Just weeks before the City of Cleveland decided Cudell Park was just a “surplus property” and CMSD’s Board of Education agreed to build their new school on it, Ward 15 Councilman Matt Zone and CMSD CEO Eric Gordon mailed this letter to Ward 15 residents. In it, they make no mention of their plan or any need for feedback from the community about “determining their site plan” at Cudell Commons. They had plans, however, to gather feedback about their Watterson-Lake site.
The city wanted feedback from the Gordon Square Watterson-Lake neighborhood but were fine with taking away our park in Cudell weeks later or not telling the neighborhood about their scheme. One neighborhood gets special treatment while the other gets told what to accept.
But wait, not so fast!
Its 2024! Watterson Lake gets a new residential development built partially funded by millions of direct and indirect public dollars. A development? Is that what the community feedback said? No, they said their top choice was “access to parks and greenspace” and “sustainability” while wanting more “density” came in last and next to last. See link below.
What did our community want? Parks and greenspace. What did we get? More density and its park’s greenspace destroyed.
We have been lied to and continue to be deceived by our public officials. These two projects must be stopped.
It is alarming that the District is insisting on lockstep instruction. Teachers who used to teach whole novels like Elie Weisel's Night are no longer permitted to teach whole books, only excerpts. It is even more alarming that teachers are going to be monitored by central administration and will be written up if they are found to be using alternative curricular materials. The District is essentially demanding that teachers act in ways that are culturally destructive, harmful to Black and Brown students, and will be punished if they stand up for kids and use materials that speak to their students lived experiences.
Polly has a FB page too:
Last Saturday I started a public discussion group on Facebook called, Publicly Cleveland Conversations. We already have 270’ish members and it has been nice to show some of this blog information to a wider audience.
If you haven’t already, I invite you to join the Facebook group, or just read it from time to time, anonymously. I always accept private messages there, or DMs on TwitterX, and email messages. If you comment on this blog, please be aware that it is public, and everyone can see your name and comments.
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Update from Save Cudell Park team
How much is Choby paid to promote the CMSD Levy?
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/08/22/science-of-reading-curriculum-is-now-being-taught-in-all-ohio-school-districts/
Bibb held an invite only event this past week....all the usual suspects including Patti Choby.
CMSD New school year has kicked off: READ Polly Karr https://publiclycleveland.substack.com/p/the-cleveland-plan-refreshed
It is alarming that the District is insisting on lockstep instruction. Teachers who used to teach whole novels like Elie Weisel's Night are no longer permitted to teach whole books, only excerpts. It is even more alarming that teachers are going to be monitored by central administration and will be written up if they are found to be using alternative curricular materials. The District is essentially demanding that teachers act in ways that are culturally destructive, harmful to Black and Brown students, and will be punished if they stand up for kids and use materials that speak to their students lived experiences.
Polly has a FB page too:
Last Saturday I started a public discussion group on Facebook called, Publicly Cleveland Conversations. We already have 270’ish members and it has been nice to show some of this blog information to a wider audience.
If you haven’t already, I invite you to join the Facebook group, or just read it from time to time, anonymously. I always accept private messages there, or DMs on TwitterX, and email messages. If you comment on this blog, please be aware that it is public, and everyone can see your name and comments.