Cleveland Students Unhappy with Attempts

Last Thursday, district officials met with the community in a townhall meeting to discuss the future of Cleveland Highschool. This past summer, the school was temporarily closed due to health concerns, and the Junior Naval ROTC program housed at Cleveland was moved to Pruitt Middle School, which at the time housed a middle school ROTC program that has since been disbanded to make space for the highschool students.

The district’s Deana Anderson, Building Commissioner and Interim Assistant Superintendent for Operations, along with a staff of three from her office explained to those in attendance the processes for determining the long-term needs of the structure and then setting about to make repairs. After the district’s presentation, questions were fielded, not by the district staff, but by members of the Steering Committee for the Alliance to Save Cleveland High, a Missouri non-profit corporation whose goal it is to work with the district to pursue avenues for preserving the historic structure as a functioning school in the community. The Steering Committee members answering questions included Alderwoman Dorothy Kirner, Alderman Craig Schmid, local businessman John Chen, Dutchtown South Community Corporation Executive Director Debbie Irwin, neighborhood resident Dr. Elaine Mahood, Landmark’s Association member Matt Ghio, and community advocate Travis Reems.

After the district’s staff had yielded the floor to the Alliance’s members, hostility was expressed by the attendees toward rumored potential uses of the structure as a holding facility for students while their home schools are outfitted with airconditioning. The comments by cadets of the Cleveland at Pruitt NJROTC program, and their parents, were focused on the inequity of facilities they had been given at Pruitt, while students from other highschools in the district might be using their school.

Even with the somewhat hostile environment, the Alliance was able to raise from those in attendance nearly $300 to cover operating costs of the group. $2 of which came from cadets, the rest was from parents, current and former teachers, and other concerned neighborhood residents.

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Disclosure: Travis Reems is a member of the Alliance to Save Cleveland High and its Steering Committee.