Cleveland Plan News
Highlighting our progress and partners
October 2022
Former CMSD school now gateway to manufacturing
A former CMSD school has been reborn as a hub that will foster growth in the region’s manufacturing sector and introduce District students to skilled, well-paying careers.
MAGNET’S $18.5 million Manufacturing Innovation, Technology and Job Center will give small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies and start-ups access to expertise and new technology, raise career awareness and connect people to jobs and training. It also includes a wing where CMSD students will learn about or prepare for futures in the industry.
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown attended a ribbon-cutting on Oct. 27. Yellen said MAGNET is “helping to incubate the next generation of innovators.”
The nonprofit MAGNET, which stands for the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, purchased and renovated the District’s former Margaret A. Ireland School at East 63rd Street and Chester Avenue.
CMSD sold the building for $790,000 and leased back space for the price of security and a prorated share of utilities.
Plans call for 3,000 CMSD K-12 students to visit each year. It will be part of a field trip for all sixth graders, giving them exposure to manufacturing. High school students will spend time there preparing for internships and careers.
“We’re really excited about this partnership,” District CEO Eric Gordon said. “This is not just a vision, it’s a vision in action.”
CSU, CMSD win partnership award
Cleveland State University and CMSD have again received a national award that recognizes an outstanding partnership between a university and an urban school district.
The District and Cleveland State won the Dr. Shirley S. Schwartz Urban Education Impact Award for the Cleveland Teaching Fellowship program. The program gives qualified candidates student teaching experience with CMSD, and many have remained with the schools after graduation.
"The Cleveland Teaching Fellowship benefits all involved," CMSD Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon said. "The student teachers bring a fresh perspective and knowledge of new techniques, while we get a chance to show off the amazing work we do every day and dispel myths about working in an urban district."
The program, which receives support from the Cleveland Foundation, has drawn 233 student teachers since it began in 2015, and 70 now work in the District.
CEO calls NAEP a benchmark for recovery
After making notable progress, CMSD saw its scores decline on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress. But CEO Eric Gordon says the District is looking ahead, not behind.
“The scores confirm what we anticipated: The global pandemic had a severe impact on a city with one of the nation’s highest rates of poverty,” CEO Gordon said. “The results will serve as a benchmark or starting point as we continue recovery that is already under way.”
CMSD students took tests for what is popularly called the Nation’s Report Card early this year as the devastating Omicron strain of COVID-19 raged, and Cleveland was the hardest hit area in the nation. The results of the fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math tests were then compared with exams taken in 2019, before the pandemic.
Prior to the pandemic, the District’s NAEP and state tests showed growth that outpaced that of districts throughout Ohio and across the country.
Replica of Jesse Owens oak planted at Rhodes
A sapling propagated from an oak tree given to Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics was planted Oct. 12 behind the Rhodes High School Campus building in the same area where the original, now at the end of its life span, took root.
Owens, a track and field star who graduated from East Tech but trained at Rhodes, received an English Oak for each of the four medals he won at those Olympics. His victories delivered a stunning blow to Adolf Hitler’s doctrine of Aryan supremacy.
The oak behind Rhodes was the last known survivor of the four presented to Owens. The others were planted at East Tech, a home Owens purchased for his parents and The Ohio State University, where he attended college.
The remains of the original Rhodes oak stand a few feet away from the sapling, but the tree, which had been nurtured for years by CMSD and horticultural experts, is now barren.
Holden Forests & Gardens and Klyn Nurseries grew saplings propagated from the oak at Rhodes. Another sapling was planted in University Circle last year near the Rockefeller Park lagoon.
About a dozen more replicas await homes, with East Tech and historic League Park suggested as destinations.
Fall Festival makes successful debut
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
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Website: ClevelandMetroSchools.org
Location: 1111 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, OH, USA
Phone: 216-838-0000