Anxiety is mounting among teachers, caregivers and students at Cleveland Metropolitan School District about which schools will close, with the district set to announce a consolidation plan sometime this month.
Worries about his school closing led Joe Mack, an intervention specialist at Mary Church Terrell School on Cleveland's West Side, to preemptively start a petition to save his school.
Mack said it was because factsheets released by the district earlier this fall show Mary Church Terrell has one of the lowest ratings for its building conditions of the district's 60 elementary school. Although enrollment is relatively strong at Mack's school, better than about two-thirds of CMSD's other K-8 schools, the building is almost 100 years old. There are also two newer elementary schools a mile or less away from it.
"It's not like our kids are suffering academically because we don't have air conditioning or some of the luxury some of our newer buildings have. And so our kids are thriving in this area," he said.
The fate of Mary Church Terrell highlights the complicated calculus for the district to determine which schools should close and which schools should take on new students amid a massive consolidation effort. The changes come as birth rates have declined across the country, people have left large urban centers like Cleveland for the suburbs and charter and private-schools in Ohio have received increased state support for decades.
What makes a school special?
During a blustery evening in late October, Mack handed out plastic sunglasses and other toys to students at a “Trunk or Treat" event in the parking lot of Mary Church Terrell.
He said events like these, at small schools like his, offer a sense of closeness and community that families might lose out on in the upcoming consolidation.
"We do Thanksgiving dinner. We do the donuts for dads, muffins for moms and a lot different activities," Mack said. "We do a parent prom at the end of the year. And I haven't seen that in other buildings I've been in."
Mack, who has worked at the school for 14 years, said the teachers are like a family there. Sean Adamson, parent of a third-grader at Mary Church Terrell, said the community events and the warmth of the teachers made the school feel welcoming for his third-grade son. He said he was worried about the impact moving to a new school could have on his son, who initially struggled to adjust at a different school
"The teachers have been great. He loves the school. Everything about it's just a wonderful experience," he said.
How will the district decide?
During his annual State of the Schools address in October, CMSD CEO Warren Morgan said the district’s enrollment has dropped by half over the last two decades. The district still has almost 90 schools, many being half full or even less. Meanwhile, students in those buildings, in one of the poorest cities in the country, continue to struggle academically. Morgan said consolidation is the way to begin to provide more opportunities for those students.
"We face a perfect storm of challenges of declining enrollment, increasing expenses, and serious funding cuts at the state and federal level," Morgan said. "However, we have the incredible responsibility and opportunity to improve the student experience and enhance outcomes for all CMSD scholars."
Records of building conditions shared online spell out the difficult decisions ahead for the district. Just 10 elementary schools out of 60 meet what the district considers to be ideal enrollment, 450 students or more. About a third of those buildings are below the district's ideal building condition grade, scoring less than 80 out of 100.
It's worse at some schools like Collinwood High School. The building has the lowest building condition score of any CMSD high school, and just 20% of its seats are occupied. The district previously tried to close that building but reconsidered.
At the same time, the fact sheets also list offerings that make schools unique despite lower scores on enrollment and building conditions, like a criminal justice program at Glenville High School.
Morgan has said a "significant" number of buildings will be closed, but has not yet said how many.
He has said consolidation will mean higher quality programs at all buildings. The district could guarantee two teachers in each grade level for better collaboration if staff were less spread out among so many schools. And more extracurriculars and special courses like foreign languages and band could be offered.
Vladimir Kogan, a political science professor at Ohio State University who focuses on education, said national studies suggest low enrollment is one of the biggest factors districts consider when looking at which schools to close. He said this is problematic.
"As far as we can tell academic quality, or how much learning is happening in the building, doesn't matter at all (in decisions), which is obviously very disturbing if we think the primary function of schools is the key students," he said.
But in talking to reporters after the State of the Schools, Morgan said the district is looking at many factors, including geography. The district could be less likely to close as school if it's the sole public school serving a neighborhood.
"One of the things we've been looking at have been specific classrooms like special education and pre-K, where those can be housed, the different facilities we have," he said. "We also are modeling out transportation. And so all of those things factor in terms of which buildings (to close), because what you don't want to do is take buildings offline and then now you've created a gap where kids don't have a way to get to and from school."
Potential impact of closures?
Parents at Mary Church Terrell School aren't alone in their worries about being closed.
"We are to a point where there is plenty of anxiety, both with our members, with students, with families. And I'm looking forward to getting to the actual information so that we can figure out the path forward," Cleveland Teachers Union President Shari Obrenski said.
Intervention Specialist Joe Mack said he worries about the larger impact of closing schools like his. He’s talked to parents of his students, who won’t want to send them to CMSD's Wilbur Wright Elementary even though it’s just half a dozen blocks away.
"They (parents) would rather put them into charter school or find another school for them than go down there. They don't want them in a large school where you're going to have, you know, six, seven, eight hundred kids," he said.
State law requires districts to offer school buildings they close to charter schools. Mack said that could mean a further drain of students from public schools across the city.
A CMSD Board of Education meeting is set for Wednesday, but it's still not clear when the district will present its recommendations to the board. That decision will also impact staffing, Morgan has said.
