A consolidation plan means Cleveland is closing 18 schools, and it's not yet clear what will happen to the buildings the district will be vacating.
With that in mind, the City of Cleveland recently announced a series of meetings and an online survey to gather input on what residents think should happen to the closed buildings.
Cleveland Metropolitan School District's consolidation plan, called Building Brighter Futures, was approved by the board last month. By the time students return to class in fall 2026, the district will have almost 30 fewer schools. Staff and programs will be spread across the schools that remain. Consolidation is needed to cut costs, adjust to years of declining enrollment and to ensure higher quality programs at each school, officials have argued.
"CMSD has been working with the City of Cleveland and other community partners for months to look at building reuse opportunities arising from the Building Brighter Futures process," CMSD spokesperson Janice Edwards said in an email Friday. "Now that BBF has been approved by the Board of Education, the building reuse process becomes more concrete, but there are also a variety of factors to consider, especially State law requirements, before the Board of Education makes decisions about specific facilities.
"The City of Cleveland is holding this round of listening sessions with residents to share information, solicit ideas and gather input about how the buildings can best serve neighborhoods in the future," she added.
Edwards did not say when the board could make a decision on repurposing the schools.
School districts must offer up school buildings to charter schools one year after they have not been used for academic purposes, according to state law. However, school choice advocates like the Thomas B. Fordham Institute have argued schools , despite recent attempts to add clarity to the law.
"They (schools) want to retain the power to warehouse taxpayer-funded buildings, even while high-quality public charter schools struggle to secure school buildings," wrote Fordham's Chad Aldis. "That鈥檚 not local control. That鈥檚 obstruction."
The City of Cleveland will host listening sessions on repurposing CMSD's schools .
