The Cleveland Metropolitan School Board got its first look this weekend at potential plans for the 18 district-owned school buildings that will close next month.
The board, held a special meeting Saturday,, has a year from when the schools close to decide what to do with the properties but could make some decisions as soon as next month.
The district’s options include:
- Keeping the properties and finding new uses for them
- Doing “land swaps” with the city for properties the district can build on or use to expand existing school sites
- Selling the buildings and leasing back part of the property for district use
- Auctioning off the properties
Under Ohio law, buildings offered at auction first have to be offered to charter schools in the district.
Residents hope to see housing
Since December, when the board approved the school closings as part of its Building Brighter Futures plan, district and city officials have been meeting to discuss possibilities for the properties, said Karen Thompson, the district’s operations chief.
The city took the lead in setting up community meetings in February to gather input from neighborhoods around the buildings.
Matt Moss, who oversees the city’s strategy for land use and redevelopment, told the board that the meetings and surveys included about 230 residents.
A primary concern among residents, he said, was that buildings would sit empty. In most cases, residents wanted to see buildings turned into housing.
That included affordable housing for low-income residents, senior housing, starter housing for young adults and single-family homes. Other residents said they wanted to see the buildings used for trade schools, vocational programs or youth development programs. In the Tremont neighborhood, where the historic school building is at the heart of the community, residents noted the need for a grocery store or mixed-use retail.
Since the school closures were announced, Moss said organizations and nonprofits have reached out with ideas for using the buildings, including for healthcare access and tenant and housing support. Any next steps for those types of reuses, after the board makes its decisions, would go through a formal process that includes soliciting and vetting proposals. Priorities gathered from meetings and surveys would be part of that process.
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School district and Cleveland officials offered an update on CMSD’s plans to merge or move 39 schools and close 18 buildings.
Challenges with reusing old school buildings
Board Member Jerry Billups, a CMSD graduate and parent, asked how to ensure development doesn’t “price people out of the neighborhood,” including longtime residents.
Moss said that is the city’s goal, and that Cleveland has had some success with affordable housing and market-rate projects. But financing those projects is challenging, especially since state rules changed and developers can no longer use historic tax credits alongside other tax credits for low-income housing.
“That has, I would say, hampered the redevelopment environment in Cleveland with opportunities like some of the historic buildings we have as school sites,” he said. “That balancing act is very complicated, and it is why we try to be very intentional about what we communicate publicly and when, because we want to make commitments that we can follow through on with residents and stakeholders.”
David Riley, an attorney who works with the district on these issues, gave the example of the former Empire Junior High School building in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. A developer has been working for more than five years, he said, to assemble financing to turn the building into senior housing.
Moss said the city is in conversations with community stakeholders, including the Port Authority, the Cleveland and Gund foundations, and LISC, a national nonprofit that aims to raise $100 million for affordable housing in Cleveland.
Several board members asked about concerns residents have about buildings being vacant. Thompson and other officials shared plans to secure the buildings to prevent break-ins and monitor them with cameras and patrols by Cleveland police.
Board Member Nigamanth Sridhar, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Cleveland State University, asked for a general timeline from when the buildings close to potential reuse. “One of the things you see in the feedback is that vacant buildings can attract unwanted behavior in a neighborhood,” he said.
Moss said there’s no way to predict how long any of the reuse projects will take. His recommendation is to be transparent with residents about what is known and when — and even then, timelines are uncertain and can change.
CMSD and city officials shared some specific reuse options:
Collinwood High School could be sold
The district is recommending that Collinwood High School, built in 1906, be sold. In December, the board voted to merge Collinwood with Glenville High School and said it would build a new high school for students. At the time, it had not identified a site. Now, officials say they will use the current Glenville site and build a campus that includes a recreation center, healthcare facility and early childhood education center in partnership with the YMCA.
Officials also recommended selling Charles Mooney in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood, which was built in the 1960s.
City eyes properties for safety facilities
The city also has interest in some properties — Valley View Boys’ Leadership Academy in West Park and Brooklawn in the West Boulevard area — for new West Side fire stations. Moss said those locations would improve response times to emergency calls.
The city is also eyeing Miles School for a potential new safety training facility, though Moss said more conversations would be needed with safety forces and the public.
Potential city, district land swaps
The city and district are considering land swaps for the following schools: Alfred A. Benesch, Bolton, Brooklawn, Dike, Kenneth Clement Boys Leadership Academy, Mary Church Terrell, Michael R. White, Newton D. Baker, Tremont Montessori, Valley View Boys’ Leadership Academy and Walton School.
The city would then transfer up to 33 parcels of land to the district near existing schools that could be used to expand green space, parking or learning spaces such as gardens.
What’s a sale-leaseback option?
The district has identified six buildings for potential sale-leaseback agreements with partners: Adlai Stevenson, Charles Dickens, Euclid Park, Hannah Gibbons, Louisa M. Alcott and Miles schools. Reuse of the buildings must support community or educational needs. Thompson said this is a good option for the district so that buildings can still serve the community and be used by the district.
Similar projects have included the reuse of Margaret Ireland School in Hough as a home for MAGNET, a nonprofit that supports manufacturing growth in Northeast Ohio, including workforce training. That site also includes a public playground, and CMSD students use the building. In fact, the board used it for Saturday’s meeting.
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