School board's first action in facilities project will close Wiley after this year

A rendering of what Cleveland Heights High School might look like after renovations, including removal of the science wing, which currently blocks the original 1920s facade from view. Photo courtesy CH-UH City School District.

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education (BOE) isn’t wasting any time following passage of Issue 81, the bond issue that updates and overhauls facilities throughout the school district.

On Nov. 19—exactly two weeks after the issue passed with 59 percent of the vote—the school board took its first step in implementing the facilities overhaul. It voted to close Wiley Middle School at the end of this school year, so the Wiley building and adjacent property can be prepared for use by Cleveland Heights High School staff and students while renovations are taking place at Heights High. Modular classrooms will be added to the temporary campus. 

"We are starting on a path that will revitalize and modernize our schools, and transform our community,” said Ron Register, board president, in a release provided by Angee Shaker, the district’s communications director. "With this great opportunity also come changes, some of which can be difficult. The closure of Wiley, while clearly the right choice for this district, will still be challenging for some. We will stand alongside those students, staff members, parents and residents, celebrating the history of Wiley Middle School and helping prepare those families impacted by this transition."

Current Wiley Middle School students will attend either Monticello or Roxboro middle schools beginning in August 2014. By Jan. 31, 2014, the board of education will announce the new attendance zones that will determine which of the two middle schools students will attend, according to Shaker.

The BOE has announced that, in drawing the new attendance zones, every effort will be made to respect neighborhood integrity, minimize travel distances and transportation costs, and ensure continuing demographic balance and equity, Shaker said.

After Wiley closes, it will take about 14 months to prepare the facility to accommodate students from Heights High, who will use it beginning in fall 2015, when renovations begin at the high school.

The first phase of the project will renovate the high school and Monticello and Roxboro middle schools. Renovations to the high school will include removal of the science wing that currently blocks from view the façade of the original high school structure, and building a new competition swimming pool that will be open for community use.

“The high school is the centerpiece of our district, but is in the worst physical condition and generates the most repetitive maintenance. By starting with the high school, we also minimize the impact of student disruption,” said Nylajean McDaniel, CH-UH superintendent.

High school renovations are scheduled to be finished by the beginning of the 2017–18 school year, according to Shaker. Wiley will serve as the district’s only middle school, while renovations are done at Roxboro and Monticello middle schools from August 2017 through June 2019. 

The bond issue will raise $134.8 million over 38 years to help fund the first phase of the school district’s master facilities plan. It will cost homeowners $183 per year for a home valued at $100,000.

The wide margin by which the issue passed appears to mark steadily increasing support for public school initiatives, as evidenced by recent operating levies, which earned 57 percent approval in 2011 and 55.2 percent in 2007.

“There is a clear understanding among people that this is something we need to do, even though it is expensive,” said Patrick Mullen, co-chair of Citizens for Heights Schools, the group created to promote the bond issue. “Other districts are improving their facilities. Our facilities need repair. In many ways, it would cost us more to do nothing.”

On behalf of the students, teachers, faculty, staff and this board, we are extremely grateful for our community's support of public education and our students,” said Ron Register, president of the CH-UH Board of Education, in a press release.

Register, who has served on the school board since 2002, was one of two incumbents who were re-elected to serve another four-year term. Kal Zucker, who has served since 2006, was also re-elected.

Eric Silverman, who had previously served on the school board in the 1990s and on the CH-UH Public Library Board, and is president of the Cleveland Heights High School Alumni Foundation, edged out first-time candidate Allen Wilkinson for the third seat. Silverman served on the Lay Facilities Committee (LFC), which developed the comprehensive school facilities plan that the bond will fund, and Wilkinson served on the Sustainability Working Group, one of four LFC subcommittees.

The school district has already begun the process of selecting architectural and construction management firms for the project. The CH-UH Board of Education created an Evaluation Committee to interview and evaluate the top candidates from the district’s Request for Qualifications process this month.

“As we move forward to fully implement the plan that we put forward to the voters, we will put a community-led Bond Accountability Committee in place to ensure accountability, transparency and financial oversight,” said Register.