Cleveland schools "eliminate" 10 failing schools, but fewer than its plan called for
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Aggressively closing or replacing failing schools was a major goal of the Cleveland Plan, but one that has been scaled far back from what the Plan first called for.
The original version of the district-wide improvement plan in 2012 said that the district would "target the lowest 10–15 percent of these (failing) schools for immediate and dramatic action" each year including closure, starting new schools in their place or turning operations over to a charter school.
That aggression was scaled back as the plan developed, and the eventual legislation for the Plan left out any closure requirements.
The major effort with "failing" schools named 23 of them - nearly ¼ of the district – as "Investment Schools" and put them on an improvement plan, instead of targeting them for closure. We'll have a roundup of how that has gone later today.
But the district has taken stronger action with some schools.
To date, four years into the six-year Plan, the district says it has "eliminated 10 failing schools by closing or replacing them with new models" since 2012.
Of these schools, three were closed, three other high schools are well on the way to becoming campuses of small schools and four more career technical high schools are in early stages of an overhaul.
Wit the school district seeking a renewal on Nov. 8 of the 2012 tax increase that helps pay for its improvement plan, The Plain Dealer has been looking at how different parts have been carried out. Here's a look at what's happened with these "eliminated" schools:
Closed schools: The district has shut down the old Success Tech high school downtown after it struggled for several years. It is perhaps best known for when a student shot four people there in 2007 before killing himself. Its location on Lakeside Avenue is now home to the new High School for the Digital Arts.
The district also says it has closed the Paul Revere and Buckeye-Woodland elementary schools, though it never announced those as academic closings until the levy supporting the Cleveland Plan was up for renewal.
Those schools were announced as closing because of a facilities reorganization and the district's own website reported them as closing to meet a "promise to eliminate surplus space," with no mention of failure.
Michelle Pierre-Farid, the district's chief academic officer, said poor academic performance and poor conditions in the school buildings contributed to closing Cleveland schools "eliminate" 10 failing schools, but fewer than its plan called for | cleveland.com:
