Cleveland School Board Approves Construction Tax Extension

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland school board last week approved a $200 million extension of the $335 million bond issue passed in 2001. It would go towards the city’s $1 billion, 13-year construction plan that would replace 20 existing schools with new buildings as well as renovate 23 others. As such, the November ballot will likely include a property tax that would pay for the additional cost of the plan, which voters will approve or not.
The board will likely vote by August to ask voters to simply extend the already-passed bond issue, which has supplied money for construction thus far. They will also ask for an additional half-mill continuing tax to keep up with maintenance in district buildings, reported The Plain Dealer. District officials say that the combination would not increase taxes beyond what they pay now; however, the extension would continue the tax longer than planned when the original bond issue was passed.
If the voters approve the tax, the district would build a new school campus for John F. Kennedy High School, renovate or rebuild Lincoln-West High School and either build a new west side high school or build smaller high school options in the same west side of the city. While the amount is still undetermined, the state would also contribute to construction beyond the $200 million collected from taxes.
Apart from the three high schools targeted for major work, the plan also includes the closing of four elementary schools. The students from those schools would merge into other schools: McKinley, Watterson Lake, Buckeye-Woodland and Paul Revere. Seventeen elementary schools are scheduled to be rebuilt or receive significant renovations, while another 23 schools would also receive smaller renovations that would cost between about $2.5 million and $4 million.
The district has about 39,000 students now, and the state predicts enrollment might fall to 32,000 in the next few years, reported The Plain Dealer. However, only 40 to 60 percent of school age children attend district schools; the rest attend private or charter schools. As such, District Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon plans to keep 43,000 to 45,000 school seats in the city in case those children enroll in the district, especially after renovations are completed.