In meetings across the city, Cleveland leaders and residents are weighing ideas for how to reuse 18 soon-to-be vacant school buildings. The buildings, which will close at the end of this school year, will join a trove of over 20 vacant properties.

School buildings are owned by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), and its board will vote on their eventual fate. City planners will share the feedback from the ongoing listening sessions with school board members. 

They will also incorporate community ideas into a request for proposals the city said it plans to issue this spring. Those requests would be released after the school board votes on what buildings it wants to keep for district reuse, put up for public auction or land-swap with the city. But the process is expected to get going as early as the end of March, city planners have said. 

At the recent meetings, city officials have shared a range of options for inspiration. CMSD schools have been transformed into everything from senior housing to a manufacturing training center to neighborhood park space to market-rate apartments. 

The most common reuse for Cleveland school buildings has been reopening them as charter schools. Since 2010 at least seven former public schools have reopened as charters. That’s partly because, in order to sell a closed school, CMSD has to follow specific guidelines laid out in state law including giving high-performing charter operators first dibs. 

This time around, Mayor Justin Bibb has said he plans to make sure the buildings don’t go to “reckless charters.” The school board does have the option to vote for a land swap with the city or designate a building for public use before offering it to charters or selling it via public auction, according to city planners. 

Four closed schools, four different reuses  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Senior apartments

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Elementary School, in the Collinwood area, was closed in 2010, during a round of restructuring led by CMSD that included over a dozen school closures. The building sat vacant for years, facing the threat of demolition. 

In 2016, the school was given historic landmark status after Council Member Michael Polensek led a campaign to save the building. That allowed the developer of the property to secure historic tax credits in addition to federal grants and loans from the city. Today, the building has been transformed into 30 affordable apartments for seniors. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Market-rate housing 

Nathaniel Hawthorne Elementary School, in the Jefferson neighborhood, which was closed in 2013, is also now housing. Apartments in the former school rent for up to $2,000 a month. 

The building was offered to developers in a 2021 request for proposals process that listed 19 CMSD properties. That round included 12 shuttered school buildings and seven empty lots. The redevelopment of The Hawthorne was funded from a variety of sources, including federal COVID-relief funding. 

John W. Raper Elementary: A neighborhood park

In some cases, Cleveland didn’t keep the physical school buildings, opting instead to demolish them.

That’s what happened to John W. Raper Elementary, which closed in 2010. On the vacant lot where that school once stood, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy recently started construction on a park for the Hough neighborhood. 

Margaret Ireland Elementary School: A manufacturing training center

There’s also the option to redevelop buildings to serve the community through job training, health care or other nonprofits. And in some of those cases, like Margaret Ireland Elementary School, which closed in 2011, CMSD leases some space in the buildings to host its programming. 

Margaret Ireland was sold to MAGNET to host its headquarters in Cleveland as well as a manufacturing training center. That building is also where a number of CMSD schools host practice for their robotics teams. 

City leaders have cautioned that while these buildings are examples of what’s possible, they’re not exact templates that can be followed because “funding landscapes are always changing.” 

Suggested Reading

Vacant or reborn? What happens to Cleveland schools after they close

CMSD has plans to close an unknown number of schools. In the past, shuttered buildings have been repurposed as charter schools or apartments. Others are empty.

by Michael Indriolo May 5, 2025November 13, 2025