Cleveland teachers showed up in force during a school board meeting Tuesday, raising concerns about gun violence, school safety and what they called a lack of teacher input so far in the search for Cleveland Metropolitan School District鈥檚 next CEO.
Two teachers, citing the shooting deaths of a student outside John Adams High School this month and another teen near Glenville High School in August, told the CMSD Board of Education they were concerned about safety in their buildings and the trauma they and their students face.
Michelle Jones, a teacher at Glenville High School, said staff did not feel supported by the administration after 16-year-old Devonte Johnson was shot and killed outside her building.
鈥淲e sat in our cafeteria crying, wondering what is happening to our community, what is happening to our students and what's happening to us,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ecause we鈥檝e got to put on a mask. Come Monday, we鈥檝e got to pretend, 鈥楬ey, come on in tomorrow. I'm about to teach you.鈥� But these kids, that was their friend out there. They're walking past his memorial.鈥�
Jones said she鈥檚 been told her building has two security guards, however, she said teachers have had to deal with fights consistently.
鈥淲e are watching 10 to 11 kids stomp each other,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 call 911. 鈥榃e need some help.鈥� (I鈥檓 told) 鈥楶lease call your safety and security department.鈥� I don鈥檛 know the number, but I know I鈥檝e got kids bleeding.鈥�
Roseann Canfora, a spokesperson for CMSD, said the district is continuing to 鈥渁ggressively鈥� recruit new security officers, but is below the number it needs. The district did hire 11 new part-time officers that began work this week.
鈥淲e currently have 119 fulltime officers and 21 part-time officers,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ll 21 part-time officers have accepted an invitation to begin our OPOTA (Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy) training course in February to become full-time officers as well. Our ideal staffing for school-based safety and security officers would be 182 full-time officers.鈥�
Andrea Dockery-Murray, a teacher at John Adams High School, said teachers and students are struggling to deal with trauma in the aftermath of 18-year-old Pierre McCoy being shot and killed at a bus stop outside John Adams High School. She said some students have not been back since the shooting.
"His body was on the ground until nightfall," she said. "His mother had to come up and it was... it was the worst day of our lives."
She said she did appreciate the help of counselors and other professionals who were brought to her school immediately after the conflict, through the district鈥檚 鈥渞apid response鈥� team, to help students process the tragedy. But that support alone isn鈥檛 enough, Dockery-Murray said.
鈥淭here are all types of triggers around the building and outside the building, every day,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he bus stop where it happened is memorialized (with) balloons鈥� we cannot we cannot continue with this. And I just, this, cannot be how we educate students to just talk to someone, get over it and come in (to school).鈥�
In other news, many other teachers showed up to the meeting, including Cleveland Teachers Union President Shari Obrenski, to raise concern about the search process for CMSD鈥檚 next CEO.
Obrenski says the union met with the Alma Advisory Group, the firm conducting the research and came away concerned. She says Alma told the union it plans to randomly choose teachers, administrators and others to meet with the candidates in the next stage of the search. Union and community leaders, she said, should be more directly involved in that process.
鈥淚t is disappointing to hear from Alma that the voices of our leaders did not appear to be particularly meaningful in the next stages of the CEO selection process,鈥� she said.
The search firm and the district finished gathering input from parents and others at several large community meetings last week. And community input is still being sought via a survey on the CMSD website.
Canfora provided a statement from the CMSD Board of Education issued Tuesday arguing it is 鈥渇ully committed鈥� to an inclusive and transparent search process. She said 50 meetings have been held by the search firm total so far with a variety of stakeholders.
鈥淟ast week, the Alma team met with students, staff, leadership, non-profit, business and philanthropic partners, community partners and faith leaders, Cleveland Teachers鈥� Union President Shari Obrenski and with CTU鈥檚 full Executive Committee,鈥� the statement reads. 鈥淪even focus groups are also scheduled this week for CTU鈥檚 members, Central Office Civil Service employees, Assistant Principals and other school leaders, and members of our Trades, Patrolmen鈥檚, LIUNA, SEIU and Teamsters unions.鈥�
The board said it hoped, by early February, to have given all stakeholders 鈥渘umerous opportunities鈥� to provide input on the development of the job profile and screening process for the next CEO.
