Cleveland Schools CEO Dr. Eric Gordon said that school district officials had hoped for a hybrid model of both online and in person classes but opted otherwise, sources saying the decision came following complaints and safety concerns from district parents and the Cleveland Teachers Union.

Gordon said it is not clear when or if the schools will reopen on a regular basis anytime soon.

Poor Cleveland schools families, a disproportionate number of them Black, remain concerned about remote learning after preparing for a school year with onsite free lunch and breakfast, school district officials not saying whether alternative measures will be taken to feed the city's poor school children during a pandemic.

They also say that poor kids and Black kids are being denied adequate remote learning resources, some of them denied individual computers from the school district and other necessary amenities.

The largely Black public school district once under a desegregation court order for discriminating against Black children and their families is led by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson per a state law that took effect in 1998, the year the desegregation of schools ended in Cleveland.

The mayoral control law eliminated an elected school board and handed control of the schools to the city mayor.

Cleveland voters later sanctioned it by way of a referendum.

Jackson, a four-term Black Democratic mayor up for reelection in 2021, also appoints school board members under the applicable state law.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine closed all public, private, voucher and charter K-12 schools in Ohio temporarily in March when the pandemic broke and then for the remainder of the academic school year a month later.

At the time the governor said his decision to keep the schools closed followed advice from educators and public health officials and that “we have flattened the curve, but it remains dangerous.”

But the curve never really flattened and DeWine has since said that individual school districts should decide the course of school openings this academic school year using state guidelines and subject to Ohio Department of Education mandates, and other authorities.

Ohio has reported more than 81,746 confirmed coronavirus cases and 3,297 deaths since the pandemic broke in the United States more than four months ago.

Worldwide there are currently more than 15.6 million confirmed cases and some 636,000 deaths, with the U.S. accounting for some 4 million confirmed cases, and 148,000 deaths.

Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland has reported 11, 404 confirmed cases and 450 deaths.

Cleveland recorded 75 new coronavirus cases on June 28, the highest single day figure since the height of the pandemic in early April, a figure that that day brought the total number of cases since the pandemic broke out in early March to 2,245 cases.

President Trump, a Republican like DeWine, and his political ally, had announced he would withhold federal funds if schools did not open nationwide this year but backed off on that position this week saying it might be dangerous for some school districts to reopen next month and that the decision is a local level decision.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.