Cleveland Elementary 2017

My family loves Cleveland!  The school culture has been transitioning for several years under the leadership of the current principal. New teacher hires are all progressive and enthusiastic about "positive culture" best practices.  There are a few hold-outs (some first and fourth grade teachers) who are more old-school re. discipline, and less interested in social-emotional teaching. But overall the school climate is very positive.  The community reflects almost maximum diversity -- economically, racially, and linguistically. There's an active PTA that raises money for art and ecoliteracy classes and plans community-building activities.  

There are 2 after school programs, both described on the school website.  JCC's Kids Club is smaller (maybe about 50 students?) with a very high staff-student ratio.  The kids enrolled tend to be younger grades, and the gentle, nurturing environment is great for them.  OASES is the larger program, with sliding scale fees. There are probably upwards of 100 students, and they skew older.  It's a rowdy, active, fun group, great for high-energy kids.  I've noticed that some parents start their children in Kids Club and transition to OASES around 3rd or 4th grade. Both clubs offer homework time.

Other good things about Cleveland:
Free breakfast and lunch for ALL students; diverse teaching staff; beautiful gardens and "outdoor classroom" for ecoliteracy classes; high test scores and low achievement gap; very safe and quiet neighborhood; safety patrol for easy morning drop-off; a casual, fun Dad's service group (all genders welcome); and special annual traditions like Fall Festival, Culture Night, and Lunar New Year celebrations.

I hope you'll check out the Cleveland website for photos and lots more details!

Thank you for posting this question and the person who posted an answer. We are also zoned for Cleveland and my daughter will enter Kinder in 2018. None of her current friends will be going to Cleveland, so if we decide to send our kid to Cleveland, I'd be really interested in setting up playdates with incoming Kinder students. Do you know what the best way to achieve this? We're touring the school in early Dec. 

A side question... how difficult is parking near school for drop-off. My kid and I have only done walk-in and not curb side drop off.

My daughter graduated from Cleveland a couple years ago, so I didn't weigh in initially, but I wanted to respond to the follow-up questions one of the respondents asked: "how difficult is parking near school for drop-off?

Kindergarten parents are required to walk their kids to the classroom (older kids can be dropped off at the curb). We usually parked down the hill on Athol. There are a couple good stretches of uninterrupted curb on Athol near Cleveland Street that usually have parking available. You are unlikely to find parking on Cleveland St. in the block where the school is, and you would have to fight with drop-off traffic as well. There is a lower gate to the campus on Brooklyn, so parking down there and walking up through campus is also an option (fewer parking spaces though, and a longer walk). 

Regarding the question about aftercare from the original post, I would also like to point out that Lakeshore Children's Center provides before- and aftercare for Cleveland with van service to the school. It was a bit more expensive than the on-site options when my daughter was going, but they have pretty generous coverage over breaks and extended holidays, offer a summer camp program, and are associated with a preschool in case you have younger children and value the convenience of one pick-up location.

Cleveland has a very organized “meet-up” for incoming kinders several times during the summer prior to school starting. Although not in abundance, parking within a block or so of school is available as long as you don’t wait until 2 minutes before the bell rings!