Transformation News and Information from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District

I have listened as students poured their hearts out, remembering teachers, lessons and milestones in the schools they have come to love. I have heard parents talk about traveling across the city so their child could study in one outstanding program or under a particular principal's leadership. I have listened as former students and teachers shared stories of the lives that were changed in some of the District's oldest and most time-honored buildings.

In one meeting after another, I have witnessed the apprehension, the anger and the sorrow that comes whenever people are asked to move or to change. But I have also heard expressions of optimism, impatience, and the gratitude of those who are hopeful that, at last, we are not settling for failure or mediocrity anywhere in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

The common denominator in the mixed emotions shared by students, families and citizens throughout the dialogue process has been the love they have for their schools and the value they hold for quality education in every one of our neighborhoods.

Change in any organizational climate requires a leap of faith. When it comes to discussions of the future, it is understandable that people are reluctant to move in the direction of the unknown or on the promise that things will get better. This happens most often, however, when those proposing change have no proof of the eventual outcome.

Here, in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, we have already glimpsed the outcome we desire. We have witnessed an acceleration of student interest and academic achievement in our focused, speciality schools. We know from our most recent academic gains that the educational innovations we have already advanced are working, and schools across the nation are reporting similar gains after embracing bold school reforms.

When state report cards were released this year, we celebrated academic improvement in several of our schools. Such data makes it clear that our students can and will succeed if we put the right people and the right programs in the right place. With 21st Century innovations and successful charter school programs--the kinds we are proposing to have operating in schools throughout the District this year--continue to provide hope that we can increase student achievement, raise test scores and lift the lives of children who would otherwise be destined for failure.

Taking a leap of faith in any climate of change is risky, but it is clear that a majority of students, parents, citizens, partners and city leaders genuinely believe--and more importantly they genuinely feel--that the risks of standing still are greater than the risks of moving forward in a bold new direction for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

CMSD's 30 scheduled Community Transformation Meetings focus on safety, transportation issues

As we near the final days of public dialogue on components of the Transformation Plan, three consistent themes have emerged as primary concerns within neighborhoods, schools, and families:

1. Student safety when transitioning to a new school facility.

2. Transportation to and from school buildings.

3. Enrollment/relocation of students whose buildings will close for the 2010-11 school year.

Ensuring the safety of CMSD students

As we move closer to implementation of the reforms needed to raise achievement levels for all students, we are doing everything we can to alleviate parent concerns about safety. The CMSD Division of Safety & Security has completed a comprehensive safety and security plan titled Expanding the Bubble that responds directly to concerns that have arisen about closing schools and transitioning students to new school sites.

Mindful that concerns about student safety raised in community meetings are neither new nor caused by the school reform effort itself, CMSD's Division of Safety and Security is working to assure parents that the District will address safety concerns as we always have, and we will use every resource to protect students going to and from school, to protect vacant buildings and the neighborhoods around them, to ward off conflict that may result from merging unique student populations, and to curtail school and gang violence.

After I announced the proposed Transformation Plan for CMSD, our Safety and Security personnel moved quickly to hold a series of meetings with the Cleveland Police Department, the City of Cleveland's Department of Community Relations, and law enforcement agencies, to address security issues in our schools and neighborhoods where changes are imminent.

Meetings of CMSD's "Safe School Plan Group" will be held regularly beginning in April to further strengthen the already prepared city-wide safety plan, comprised of all of Cleveland's law enforcement partners, with a collective goal to keep students safe in and around all CMSD schools.

We have also opened discussions with the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) and the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to obtain their assistance with transportation and property concerns in the important days ahead.

CMSD will do 'Whatever it Takes' to keep students safe by:

-Conducting neighborhood patrols at transition schools and identifying hot spots.
- Enhancing the Gang Unit so it is ready to deploy to hot spots.
- Launching truancy initiatives independently and in conjunction with Cleveland Police.
- Engaging a Humanware strategy and providing early interventions.
- Conducting a total re-assessment of all school security issues prior to the start of the 2010-
        2011 school year with specific recommendations to be effective in August 2010.
- Creating and maximizing the use of a "walking bus" program.
- Making the issue of student safety as high a priority as student success.
- Remaining intolerant to unacceptable behavior and ensuring that sanctions will follow.
- Assisting parents in assuming responsibility for their children's behavior.
- Continuing with an aggressive hardware strategy, including:
         - Metal detectors in all buildings
         - X-ray machines in all high schools
         - Increased officer deployment
         - Improved access control, including student IDs and swipe-card access to buildings.

Through the City of Cleveland's Department of Community Relations and CMSD's Office of Family and Community Engagement, we are committed to involving parents in making student safety a personal and family responsibility.

CMSD will assist parents in supporting safety in our schools by:

- Working with local government, community and faith-based partners to mobilize and recruit
        parent volunteers for all of our schools.
- Working with law enforcement and CMSD officials to provide parent training.
- Posting parents around schools at target times to assist and to provide a visible presence of
        our combined efforts to keep kids safe (Safe passage).
- Posting parents to complement, rather than replace, existing resources (crossing guards, etc.)
        at both arrival and dismissal.
- Partnering with alumni groups to assist with the de-escalation of incidents and to provide
        mentoring.

Transportation Plan revised in response to concerns about safe travel to school

Citizen concerns about transportation, expressed in community meetings this month, have shown that parents have as much apprehension about transportation as they do about concerns for student safety. The input we have gathered is playing a key role in the re-evaluation of the CMSD transportation policy. As we work to implement changes that will align with current school reforms, one aspect of our transportation policy will remain constant--to provide transportation for as many students as possible.

Community engagement in the last five weeks has been instrumental in identifying a number of potential problems and in recommending just as many solutions.   It is with these citizen concerns in mind that we will continue to update our transportation policy in concert with student assignments so that we can provide families with the peace of mind that comes with knowing how their child will get to and from his school facility safely every day.

If the CMSD Board of Education moves forward with approval and implementation of the Transformation Plan in early March, families would likely know by as early as April the school options available for their children under the revised academic transformation plan.

Based on projected capacity at available schools, CMSD has identified school options where most students from closed buildings will be assigned for the 2010 school year and has been posted the information on the District website, along with the student assignments process and timeline that allows families time to choose options that best serve the individual needs of their child.