UPDATE: The boards of The Intergenerational School and Near West Intergenerational School endorsed the Collinwood Intergenerational School project this week and voted to form a new board.

Brian Friedman is tired of watching families move out of North Collinwood in search of better schools. He's even witnessed one house north of Lakeshore Boulevard change hands three times in nine years -- each time, the story is the same. So Friedman, who is Executive Director of the Northeast Shores Community Development Corporation, decided to do something about it.

"Throughout the years we’ve had families that were 'double income no kids,' and they buy houses, move in, have kids, and when their kid comes of school age, they leave," he says. "They're either unaware of the options to have their kid attend a quality CMSD school or charter school in another neighborhood, or they choose not to participate in parochial education because it's not for everybody. They do the easy thing: pick up and move to a suburb with a safe, quality educational system."

To counter this trend, Friedman and a group of residents are organizing to attract a high-quality school to their neighborhood. Currently, they have their sights set on The Intergenerational School (TIS), which currently operates two schools in Cleveland and is considering opening a third location within North Collinwood.

Lyman Millard, Communications Director for Breakthrough Schools, a coalition of high-performing charter schools that includes TIS, says that a decision has not yet been made on whether to open a school in that neighborhood. Currently, TIS and Breakthrough are gauging community demand and searching for a suitable facility.

Friedman believes that demand exists. If all goes as planned, TIS could be on track to open a Collinwood location by the start of the 2014 school year. To rally resident support, Northeast Shores has hosted a schools fair at the Collinwood Recreation Center, and TIS developed an online survey being used to gauge resident interest.

Source: Brian Friedman
Writer: Lee Chilcote