Cleveland ISD kicking off new school year with more than 12K students

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Bluebonnet News
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Cleveland ISD Superintendent Stephen McCanless leads the back-to-school convocation on Monday, Aug. 7.

Cleveland ISD is starting the new school year on Tuesday, Aug. 8, with a full staff, which is quite an accomplishment considering that the District now has 2,134 full-time and part-time employees. This makes Cleveland ISD the largest employer in Liberty County, and leading the District is Superintendent Stephen McCanless.

At the back-to-school convocation for Cleveland ISD on Monday, Aug. 7, McCanless shared that the District has enrolled 1,092 new students over the last two weeks, and more students are expected to be registered each week going forward. This puts Cleveland ISD’s enrollment as of Aug. 7 at more than 12,400 students.

With the District growing so rapidly, this year was likely the last year for all District employees to be gathered in the Cleveland High School gym for the back-to-school convocation. The bleachers in the gym seat 1,825 people and Cleveland ISD had to place another 300 chairs on the gym floor just to accommodate all of the staff.

Dennis Odell, a teacher at Southside Elementary in Cleveland, bangs on a noisemaker as his peers shout and cheer at the start of the Cleveland ISD convocation on Monday, Aug. 7.
An Eastside Elementary staff member records her peers cheering at the Cleveland ISD convocation on Monday, Aug. 7.
A Pine Burr Elementary School teacher leads a dance before the start of the back-to-school convocation for Cleveland ISD on Monday, Aug. 7.
Southside Elementary School educators dance at the start of the back-to-school convocation for Cleveland ISD on Aug. 7.
Cleveland Mayor Danny Lee gives a thumbs-up at the back-to-school convocation for Cleveland ISD on Monday, Aug. 7. Seated with him are EDC Director Robert Reynolds, Councilman Eddie Lowery, City Manager Scott Swigert, Tasha Childress with Austin Bank, Victoria Good with the Greater Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Brian Garcia with Entergy Texas and David Martin, Chamber director.

“We will be exploring other options for our convocations, possibly hosting two separate convocations next year – one on the south end of the District and the other on the north end,” McCanless said.

Surprisingly, only a couple of new positions were added this school year.

“We added an emergency options manager. Last year, we started the school year with so many unfilled positions. This year we were able to hire more certified teachers,” he said.

McCanless attributes the District’s ability to be fully staffed to Cleveland ISD trustees, who raised the starting salary for teachers to $61,000 this year. All returning staff will get a $2,000 bonus and all teachers hired by Sept. 1 will qualify for the $2,000 bonus. Bilingual teachers will also receive a stipend of $7,000 annually.

The District went to great heights this year to get the message out that Cleveland ISD was hiring and paying a competitive salary. Over the summer, several skybanners were pulled by airplanes around the Valley Ranch Shopping Center in New Caney, the Houston Zoo and other locations.

“I think these efforts make it possible to attract more teachers this year,” McCanless said. “Some of the comments we have heard from new teachers to the District are that Cleveland ISD is ‘next level’ and has ‘innovative leadership’. We’ve also heard that people believe Cleveland ISD is dedicated to teachers and invests as much as it can into teachers. Aside from offering a competitive salary, Cleveland ISD also offers excellent benefits at a lower cost thanks to the School Board.”

McCanless said that District employees appear to be very happy to be part of Cleveland ISD.

Honored guests at the Cleveland ISD back-to-school convocation included District Attorney Jennifer Bergman, Pct. 6 Constable Zack Harkness, Cleveland ISD board members Willie Carter, Wendy McNair, Amanda Brooks, Robert Howell and Chris Wood, Cleveland City Councilman Roscoe Warwick and Councilwoman Desiree Davis.
Entertainer Jeff Civilico gets the energy popping by balancing a chair on his chin at the Cleveland ISD back-to-school convocation on Monday, Aug. 7.
Entertainer Jeff Civilico balances a stepladder on his chin at the back-to-school convocation for Cleveland ISD on Aug. 7.
Paul Dean, an instructional coach at Eastside Elementary, got a chance to show off his juggling skills at the back-to-school convocation on Monday, Aug. 7.
Eastside Elementary Instructional Coach Paul Dean and Jeff Civilico (right) show the power of working together as they juggle three balls.
Eastside Elementary Instructional Coach Paul Dean and Jeff Civilico (right) juggle plastic pins at the back-to-school convocation for Cleveland ISD.
One of the challenges given to people at the back-to-school convocation for Cleveland ISD involved talking in small groups and sharing information about who inspires you or was a role model. Pictured are Cleveland ISD trustees Rob Howell and Chris Wood.

“The overall vibe of the District is so positive. That makes people excited to be part of things,” he said.

McCanless also mentioned that Cleveland ISD residents will be happy to learn that the District is nearly ready to open a new southern service center next door to Cottonwood Elementary in the Colony Ridge communities south of Plum Grove. This will help students get home sooner, improve congestion on Plum Grove Road and will save taxpayers money for fuel and manpower.

“It will open sometime in January. The service center will have 23 offices and a huge breakroom/conference center. The conference center will have audio and video equipment that will allow us to livestream board meetings there. Residents in those communities to the south will be able to attend the meeting at the conference center and be able to participate just like they would at the Cleveland ISD boardroom in Cleveland,” he said.

The service center cost $4.7 million and was funded through the District’s fund balance.

Another grand opening on the horizon is the Cleveland ISD administration building on SH 321 across from Cleveland Middle School and Cleveland High School. This project was funded by the 2019 bond approved by voters. McCanless said the District administration office expects to move into the new building in February.

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Bluebonnet News
Before creating Bluebonnet News in 2018, Vanesa Brashier was a community editor for the Houston Chronicle/Houston Community Newspapers. During part of her 12 years at the newspapers, she was assigned as the digital editor and managing editor for the Humble Observer, Kingwood Observer, East Montgomery County Observer and the Lake Houston Observer, and the editor of the Dayton News, Cleveland Advocate and Eastex Advocate. Over the years, she has earned more than two dozen writing awards, including Journalist of the Year.

16 COMMENTS

  1. Maybe a more appropriate headline would be— Cleveland struggles to hit the start button for a new school year under the burden of 12k new illegal aliens!

  4. Mostly illegal invaders the taxpayers have to pay for. Insanity. Cleveland, Northern Mexico. Get checked for TB and Leprosy.

  6. Why do you think Montgomery County just had some of the highest property tax increases in history? The same thing is happening in New Caney ISD. Illegals are flooding the area and you are paying for it.
    There is a disproportionate amount of services rendered to these “anchor kids” for the amounts of property tax they pay compared to traditional families here who may have one or two kids in school per property. These illegals crap out as many kids as they can, and may have 6 or 7 kids in the school per property being taxed. It puts an undue burden on school and county resources, and now you- the hard working cash cow must absorb the difference.
    Plus some of the properties in the area are having appraised values artificially inflated due to Terrenos Houston’s sales practices.
    The only way these illegals can buy property is by buying a lot through Terrenos’s owner to owner financing, which is a lot normally worth a couple grand selling for a whopping 50k. Now all the properties in the area are based on these recent sales, and since the sales were facilitated by illegal activity (the act of being here illegally), these values should not be considered. It’s no different than someone printing millions in counterfeit money and buying up all the lots for a million dollars each, and the appraisal district valuing your adjacent lot at one million dollars.
    We have had enough of the crime and strain these crap hole developments bring- get these leeches out and domesticate them in their own country.

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