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I teach first grade at Campus International School, right down the road from City Hall - on Payne Avenue. If the unified calendar is approved by the Board (hence, the Mayor), my school will lose: *5 teacher professional develop days before school begins
*5 student learning days after most CMSD schools are ready out for the summer break
*30 minutes EVERY DAY of instructional time - that’s 150 minutes per week; 600 minutes per month; 5,700 minutes each year of lost instructional time.
This time MATTERS. We are one of two International Baccalaureate schools within CMSD. Our students need this extra time for group projects, independent research, and for our inquiry-based learning model. Our students are thriving now. Please come and visit, you’ll see! Or, simply look at our data which tells our tale. Because of our IB model, our staff NEEDS the extra 5 days (before traditional schools start) to plan, collaborate and learn together.
This time also matters because we are the LARGEST school in the CMSD portfolio. We are, I believe, one of the very few schools who draw students from all over the city. The number of buses we have is a lot. It takes 20-25 minutes (or more depending on the weather) just to dismiss approximately 740 students. Losing 30 minutes each day is a severe detriment to our students. It is time we sorely need.
We also take students from outside of CMSD (about 15%, I believe) who CHOSE Campus international because we offer an extended day/year and because we are IB. These people drive some distances to CIS twice each day because they so value what we are.
In addition, we take about 15% of students who are affiliated with Cleveland State University (staff & students can enroll at CIS) because we have a unique partnership with CSU. It’s part of what makes our school unique and our extra instructional minutes and days are valued by CSU.
I’m asking the Mayor and Council to please consider excepting Campus International School from the unified calendar decision. There are other schools that are losing out as well. The only way to truly understand how each extended year/extended day school uses and needs this time is to study ach school individually. It’s the only way to guide this enormous decision and CMSD hasn’t done it.
Please consider asking CMSD to study each affected school individually and then present those specific findings to the Board. If this is not done, and CMSD moves to one, unified calendar, much will be lost and nothing will be gained aside from saving money which is best done at the administrative level, not at the student outcome level.
Thank you for for your time and consideration.
1. I have been friends with some of these kids for many years and now you are breaking us up before my 8th grade promotion?
2 It took me years for this certain teacher to break down my wall, who can I talk to now?
3. I love the Arts but these other school options don't fill the void. Where else can I dance, play in a band or perform on stage?
From the view of a teacher I can only say, it takes months and maybe years to build relationships with families and students. I feel this is more than closing a school. It's tearing down stability for many of our students, especially our special education population that makes up 40% of our enrollment. Please advocate for our students, families and teachers to stay together. There are buildings in the district that could fit us all. We are not closing because of performance, we are closing because our building is not safe.
Sincerely
Mark Steinbrunner
Intervention Specialist
Newton D Baker
A handful of businesses along W25th expressed opposition to bus lanes, with one of the reasons being the need for street parking for businesses. Although I can’t speak for everyone, as a resident of Westlake who patronizes many of these businesses, I usually don’t consider parking on the street as the traffic conditions there are too stressful. Moreover, there is plentiful surface parking on the same block. Businesses have also claimed that bus lanes reduce pedestrian safety. However, removing bus lanes from the proposal in favor of street parking is arguably more dangerous for pedestrian safety. 24/7 bus lanes permanently narrow the road, reducing vehicle speeds and improving safety. On the other hand, although parked cars can have a similar effect, cars are not regularly parked on W25th street all the time. Moreover, when I’m crossing the street, I find that parked cars can block myself from the view of other drivers, increasing the chances of a driver hitting me.
Cleveland desperately needs improvements to transit such as bus lanes and signal priority as our transit system, although not the worst, suffers from unreliable schedules and long travel times that make it difficult for me and other transit riders to get to work, buy groceries, or simply live our life. I have seen the RTA and local government attempt to address these problems with improvements such as transit priority measures including bus lanes. However, too often do I see these projects whittled down and compromised, and I can’t help but feel that the removal of bus lanes will create yet another example of a transit project that was compromised due to the complaints of a few individuals over the hundreds of transit riders who use this corridor.
Although I understand the concerns that a few businesses may have about bus lanes, many of the concerns can be addressed using other solutions that do not compromise this project and the mobility of our transit riders- whether it be emphasizing nearby surface parking or more street trees and other traffic calming devices that do not impede on bus lanes. It doesn’t make sense to remove bus lanes which carry some of the busiest bus routes in the city in favor of a handful of parking spaces when alternatives exist to both address parking space and pedestrian safety. I hope the city considers placing the equitable mobility of Clevelanders first by maintaining bus lanes in the proposed project instead of compromising the project with private vehicle parking.
My name is Nicole Phelps; I cultivate a space in the community garden on West 47th Street. This garden has been in our neighborhood for nearly 20 years and is a staple in our community. My husband and I were fortunate enough join the neighborhood in October of 2023 and are active participants in the community. Our first summer was an amazing experience; we built connections with our neighbors by working a plot and attending activities held in the garden as a third space. Green spaces like our garden are a vital place of reprieve in our dense Cleveland neighborhoods and are just as important as public parks, serving a specific need for space we can share and utilize.
Recently, our community learned that a private real estate developer is exploring development of our garden for housing, and we have serious concerns. By converting free, public spaces into private housing, we enrich some at the expense of many. Moreover, as federal funds for initiatives like our community garden disappear, we must carefully protect such public amenities.
I have two requests of the Council and City:
1) Please help our neighborhood retain our treasured community garden, and
2) Please protect other community green spaces throughout Cleveland.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration.