The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is proposing to sell the Collinwood High School property and build a new East Side high school — along with a new YMCA recreation center — at the site currently home to Glenville High School.
District and city officials shared the idea as part of a Saturday morning update to board members on CMSD’s plans to merge or move 39 schools and close 18 buildings. The presentation offered the first public look at how CMSD and Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration plan to swap, redevelop or sell former school properties.
The school district has previously said it would build a new high school to replace a merged Glenville and Collinwood, but hadn’t identified a site for the new building.
The plans for Glenville and Collinwood were the biggest reveal on Saturday — and one that could be controversial on the northeast side of Cleveland. In 2019, the district backed down from plans to close Collinwood after neighborhood pressure.
Seven years later, the Collinwood building is again on the chopping block as district leadership shrinks CMSD’s footprint and lays off staff to stave off a budget hole. The Glenville neighborhood, meanwhile, would receive a new high school plus additional services.
The CMSD board could vote as soon as this month on demolition plans and in May on land swaps, Karen Thompson, CMSD’s operations chief, told board members.
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Building a new campus in Glenville
A new high school on the Glenville site could accommodate 1,200 students, according to the presentation. The YMCA center, to be built partially on land currently owned by the city just to the north, would offer health services and early childhood education.
The effect would be a “campus-like atmosphere” between the two buildings, Thompson said. There would be an auditorium and trades and health services programming, she said.
If the YMCA were to be unable to pull off its side of the project, the city would step in to construct a new recreation center, she said. The current Glenville building is connected to a city recreation center by the same name.
Thompson likened the plans to the construction of the new John F. Kennedy High School campus on Miles Avenue. Next to the school is a new recreation center, Frederick Douglass.
After prompting from schools CEO Warren Morgan, Thompson said the decision to build on the Glenville site — rather than Collinwood — wasn’t a “snap” judgment. The ample green space in the area, near the corner of St. Clair Avenue and Lakeview Road, was an influential factor.
“With any of our properties, green space is a premium,” she said. “And that has been a challenge in many of the many of the properties. And we knew we wanted to stay within that northeast region. And this just kept hitting all those boxes.”
Students would attend the current Glenville high school in the coming school year, Morgan said. When construction on the new building begins in 2027, students would move to a “swing” location elsewhere, he said. Officials did not say where that location might be.
Cleveland City Council Member Kevin Conwell, who represents much of the Glenville neighborhood, said in an interview that he was “excited” about the project. But the new school needs to find ways to retain Collinwood’s traditions, too, he said.
“Collinwood has a great, great history,” he said. “And you got to infuse their history into Glenville.”
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Rivalry meets reality — Glenville and Collinwood students react to CMSD’s plan to merge their Cleveland high schools
Since CMSD proposed the plan, the historic rivalry between the two schools has dominated the conversation. Current students have safety concerns about next year but they also think that the two schools could get along.
Auction proposed for Collinwood High School
The district is considering selling the Collinwood property at auction. Before CMSD could do so, state law requires the district to offer real estate for sale to charter school operators in the district.
After that, the shuttered school could go to a public auction. The district has the option of hiring an auctioneer who could charge a commission typically around 10%.
One CMSD board member, Charlene Jones, asked how long the district expected closed buildings to sit vacant, on average.
“If there’s an excessive length of time, that becomes a real problem for the community,” she said.
Thompson replied that the district has been meeting with city officials to discuss the buildings’ future since the board voted on the closure and merger plan in December. City Hall is contributing its real estate development know-how to the planning, she said.
“Our goal is to have a plan facing forward, but there are no guarantees,” Thompson said.
Michael Polensek, the long-serving Collinwood member of City Council, has sharply criticized plans to close the school building. Asked on Monday about the plans announced over the weekend, he said it was, “News to me.”
Standing at the intersection of Ivanoe Road, St. Clair Avenue and East 152nd Street, the century-old Collinwood High School sits in what Polensek called the neighborhood’s “civic center.” To lose the school is to lose the civic center’s hub, he said.
“If you look at the map of greater Collinwood, it’s dead center,” he said. “That’s why the school was built there. That’s why we built a fire station across from it. We built a police station across from it.”
Polensek has another card to play in the redevelopment process besides the bully pulpit. Collinwood High School is a Cleveland landmark. That means any demolition of or alteration to the building would first need approval from the city’s Landmarks Commission.
He said he has told Bibb that it would “be a cold day in hell before I remove the landmark status of the building.”
