Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb (pictured), who controls Cleveland's largely Black public school district via a state law that stripped the community of electing board members and took effect in 1998, has announced the appointments of three new members to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) Board of Education. The new board members will fill the vacancies created by the resignations of Leah Hudnall, Robert Heard, and Denise Link earlier this year.

Bibb, 37, is up for reelection in 2025 and is Cleveland's fourth Black mayor behind the late Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of Cleveland and of a major American city, Michael R. White, and four-term former mayor Frank Jackson, whom he succeeded in office in 2022.

"I am delighted to welcome Caroline Peak, Jerry Billups and Pastor Ivory Jones to the board of education," said Mayor Bibb in a press statement on Tuesday."Their fresh perspectives, dedication to education and commitment to our community will help us build on our progress and shape CMSD's future. Together, we will continue to strengthen our schools and create opportunities for students across the district."

The new board appointees will be sworn in prior to the next board meeting on Dec 10.The appointments come on the heels of the successful passage of the Issue 49 schools levy and bond issue by voters on Nov. 5, which will raise roughly $49 million each year for the district.

The mayor's new appointments bring more community servants and diversity to an appointed board of education often criticized for having corporate types, Whites in the majority, and members who are not residents of Cleveland. While the mayoral control law does not require that school board members be residents of the district, critics have said that board members should reflect the makeup of the largely Black city and should be Cleveland residents. All three of the mayor's appointees live in the district.

Remembering the schools desegregation era

The city's public schools were under a now-defunct desegregation court order that was instituted in 1980 after the school district and the state of Ohio were found guilty of operating a dual school system to the detriment of Black children and their families. Simply put, west side students, most of them White, received more resources than largely Black east side students. The two sides of town are separated by the Cuyahoga River, making Cleveland the second most segregated mayor American city in the nation, behind Boston, Massachusetts.

The 12 remedial orders associated with the deseg order, issued by then U.S. District Court Judge Frank Battisti, included cross-town-busing, desegregation of school staff and administrators, and mandated parental involvement programs. Cross-town busing was eliminated in 1996 by order of the court.

The court order was completely lifted in 1998 when the mayoral control law, pushed by Republican state lawmakers, took effect amid community protests and after then U.S. District Court Judge George White ruled that the vestiges of racial discrimination had been remedied to the extent practicable as required by the court order and that the educational disparities between Black school children and their White counterparts were the result of socioeconomic factors.

The Cleveland NAACP, led by attorney James Hardiman, fought in court against release from the deseg court order but to no avail. A brilliant lawyer by some standards, Hardiman argued that the vestiges of racial discrimination had not been remedied and that Black children were still at risk.

The school board, which was largely White at the time, eventually changed the name of the city schools from the Cleveland School District to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, an effort, said sources, to appeal to suburbanites and to downplay the fact that the schools were once under a desegregation court order for mistreating Black children and their families.

The 3 new school board appointees

Caroline Peak recently retired from her role as a public service manager at the Cleveland Public Library. She has lived in the district for 44 years and has three children who attended CMSD schools.

Jerry Billups is a John Marshall High School alumnus and holds a bachelor of applied science degree from the University of Toledo. He is a lifelong Cleveland resident and has four children, three currently attending CMSD schools and one a CMSD graduate.

Pastor Ivory Jones III leads the congregation at Grace Missionary Baptist Church in the Mt. Pleasant neighbourhood.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com