Councilman Polensek Criticizes CMSD’s East Side School Consolidation Plan, Fears it will Hasten Population Loss

Dec 09, 2025

Councilman Mike Polensek yesterday sent a letter to the Cleveland Metropolitan School Board President and board members expressing strong concerns about the district’s planned school consolidation.

The board meeting and vote on the consolidation is scheduled for tonight.

His central argument is that population on Cleveland’s east side cannot stabilize—let alone grow—if quality schools continue to be disinvested in and removed from these neighborhoods.

“As a result of the Plan, there will be no elementary school in the entire Euclid Avenue and St. Clair corridors for the first time in over 100 years,” he wrote. “Thus, the Euclid-Green and Collinwood/Nottingham Village neighborhoods will be destabilized, just as CMSD did to the North Glenville community over the last two decades.

“The Glenville Neighborhood has lost 22% of its population in the last ten years alone, primarily due to school closings.”

Councilman Polensek stressed that the east side has faced a long-running pattern of disinvestment in its schools, and that the current consolidation plan continues this trend.

“The Cleveland Metropolitan School District stripped Collinwood High School of vital programming over the years, including what was the best JROTC program in the city, removed all technical and vocational programs, and deferred needed repairs to the historic building,” he wrote. “This is a continuation of the bad decisions CMSD has made on Cleveland’s east side.”

He further criticized the district for neglecting buildings after they close. “Will they sit and rot like Wilson School on East 55th Street has for the last twenty-five or so years?” he asked. Read the full letter. 

Councilman Polensek will be attending tonight's School Board meeting at Max Hayes High School (2211 W 65th St.) beginning at 6:00 PM. Anyone from the media who wishes to speak to him can do so at that time.

Councilman Polensek may be reached through his office at (216) 664-4236 or via his City cell phone at (216) 857-7363.