The Recent History Series
The Battle Cry
An Omen of Things to Come
An introduction to the Recent History series
The Master Plan – Not!
Lessons from 2001 & 2002
Renovations to the Landfill
Lessons from 2003
Lessons from 2004
Lessons from 2005
Lessons from 2006
Lessons from 2007
Renovations to the Landfill - Another lesson from recent history
After the bond issue of 2001 passed without a master plan in place, work began on some Cleveland schools.
Millions of dollars were spent on renovations. New windows were a big part of these renovations.
One window company, Jamieson Ricca Windows, on their website, takes credit for installing windows on some Cleveland schools. Unfortunately, some of these schools have been closed and others have already been razed with the new windows going to the landfill.
Here are just a few of the schools where taxpayer monies have been wasted.
Alexander Hamilton Middle School – No longer listed on the CMSD website. This school is closed and has new windows. Many have been broken due to vandalism.
You can observe this closed school for yourself. Here is the address:
3465 E 130th St
Corlett Elementary School – No longer listed on the CMSD website. This school had new windows. The building is currently being demolished. You can observe this school being demolished for yourself. Here is its address:
13013 Corlett Ave
This next school is interesting. If you actually happen to check out Alexander Hamilton Middle and Corlett Elementary, you will pass the Charles Dickens School. This school is actually located between Corlett Elementary and Alexander Hamilton Middle. It is open for business and for some reason it does not have new windows. It still has old windows. It is located at 3552 E 131st St.
Harvey Rice Elementary – Old building had new windows and was renovated. It was razed with the renovations sent to the landfill. This cost taxpayers over $700,000. The school moved into Jesse Owens Academy building. You can see a picture of this school being demolished on a television website. I have provided the web address for your convenience later in this blog.
Artemus Ward Elementary – Old building had newer windows in library wing. Building was razed due to imminent roof collapse. According to the original master plan, this school was to be closed permanantly in 2010. Now a new building being constructed.
An investigative reporter from one of Cleveland’s television news stations did a report on some of the waste. They literally caught Cleveland in the act of razing the Harvey Rice elementary school. You can read the story and see the picture and access a video where the new windows are clearly visible being destroyed.
The story aired April of 2007.
After the bond issue of 2001 passed without a master plan in place, work began on some Cleveland schools.
Millions of dollars were spent on renovations. New windows were a big part of these renovations.
One window company, Jamieson Ricca Windows, on their website, takes credit for installing windows on some Cleveland schools. Unfortunately, some of these schools have been closed and others have already been razed with the new windows going to the landfill.
Here are just a few of the schools where taxpayer monies have been wasted.
Alexander Hamilton Middle School – No longer listed on the CMSD website. This school is closed and has new windows. Many have been broken due to vandalism.
You can observe this closed school for yourself. Here is the address:
3465 E 130th St
Corlett Elementary School – No longer listed on the CMSD website. This school had new windows. The building is currently being demolished. You can observe this school being demolished for yourself. Here is its address:
13013 Corlett Ave
This next school is interesting. If you actually happen to check out Alexander Hamilton Middle and Corlett Elementary, you will pass the Charles Dickens School. This school is actually located between Corlett Elementary and Alexander Hamilton Middle. It is open for business and for some reason it does not have new windows. It still has old windows. It is located at 3552 E 131st St.
Harvey Rice Elementary – Old building had new windows and was renovated. It was razed with the renovations sent to the landfill. This cost taxpayers over $700,000. The school moved into Jesse Owens Academy building. You can see a picture of this school being demolished on a television website. I have provided the web address for your convenience later in this blog.
Artemus Ward Elementary – Old building had newer windows in library wing. Building was razed due to imminent roof collapse. According to the original master plan, this school was to be closed permanantly in 2010. Now a new building being constructed.
An investigative reporter from one of Cleveland’s television news stations did a report on some of the waste. They literally caught Cleveland in the act of razing the Harvey Rice elementary school. You can read the story and see the picture and access a video where the new windows are clearly visible being destroyed.
The story aired April of 2007.
In September of 2007, the same investigative reporter found that Cleveland was again razing another school. Supposedly due to the reporter exposing this waste, the windows from this school were salvaged and installed into another the school. The monies wasted have been enormous. Monies were spent installing the windows in the first school. Then monies were spent to salvage the windows. And finally money was spent to reinstall the windows.
The investigative reporter also found other things that were new simply being sent to the landfill totaling over $600,000! And all the while the taxpayers were promised accountability.
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Then I found this piece from 2002 talking about some of the original master plan ideas. Note that some schools are listed with dates in parenthesis. The dates in parentheses are suppose to represent the earliest possible close date for these schools. To date, some of the schools have not only been closed but have already been razed. But then again, these were simply proposals from the outline of the master plan. So much for the master plan and accountability.
Link 4
Are you taxpayers of Cleveland appalled? Are you taxpayers getting angry? Do you think that these city and school leaders should be held accountable for these crimes of mishandling these tax monies?
Can you believe that the new CEO has announced to the citizens that the CMSD needs more money? Do you realize he is also promising accountability like the previous high paid school CEO?
There will again be a push to get those voters who do not pay property taxes to vote yes on the measure.
When the issue is finally put on the ballot, the taxpayers need to get out and take action. Hopefully the taxpayers will be a no vote. They need to send a strong message to city and school leaders that they have had enough.
The public trust has been failed miserably by city and school leaders. They have not kept their promises. What else can be said other than their actions have been most deplorable?
Only in Free Stamp City.
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