cleveland.

Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) will host an open house from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 23, at its Eastern Campus, located at 4250 Richmond Road in Highland Hills.

Did you miss Memorial's Family Math Night?  Oh my goodness we had such a good time! Parents came out in droves to visit classrooms, learn about math games they can play with their children at home to reinforce classroom learning, and ask about upcoming state testing.  Origami animals, a hallway scavenger hunt, paper airplane races, and estimation stations were just a few of the activities set up for families. A huge thank you to all of the familes that came out to support.  If we missed you this month, we hope you will be able to attend an upcoming event.   Go Cardinals! 

“Around the World in Masks” easily could have been the theme of a hands-on outreach program for Ms. Laureen Thomas’ Visual Arts students, presented by The Cleveland Museum of Art, in collaboration with Cleveland Public Library Collinwood Branch and Collinwood High School. 

The CMA docents’ presentation included a discussion and close-up look at masks from Japan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Alaska.  As students carefully examined each mask, they learned about its unique construction, symbolism, and history. 

The class also enjoyed hearing about customs practiced by a variety of people and tribes, the Noh, Maasai, Yoruba and Tlingits among them.  Perhaps the highlight of the program was examining the brilliantly-colored and delicate Mardi Gras mask, made entirely of feathers.

At Lakeshore Intergenerational School, we believe in lifelong learning. One way that we share this philosophy with our students, and the community, is by forming partnerships with local long term care facilities. Each class at L.I.S. engages with a facility monthly to complete a curriculum based activity with the residents. Both the students and residents learn something new, and have a great time interacting with one another.

This month, we would like to honor one of those partners. The Slovene Home has partnered with L.I.S. for two years now, and engages with not one, but two of our classrooms. The residents are always so much fun to be around, and offer an immeasurable amount of knowledge to contribute to the education of our students. One student said “I love to go! They are always so funny.” Another student said, “I love the Slovene home because my friends there have great stories to tell!” We want to thank the Slovene Home for being an outstanding partner, and we look forward to many intergenerational experiences in the future!  

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s Safe Routes to School program will partner with the “Get 2 School. You Can Make It!” attendance campaign and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health on Saturday, Feb. 27 to canvass neighborhoods and encourage residents to clear snow from their walkways, making walking safer.

Safe Routes to School, which includes the City of Cleveland, Ohio Department of Transportation and other partners, seeks to help students in kindergarten through eighth grade safely walk or ride their bicycles to school. Safe routes can improve community safety, health and wellness, academic performance and the environment. 

Volunteers from CMSD, Neighborhood Progress Inc., Cleveland Central Promise Neighborhood and the Franklin Block Club will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday to walk the Central and Detroit-Shoreway neighborhoods. The volunteers will gather at Alfred E. Benesch School, 6393 Quincy Ave., and Joseph M. Gallagher School, 6601 Franklin Blvd.

Nearly two-thirds of CMSD students live within one mile of their schools. Many students walk and ride their bikes to school, so clean and safe routes have a substantial impact on attendance. 

The attendance campaign is working to reduce the number of students who miss 10 or more days of school in a year. Students who miss 10 or more days score an average of 15 points lower on state math exams and 12 points lower on state reading exams. They are 34 percent less likely to graduate. 

More information about CMSD’s Safe Routes to School program can be found at www.clevelandmetroschools.org/Page/8921 

The Women in Transition program at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) will launch two new sessions March 22 at Metropolitan Campus.

The free program uses education and training to empower women at a life crossroads. Participants build confidence and self-esteem through classes on personal development, career exploration and financial and computer literacy.

The eight-week course is designed to assist women in transitional periods of their lives, such as a career change or return to the workforce. The non-credit program is free and open to the public.

Day classes will be held at Tri-C’s Metro Campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from March 22 to May 12. An evening session will be offered from 6 – 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays from March 22 to May 12.

Registration is required. To learn more or to enroll, call 216-987-4187. Metro Campus is at 2900 Community College Ave. in Cleveland.

Women in Transition also runs eight-week sessions at Tri-C’s Eastern Campus in Highland Hills, Western Campus in Parma and Corporate College West in Westlake. For more information, go to www.tri-c.edu/women-in-transition.

Tri-C’s Women in Transition program began in 1978 and has contributed to thousands of personal success stories. It typically serves about 250 women a year. 

The arts play a dynamic part in the comprehensive education being offered at Oliver H. Perry School. 

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District PreK-8 school on Schenely Avenue has started partnerships this school year with the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning and  the Dancing Wheels troupe. 

Oliver H. Perry Principal Anne Priemer believes bringing artists into the classrooms furthers a child’s development. 

“It enhances a young child’s motor skills, language development, visual learning, cultural awareness and creativity, which are essential to academic achievement,” she said. “Arts education fosters students’ critical thinking and observation skills because it requires students to focus and spend time observing and analyzing the world around them.” 

Priemer, in her first year at the school after completing the CMSD’s Aspiring Principals Academy, previously worked as a teacher in New York and as director of curriculum and instruction at a Cleveland-area charter school. She said studies have shown that schools with robust art programs are often higher performing. 

“Arts education can reinforce what students are learning in their core content areas,” she said, citing two examples: 

* When a local 4H club visited the school, she said members were impressed that so many of the Oliver H. Perry fifth-graders could answer all of the questions about Newton’s Laws of Physics. Priemer said the students knew the answers because they are “choreographing their own dance with Dancing Wheels based on Newton’s Laws.” 

* She also said that many of her students are more excited to come to school because of a graphic arts project through the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning in which “they know they will be creating digital images that may end up on a Jones Soda bottle for distribution.” 

Priemer said the effect of the arts on education isn’t always easily measured, but it can still be seen easily enough – if you’re looking. 

“When Dancing Wheels came to perform for the entire school, even our kindergarten and first-grade students were mesmerized for the whole hour,” she said. “Anyone who knows students that age knows that’s a big deal.” 

She said students regularly ask whether the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning's Jimmie Woody, a professional actor, director and teaching artist, will be in the school that day or if the center is going to help with a year-end play again this school year. 

“That’s the conundrum with the arts – how do you measure a direct impact?” she said. “But we know that it does make a difference and that it also helps us market our school to families who are interested in both academics and arts.”

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is moving closer to building a new Oliver H. Perry School.

Plans were to go before the city Planning Commission on Feb. 5. The schedule calls for groundbreaking in late August or early September and the completion of work by December 2017.

The school will be built on a different part of the Schenely Avenue property that the existing Oliver H. Perry now occupies. That will avoid the need to relocate students during construction.

A volunteer advisory committee made up of district representatives, community leaders, neighborhood residents and community partners has been meeting since last summer to help architects with the building design, site plan and traffic flow.

CEDA, which stands for Cleveland Educational Design Alliance, designed the building. CEDA is affiliated with TDA Architecture.

The new school will hold 470 students, with one classroom for preschool and two for each level from kindergarten through eighth grade. The building will have spaces for music, art, a media center and a project lab.

The construction was made possible when voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 4, a $200 million bond issue, in November 2014. CMSD plans to build 20 to 22 schools and remodel 20 to 23, continuing a modernization program that began in 2001. 

The state will contribute slightly more than $2 for every $1 the district spends on new construction. The bond issue did not increase taxes.

On February 20, 2016, Famicos Foundation will host its Annual Youth Wellness Empowerment Summit. This event will be held at Glenville High School 650 E. 113th Street, Cleveland Ohio 44108 from 9:30am-3:00pm and is free of charge to all student attendees.  This summit hopes to give our youth the ability to make conscious choices to live well. Wellness as we know is an active process of becoming aware and making choices toward living a fulfilling life. More than the absence of illness, wellness is a dynamic and multifaceted process of change and growth in ones lives. With that in mind, we will seek to address the eight dimensions of wellness (Emotional, Occupational, Environmental, Physical, Intellectual, Social, Financial and Spiritual) in an engaging summit for students ages 12-18. 

The Collinwood High School DoMore4:Good team weathered the frigid Cleveland temperatures on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 as they traveled to the Cleveland Sight Center. The Cleveland Sight Center hosts a monthly Winners Club Social, which allows visually impaired adults to come together to socialize, complete recreational activities and learn a new skill.

A simple pattern, a spool of thread, fleece cloth, decorative trim, and steady hands are all the materials Collinwood High School New Tech students have found they need to create warm winter hats for their latest project in Fashion Design.  Under the guidance of teacher, Rosalyn Allen, the class has not only been sharpening their sewing skills but also studying the history of fashion by various decades.

Considering that the garment industry and the manufacture of ready-to-wear clothing have a long and rich Cleveland connection, it is easy to see why this topic was a logical subject choice.

Through reading, researching and hands-on activities, linking the past to the present and future has been very engaging.  One recent assignment was to make straps and pockets for bags provided by NASA.  Another was to fashion no-sew fleece blankets, which were donated to a local homeless shelter.

Projects still on the drawing board are a much-anticipated trunk show and, perhaps, a fashion show.  Creating duct tape clothing and accessories is yet another possibility.

Drumming Workshop at Collinwood Village Academy 

The fifth and sixth grade students at Collinwood Village Academy celebrated Martin Luther King week by participating in a drumming workshop on Thursday, January 21st and Friday, January, 22nd. Baba Jubal Harris, a professional drummer and music educator, taught them how to make their own drums and ten basic rhythms.

On Thursday, they made square drums by decorating wooden frames and wrapping clear plastic tape around the frame twice. On Friday, they learned various rhythms and movements. Staff members will prepare some of the students to perform at the school’s Cultural Arts Festival in February.

This workshop was made possible by a grant from Neighborhood Connections in association with the Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.  Collinwood Neighborhood Catholic Ministries was instrumental in obtaining these funds. 

Dear Community Friends,

Memorial School is hosting its sixth annual African History Celebration on February 26, 2016 from 5:00 until 8:00 PM. The evening will be filled with performances, poetry, and activities celebrating the history and culture of African Americans. We are inviting you to participate by sharing your story, artifacts, or talent. You may also get involved by becoming a vendor in our Marketplace, which will be free of charge. The only thing you would need to do is bring your own table.

(Vendors)   Our program will begin at 5:00 PM and you will need to arrive by 3:45 PM to set up your display or to prepare for your presentation. Each presenter will have a space in the gymnasium and will have from 5:00 PM until 5:40 PM to present or share your products.   

Ø  Memorial School is located at 410 East 152nd Street Cleveland, Ohio 44110

Ø  Please call to confirm your participation and let us know if you will need a table.

Ø  Vendors-there is no fee for vending space, our goal is to promote our local businesses to our parents at Memorial School.

We are excited about this event and are very grateful for your participation.  To confirm your participation please call Margaret Craig (Community Organizer) at (216) 692-1388 or Mr. Neal (Assistant Principal) at (216) 692-4118 or Ms. Burrus (216) 262-6995

Lakeshore Intergenerational School is so pleased to have full enrollment for our second year here in the North Collinwood area.  Many community members may not be fully aware of our presence here so we would like to give a brief overview of LIS as a large portion of our philosophy is community engagement and promoting lifelong learning.

Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) will host a Campus Visitation Day on Presidents Day — Monday, Feb. 15 — at its four campuses and the Brunswick University Center.

What do Picasso, Monet, and Kahlo have in common?  The most obvious is that they were all famous artists with distinct styles.  A little less obvious is that at one point they were all children; creative, imaginative, and free-thinking.   At Memorial, we believe every child deserves an opportunity to unleash their inner artist and with our resident artist, Mrs. Hopkins, as their guide and artstonia.com as their vehicle, our budding artists have found an opportunity to showcase their developing skills and unique talents.  Artstonia is the largest student art museum in the world! Every child can have an online art gallery and preserve their masterpiece for all time! Check out our student masterpieces on our FB page www.facebook.com/memorialcmsd or at artstonia.com. 

State Report Cards released by the Ohio Department of Education today show progress in two important areas for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District:  K-3 literacy and on-time graduation. The District’s K-3 literacy rate grew by 4.2%, a measure that CEO Eric Gordon calls “significant” for a large urban district. Although CMSD would have improved its rating to a D on the scale used by the Ohio Department of Education last year, the state raised its passing rate for this year’s class, dropping CMSD’s score to an F, despite the District’s gains this year. “Even though state tests change from year to year and make it difficult to make the apples-to-apples comparisons we can see on the more consistent NAEP (Nation’s Report Card) tests, we are encouraged by the gains we are seeing in grades K-3 and by our gains in the most stable measure of our growth--a record-high graduation rate,” said Gordon.  The District’s on-time graduation rate grew from 52.1% to 66.0%--a 13.9% gain over four years.The reported graduation rate, 65.9, measures CMSD’s 2013-14 class and is watermarked this year due to an appeal the District filed to remove five non-CMSD students whose scores should not have been counted.  Removal is expected to improve the District’s score to 66%—a district high for CMSD that has reached a record-high graduation rate four years in a row.

For more than 75 years, the "Epic of American Railroads" WPA mural on Collinwood High School's first floor southwest hall has been a focal point for countless students, staff and community members, and a sentimental favorite among alumni young and old.  Although the mural's current condition reflects both the natural aging process as well as considerable wear and tear, this incredible artwork still has managed to stand the test of time and preserve a story that merits recounting.

When students miss school, it’s hard to come back. Instruction is missed, assignments pile up, and motivation wanes. Having our students in class every day improves their chances for success and makes our school a better place. To motivate the students to get to school, the Cleveland Browns Foundation donated several prizes that were raffled off to Memorial students in recognition of their awesome school attendance. Congratulations to A’Mariea Morrison, Tremarreon Tucker, and Adontes Wilson for being the selected winners!  Get to school! You can make it!

The DoMore4:Good team at Collinwood had a busy afternoon volunteering at the Five Points Community Center, where they were invited to visit and spend time with the attendees of the center’s Daily Senior Program.

Recycling, creativity and holiday cheer were all wrapped up in mixed media box sculptures designed by students in Ms. Laureen Thomas’ visual arts class, just in time for Christmas.  Inspiration for this art project was the work of American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter David Smith.

Launched in 1989, the annual Great Lakes Theater A Christmas Carol Writing Contest is a literacy program open to all Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) students in grades six, seven and eight. Every year, students participate by writing original stories, songs and poems inspired by the timeless themes in Dickens classic tale. Almost 2,000 students from over 50 CMSD schools submit entries to the contest each season. Memorial is proud to announce to two of our Cardnals, Shadell Flowers (7th grade) and Shelena Stokes (7th grade) were announced among this years winners! All participating students received admission to a special student matinee performance of the play. At the conclusion of this special matinee, school winners are brought up on stage, awarded A Christmas Carol t-shirts, meet members of the acting company, and receive special recognition - and thunderous applause - from their peers and teachers. The Memorial family is proud of you both!

Humans learn best by doing.  It is true for adults and even more so for children.  So if you want a 4 year old to really retain information you better make sure he/she is an active participant in the learning.  Carol Mains, a former CMSD teacher with over 30 years of expericence and founder of Safety to Go, incorporates both classroom learning and simulated real world experiences in an effort to bring safety awareness and trainings to students across the state of Ohio.  She and her program, Safety to Go, stopped by Memorial School on November 10th to show PreK how to stay safe in their communities. A portable Safety Communiy was selt up in the gym and the staff guided the students with hands on practice with the safety equipment as well as an opportunity to ride through the community.  The program focused on the awareness of safety rules to help prevent childhood accidents as well as a anti-bullying message to promote acceptance of others in our communities.  The students loved the program and talked about it for days after.  Thank you Saftey to Go!  For more information about the Safety to Go program visit www.safetytogo.org.  

The annual "Molly Day" performances by Cleveland Metropolitan School District students at O.H. Perry School that memorialize the late daughter of retired U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and his wife Janet each year are always rousing, heartfelt and sometimes hilarious.  

They certainly brought a smile to the face of the Voinovich family, to Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek and to a crowd of more than 100 people at the school Nov. 6, including school District CEO Eric Gordon.

“This is one of my favorite days of the year,” Gordon told the crowd. “This is one of my favorites because we get to see our tremendous students doing the great things they do every day here. But let’s also make sure we remember that this is what goes on in every CMSD school, every single day and that’s why they are committed to being here every day.”

Lakeshore Intergenerational School has had a great start of the school year! Two of our classes participated in Halloween festivities at VASJ. Our students had a terrific time celebrating with a variety of students from the area. Thank you to VASJ for the great fun, we look forward to future partnerships!

As the first trimester has just ended and the holidays are quickly approaching, LIS will be hosting their annual Celebration of Learning and Winter Concert. This year’s concert is entitled “Winter Time Rock & Roll”. It will be held on Friday December 18th at 2pm. Please join us in celebrating the holiday season and the end of the first half of the year! For more information please contact the school at 216-586-3872.  

If your family is looking for an innovative, high performing school for your child for the 2016-2017 academic year, our early enrollment begins in January. For more information about early enrollment at LIS please visit: http://www.lakeshoreschool.org.

The leaves might be changing and the temperatures falling, but the students At Memorial are all fired up about the community garden. Created to honor the victims of the Collinwood fire in 1908, the garden is a joint effort between the students at Memorial School and Collinwood’s Little Red Cap group, which is made up of members from the community. 
 
This summer new mulch was laid and the ground overturned in an effort to prepare the area for planting.  The goal is to create a space that honors both the lives lost and fosters a sense of community among the living.  Little Red Cap meetings are open to the public and welcome community support. To volunteer to help in the garden or to make a financial donation to assist with the upkeep of the garden, please contact Elva Brodnick at carrollsell@gmail.com or Michelle Person at michelle.person@clevelandmetroschools.org.  

In its inaugural season, the Memorial soccer team ended the season with an impressive 5-2 record.  The soccer team consisting of Michael Johnson, Jacquez Riggans, Christopher Switzer, Shamari Wallace, Imani Baker, Sydney Moore, Avante Donerison, Rayshawn Starks, Rashard Wilis, and Jermaine Strozier, won against Joseph Gallagher, Nathan Hale, Campus International, Kenneth Clement, and Mound qualifying them to make the city playoffs.  Michael R White beat Memorial in the regular season, while Riverside defeated Memorial in the semi final playoff game. Riverside went on to win the Soccer Championship. We are extremely proud of our Cardinals and can’t wait for next year!

There’s a culture shift underway at Oliver Hazard Perry School under new Principal Anne Priemer, one that is already beginning to produce concrete results.

CMSD NEWS BUREAU

The days might be getting shorter and the temperatures are getting cooler, but that is not keeping Memorial parents from supporting their children.  September was a busy month at Memorial with both Open house and Father’s Walk.  Memorial parents made a strong showing at both.

2015 Collinwood “Railroaders” Football Schedule

Date:          Time:           Opponent:                                Location:                                  

8/28           7:00 pm      Trinity “Trojans”                             Bedford Bearcats Stadium  

9/4             7:00 pm       Luthern East “Falcons”                    Home

9/11          7:00 pm        Leetonia “Bears”                            Leetonia

9/18          7:00 pm        John Adams “Rebels”                      Home

9/25         7:00 pm         Lincoln West “Wolverines”               James Rhodes

10/2         3:00 pm         Whitney Young  “Warriors”              Roye Kidd Field (JFK)

10/9        3:00 pm         East Tech “Scarabs”                        Home

10/23      3:00 pm         Glenville “Tarblooders”                    Home

10/30      3:00 pm         John Marshall “Lawyers”                  James Rhodes

Collinwood New Tech High School freshmen have a vision. In fact, so does their entire school community.

New Tech Principal Maria Carlson and the staff at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District high school are challenging an incoming ninth-grade class of about 90 students to not only grasp and live out the school’s overall educational vision, but to each come up with a personal vision statement.

The idea is to expose the incoming freshman to the ever-important “So what?” question that hangs over so many high school students as they approach their upcoming four-year high school career – and beyond, Carlson said.

“Because school is not just ‘So I can get an A in physical science,’ but ‘How will this help me beyond school?’,” she said. “We thought that it was important that before we jump into content projects, we help them think about ‘Who am I?’ and ‘How do I fit into my community – at New Tech, at Collinwood High and in the community?”

To that end, Carlson and Site Coordinator Amy Carlson (no relation) of Ohio Guidestone, a Northeast Ohio social services agency, have already had the students do SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analyses of themselves and their school, take the well-known Myers-Briggs personality test, meet with community leaders and plan a “Day of Service.”

In short, they are working together to provoke the ninth-graders to think big – but also think specifically.

On Wednesday, Aug. 26, that meant students meeting with public officials, community leaders, clergy and others to talk about life beyond high school and giving back to their community.

St. John Lutheran School is proud that it has, over the years, admitted students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies and admissions policies.

It’s about that time of year again; school is just around the corner. Last weekend the staff of Lakeshore Intergenerational School hosted their second annual Family Fun Day! Over 200 people came to enjoy the activities.  Returning and new students are so excited for school to begin.

How can Clevelanders learn more about their public schools? What does “school quality” mean? How can communities work to improve their schools?

We would like to thank the Collinwood Community for the very warm welcome and acceptance during this, our first year in operation.  We had an extremely successful year serving over 100 students in grades K-2.  When school begins on August 13th, we will welcome 150 students in grades K-3.  Each year we will be adding the next grade level until we are a K-8 school.

The Oliver Hazard Perry Community Advisory Committee met for the first time May 5, 2015 to begin the work of designing a new school for the Collinwood/Nottingham community.

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) is in the process of building 20 to 22 schools and refurbishing 20 to 23 others across the city over the next five years. O.H. Perry is one of those new schools.

The new and renovated schools were made possible when voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 4, a $200 million bond issue, in November. Issue 4 will not raise taxes, and the state will contribute more than $2 for every $1 CMSD spends on new construction.  

The District has convened a community advisory committee to help shape the O.H. Perry School and their recommendations on design. The committee will work with the architectural firm once it is selected.

At this first meeting, the District laid out the expectation and timelines for the new school which is scheduled to be built by the end of 2017.

This committee is the first of its kind in the District and others like it will convene across the city to help design other new community schools.

The Collinwood High School Chapter of the National Honor Society welcomed five new members at a special induction ceremony held recently at the school.  Recognized for their outstanding achievement in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service and character were these 2014-2015 inductees:  Marquitta Billingsley; Danielle Echols; Cayla Napoleon; Danyell Hall-Rucker; and Rajiah Stuart.

Keynote speaker for this event was Larry Gray, Chief Information Officer for the City of Cleveland Fire Department and a Collinwood alumnus.  The chapter’s faculty advisor, Cassandra Treadwell and co-advisor, Rosalyn Allen delivered opening and closing remarks.  Also participating in the ceremony were members of the JROTC Color Guard, vocalist Sanita Washington, principal Maria Carlson, and CTAG advisor Michael Russell.  NHS faculty council members Gail Greenberg, Naomi Leveck, Donese Harris and Sherrell Germany-Clark described each of the organization’s four qualities that must be continuously satisfied.   

A reception for the new inductees and their families was held in the atrium, following the ceremony.

The word of the day was definitely “adventure,” when a group of Collinwood High School students recently took a unique interactive, behind-the-scenes field trip to the Cleveland Public Library’s landmark Main Library, in celebration of Ohio Library Day and National Book Week.

Participants were able to see first-hand the wealth of free resources, programming and services geared to teens and how readily-accessible they all are.  This visit also gave students the opportunity to meet library staff members informally and discuss career possibilities in library, technology and information science.

Highlights of the trip included: a scavenger hunt; job shadowing; book checkout; and tours of the newly-launched Cleveland Digital Public Library, the Youth Services Department, Special Collections, Human Resources Department and Tech Central.

Students also discovered 3-D printing and makerspace technology, the extensive chess and checkers collection, rare and miniature books, Collinwood High School yearbooks, and archival newspapers covering the tragic Lakeview (Memorial) School fire in 1908.

“The importance of this field trip is to welcome our students to all areas of the Main Library,” explained Gail Greenberg.  “For many, this trip may be their first visit to this facility. Our goal is to fill this void and help students make the connection between their future and the limitless role this library can play,” she concluded.

Erica Marks, children’s librarian at CPL’s Collinwood Branch, and Gail Greenberg, Collinwood High School library media specialist, collaborated on this project, with funding made possible by a Target Field Trip Grant.

Joe White is definitely a man on a mission with a group of young people in four classes at Collinwood High School.  For the past ten weeks, under the auspices of The Centers for Families and Children and the Cuyahoga County District Board of Health, he has been facilitating the American Lung Association’s N-O-T (Not On Tobacco) program at both Collinwood and Glenville High Schools.

Funding for this program comes from the Ohio Department of Health/Federal Government Bureau of Child and Family Health Services’ Child and Family Health Services Program.  This is the first time that the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) has offered this program.  Upcoming, on April 14, 2015 Mr. James Cotton of the American Lung Association will visit Collinwood and deliver the keynote address to the student body.