University Heights will have an elementary school within its boundaries in each of the six recommendations under consideration by the district’s Lay Facilities Committee.
The committee met Tuesday night to present six scenarios they have written for district restructuring and building renovation. The scenarios would close some buildings, including either the Gearity or Wiley building, but Committee Chair Patrick Mullen said that one of the two buildings would stay open and house the elementary school.
The committee, created by the CH-UH School Board at the recommendation of FutureHeights and Reaching Heights, is tasked with examining the facilities master plan and determining what aspects of the plan the community would support.
Next week, the committee will release a survey to the public asking their preferences for the new configuration of the district's schools, and will use those results to narrow the six scenarios to three at its March 6 meeting.
Then, it will ask its architectural and construction consultants to determine the cost of each scenario and send their findings to the Board of Education in April.
Click on the PDF to the right to see all the scenarios presented tonight, as well as a map of the district's current configuration, and watch Cleveland Heights Patch for more information as we update this story.
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The following information was added after this article's original publishing.
All six scenarios written by the committee entail closing some schools and use only the property that the district already owns — and cut the number of open schools in the disctrict from 11 to seven or eight.
Heights High is the only building that would not close under any of the six plans.
Scenario 1 would leave CH-UH with one middle school, located at the current site of Boulevard Elementary. However, during Tuesday's meeting architectural consultant Steve Dzuranin told the committee that the site is not big enough to host a building large enough for all the district's students with athletic fields.
The other scenarios have two middle schools and four or five elementary schools. No matter what, the committee will recommend a renovation or rebuild of the high school and other buildings.
The committee is taking into account many factors in their consideration of these scenarios, including public opinion, districting — how far will each student live from their school? — busing, staffing, cost and flexibility for future enrollment change.
Ultimately, a master plan will be approved by the Board of Education, and the district will need a bond from voters this November to put the plan into motion.
The committee discussed community engagement during the meeting and many said that they believe it will improve once the scenarios get out — and residents see the schools in their neighborhood could close.
"Now is the time [for the community] to get involved," Mullen said. "We're going to have some specific possibilites that have consequences."
Surveys will be taken beginning next week online and in person. Watch Cleveland Heights Patch for the link to the online survey as soon as it becomes available.
Interesting phrasing regarding the phrasing of the committee. Spot on. And in that committee, unless you toe the Future/Reaching Heights party line, you need not apply.
BS. The time to engage the community was 6 months ago.
Every time, every place, I complained about it, I was told *I* was the problem, that community engagement has been accomplished.
Crime has exploded, the schools are ranked in the bottom 5% in whole state, and home values have plummeted. Those are facts. A $205 million levy is a very far cry from a 3 year renewal levy. Passage of this will absolutely be the proverbial straw that brakes the camels back. This is not an alarmist point of view, it is what has happened to East Cleveland and as the PD pointed out a few weeks ago what is currently taking place in Garfield Heights. This Lay finance committee has shown no interest in stewardship of the community or schools, just a reckless ignoring of costs. And what about the $40 million in defered maintenance right now with the schools? Just silence.But to question this would be deemed to be racist or insensitive by the libs. What they have forgotten about is that the taxpayers are tapped out,and there is no one left to piggyback on anymore.
I prefer seeing data separated from opinions and conjecture. What you're doing is the same as the LFC is doing, hiding the data in a haystack. But neither your's or the LFC's is a haystack of merely *irrelevant* data to sift through. They are haystacks of opinions, conjecture, a little bit of meaningful data, and a lot of BS. Try reading one of Eric Silverman's *lengthy* manifestos some time.
Regardless of the outcome of a bond issue for new buildings or capital improvements, the school board will move to close a school. And they maybe should. Cleveland Heights is experiencing an influx of young professionals- who generally don't have children. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2013/01/clevelands_urban_scene_gets_a.html These young professionals buy houses and rent apartments at market rates, which is good for CH, but it also means a drop in the K-12 population (if only temporary). CHUH needs to adjust to deal with these changing numbers. Consolidation of schools would be suggested.
Which building do you prefer the Board start with? The High school?
Which is the only school besides the HS included in all six scenarios. Go figure.
Schools should be closed or left open based on some criteria. Either 1) They should stay open because they are near to the students who need them. 2) THey should stay open because they are better performing than the other schools or 3) They should stay open because the building is in better condition and/or easier to maintain. In the case of Roxboro vs Coventy -Roxboro wins 2 out of 3. Coventry might be more centrally located to the students, but Roxboro's building is in better shape, and easier to maintain. Coventry is that ugly 1970's design that was never good and, quite frankly, was a mistake to begin with. Roxboro's classic early 1900's structure was built right the first time -and it's in better shape. Also, Roxboro Elementary is the best Elementary school in the District. The test scores there are just as good, if not better than elementary schools in Beachwood, Solon, Mayfield or Orange (Excellent with Distinction rating by the State). CHUH would be a fool to fix what ain't broke. In addition, Coventry's property is more valuable as something else. Right now, it's an office building -an income property for CHUH. And Roxboro is probably kept because it's easier to juggle grades if need be with nearby Rox Middle School. I think if they are going to start with one school, it should be the construction of one large school on Gearity's massive 12 acres to replace Gearity/Wiley/Cantabury. Or the High school.
If the district starts with one rebuild, I'd like to see it be one of the of footprint schools (while closing or re-purposing the others). While michael's plan seems reasonable, the biggest concern I have with that is that it leaves money on the table long-term as we may never have another shot as a district to have the state pick up as much of the tab as they're offering right now. I don't have the solution, but I do know that at least one elementary school and probably one middle school needs to be closed and almost all of the schools need significant capital improvements.
Which might be the right decision, but a horsehit way of going about it. I thought they really wanted to give careful analysis and thought to what the next decade of construction would include, by getting input from a well educated and concerned community. I was fooled. Again.
Instead, they are referred to as a "work group" or some such. But the rules are different for the "Community Subcommittee". Mark Chupp is described as "volunteer advisor" to that group. See the difference? I don't.
These guys conveniently skipped that part.