Rival gangs, loss of neighborhood vitality and charter schools were all concerns brought up by residents Tuesday night at a town hall meeting at Collinwood High School hosted by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb where he took questions about a proposal to merge Collinwood and Glenville High School.
If the board of education approves a distict-wide consolidation plan next month, Collinwood will close, and students and staff will move about two miles away to Glenville High School for the 2026-2027 school year. Cleveland Metropolitan School District has said it will build a new high school to house those students somewhere on the Northeast Side by 2031.
The overall consolidation plan calls for the district to close 18 buildings, end five leases and have 29 fewer schools operating starting in the 2026-2027 school year. Bibb and CMSD CEO Warren Morgan have said the changes are needed because enrollment has dropped by half since the early 2000s, down to about 34,000 students as of 2024. The district is also facing budget challenges as costs rise and state and federal funding declines. The district has said that consolidation could save almost $30 million a year.
Collinwood High School has been a cornerstone of the neighborhood for almost 100 years. Cleveland City Councilmembers Mike Polensek and Kevin Conwell each had contentious back-and-forth exchanges with Bibb. Polensek tore into the school district for what he alleged was intentional neglect of Collinwood High School and other schools on the East Side, which was once a center of career technical education.
"You're going drive people into the charter schools and out of the neighborhood, just as you've already done on the east side," Polensek said. "You're gonna destabilize our neighborhoods."
Conwell alleged council members were left out of the planning that led to the consolidation proposal.
Bibb responded that council members were invited to and did attend planning meetings earlier in the year. He also said the average daily number of students at Collinwood is 96 students due to absences and other fluctuations in a building that once held several thousand students at its peak decades ago. Collinwood had about 235 students enrolled in the 2024-2025 school year, according to district records.
Bibb said the neighborhood's challenges are a symptom of the city's broader struggle, losing tens of thousands of residents and jobs over the years. He added he there is a plan for closed school buildings.
"The charter (school) issue, this is why we're gonna have a game plan ... for the 18 school sites that are closing, to repurpose them to advance neighborhood and community development. Because I don't want reckless charters that we can't hold accountable to take over these school sites," Bibb said. "I want to use those school sites for broader development in our neighborhoods. That is the plan."
Robin Robinson, executive director of Sankofa Fine Arts Plus, an arts nonprofit located close to Glenville High School, asked officials what their plan is to create a safe environment at Glenville High School and in the future shared building due to longstanding rivalries.
"They're rivals academically, they're rivals athletically. And they have rival gangs," she said.
Bibb said the city, district, Greater Cleveland RTA and police agencies meet regularly to discuss safety in schools and on the way to schools, a collaborative that started after a student at John Adams High School was shot and killed at a bus stop outside the school. Morgan said the district will also work with community partners to ease the transition.
Sarah Hodge, a teacher at Collinwood High School, said Collinwood is bearing the brunt of decades of mismanagement of the school system. She said the district has closed more than two dozen schools since the early 2000s, and questioned the need for further consolidation despite voters passing a levy last year. She said a mayoral-appointed school board has little accountability to the public.
"If you refuse to provide oversight with mayoral control, are you gonna go with us on the plan to make sure that the voters are re-enfranchised to vote for their school board?" Hodge said.
Bibb said voters can seek a new system if they wish. He said he had full confidence in the board and Morgan.
