United Way shows support for “wraparound” schools
 The United Way of Greater Cleveland kicked off its annual campaign Sept. 3 at 25 CMSD schools, underscoring a commitment to provide the schools’ students and families with extra services to help them succeed.
United Way President and CEO Bill Kitson and more than 250 volunteers served pancake breakfasts to about 10,000 students, roughly a fourth of CMSD’s enrollment.
The 25 schools receive “wraparound” services to address the effects of poverty, allowing students and parents to focus more clearly on the children’s academic achievement. Strong parent involvement and other indicators show the strategy is working, Kitson said.
CMSD, United Way and other funders have invested nearly $4 million in the program over the last two years. Each school is paired with a lead agency and gets a site coordinator, hired through United Way, to organize the assistance.
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Max Hayes offers pre-apprenticeship program
 Max S. Hayes High School will offer a pre-apprenticeship program that puts students on a fast track to jobs in the construction trades.
State approval of the Building and Property Maintenance and Construction Technologies program was announced Aug. 31 at a grand-opening celebration for the career and technical school’s new building near West 65th Street and Clark Avenue.
Max Hayes and the Miami Valley Career Technology Center, which serves 27 districts in the Dayton area, are the only high schools in the state with in-house pre-apprenticeship programs, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. But the CMSD program is unique because the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council has provided the core curriculum, a council representative is on staff at the school and students have a chance to explore all the industry's trades, not just focus on one.
CMSD finds groove for attendance campaign
 September is National Attendance Awareness Month, but CMSD is working hard to ensure that students and families make regular school attendance a priority all year.
To boost attendance, the District launched the “Get to School. You Can Make It!” campaign in July. Billboards, yard signs and radio spots have been sending a message that students can make it to school today, make it every day and make it to their college and career goals.
(Schools CEO Eric Gordon writes about the importance of attendance. Read the cleveland.com opinion piece.)
On Sept. 15, the campaign unveiled #At10Dance!, the posting of videos on social media about 10 a.m. each day to promote good attendance. Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon kicked it off by dancing to an instrumental version of Usher's "Yeah," mimicking a scene in the movie “Hitch,” starring Will Smith and Kevin James.
8th-graders prepare for mentoring program
 More than 800 CMSD eighth-grade students spent the day Sept. 10 seriously pondering some of the deepest and most important questions about their future during the kickoff for the new True2You mentoring program.
Dozens of successful business and community leaders and CMSD partners, including teachers, CEO Eric Gordon and well-known author and inspirational speaker Stedman Graham, worked extensively with the students, challenging them to think hard about their upcoming time in high school and eventual career plans.
Oh, and they did it all at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. With the elephants. In the RainForest. Some even contemplated life while holding a nine-foot long boa constrictor.
True2You, led by the Greater Cleveland Partnership, aims to give every CMSD eighth-grader a mentor from the Northeast Ohio business and professional community. The program will pair 200 mentors with students at 23 schools this year and grow over two years to serve nearly 70 schools and an estimated 2,400 children.
MetroHealth opens students' eyes to health careers
 New vistas opened September 15 for some CMSD high school students – all they had to do was cut through the MetroHealth System cafeteria, pass the cash registers and turn right.
Nearly 50 ninth-graders from Lincoln-West and James F. Rhodes high schools gathered in a hospital dining room for the first session in the MetroHealth Scholars program.
The eight-part series will bring the students to MetroHealth’s West Side campus once a month in hopes of opening their eyes to medical and other career opportunities in health care. It grew from President and Chief Executive Offer Akram Boutros’ desire to expand the system’s partnership with the District.
Dr. Boutros kicked off the program by retracing his journey from a youth flirting with trouble to top hospital executive. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Al Connors then walked the students through MetroHealth’s 178-year history of battling infections, burns and trauma.
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CMSD reports District news directly to the public. See an ever-changing selection of the latest text and video stories in the News Bureau section of our homepage, www.clevelandmetroschools.org
To send ideas for stories to the News Bureau email newstips@clevelandmetroschools.org.
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