SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Shaker Heights voters are unlikely to see a ballot issue about the future of their school buildings this coming May. Board of Education members noted the probable delay of the district’s first long-term facilities master plan after an emotional public comment Tuesday evening.
For several years, discussion and debate have been brewing over how to improve the Shaker Heights School District’s aging buildings to meet changing education ideals.
“If our schools don’t support the type of education that our students need to have in the future, then we’re not preparing our students for the future,” said Board of Education President Dr. Emmitt Jolly Tuesday night.
The long-term facilities plan is part of Shaker Heights’ Forward Together initiative, which is a collaboration between the city, school district, and the public library to jointly plan and fund the future of the city’s public facilities.
After a research period, the Board of Education was presented with four facilities proposals during a spring 2022 meeting. Many of the ideas were met with criticism by the public.
“Those four options were not one, two, three and four. They were bad, worse, awful and you got to be kidding,” said Bob Kimmelfield during Tuesday’s meeting.
In July, the school administration recommended an option proposing to reopen the currently closed Ludlow Elementary School, repurpose Boulevard Elementary for pre-K, and turn the land containing the high school and Woodbury and Onaway Elementary schools into a middle and high school campus.
“It breaks my heart to think this school would be torn down and replaced by something that looks like it could be anywhere,” said parent Emily Hellesen Tuesday night.
Several weeks after the recommendation, Jolly sent a letter to district families outlining a new facilities blueprint. The updated recommendation included options to renovate its current elementary schools, renovate or rebuild the middle and high schools in their current sites, repurpose Woodbury Elementary for district offices and pursue universal pre-K for all 4-year-olds.
“We have to develop a plan that the community itself will support because they have to vote for it as well,” said Jolly.
Following emotional public comment and further questions raised Tuesday, the Board of Education called for detailed cost estimates of rolling out universal pre-K, as well as renovating or rebuilding its various buildings.
Originally, the board was aiming to informally decide on a master plan by September 5, so it could meet a deadline to approve a resolution by October 11 and file the resolution with the Board of Elections by February 1.
When asked by board members Tuesday night, Superintendent Dr. David Glasner said the deadlines are becoming less achievable. The board is asking Glasner to return with a more realistic timeline at the next meeting on September 13.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
