CLEVELAND — At an end-of-summer carnival Saturday on the city’s East Side, the biggest hurdles kids faced were launching a frog, popping a balloon or hitting a wooden milk jug just right.
But pastor Chris Brown, one of the organizers of the event, knows there are tougher challenges ahead. Thousands of students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District are heading to different buildings this month after a wave of real estate consolidations and cost-cutting. For some families, the annual back-to-school ritual is feeling a bit less routine.
“That’s hard,” said Brown, a leader of the Salvation Army Cleveland Temple Corps in the Collinwood neighborhood, where the district recently emptied out three buildings.
The church and community center is one of the groups trying to make the transition easier. During Saturday afternoon’s event, kids played games, tumbled in a bounce house and competed for prizes. They also received free backpacks stuffed with school supplies.
"To be the new kid — and then not be able to bring a new backpack, either? I know when I was a kid, kids got made fun of for stuff like that,” Brown said. “So we wanted to kind of be there to just … fill in some of those gaps.”
The district is starting the year with 23 fewer school sites after dramatic downsizing spurred by a looming budget deficit and falling enrollment.
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The school board signed off on closing 18 buildings, including the historic Collinwood High School, and exiting five leased spaces as part of a transformation plan called “Building Brighter Futures.”
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The district also slashed hundreds of jobs, though it has recalled dozens of laid-off teachers over the last few months.
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Officials pushed back the start of the academic year to give everyone more time to prepare. Most students are scheduled to start classes on August 24.
The district held its own back-to-school festival downtown in early August, providing free supplies, books, health screenings and other resources.
“It’s so important to make sure that we have everything ready for our families and our teachers to be successful this year. This is a big year for Cleveland schools,” Michele Pomerantz, the city’s chief of education, told News 5 during that event.
“We’ve got merged schools,” she said. “We’ve got kids and teachers moved around a little bit. … And we want to make sure our students are ready.”
During Saturday’s gathering in Collinwood, faith leaders said they’re prepared to help — whether that’s coaching kids through carnival games or giving them the tools for a fresh start.
“You hear the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a kid?’” Brown said. “We believe that here. … I had a lot of people when I was growing up. I had my grandfather. I had my father. I had uncles. I had that. Some of these kids don’t have that. So I tell the staff, look, you may become somebody’s family.”
Michelle Jarboe is the business growth and development reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.
