Cleveland ISD has opened a second transportation service center in the rapidly growing community of Colony Ridge. Located next to Cottonwood Elementary at 2000 CR 3549, the new South Service Center aims to better serve the district’s needs.
An official ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on Friday morning, Jan. 17, to mark the occasion.
“This office complex serves the needs of staff and students. The staff will be served because we have HR, business office, curriculum, special education, police department transportation. And if you walk through, we have one big break room in the back, one nonnegotiable that I put forth at the beginning was if we are going to meet the needs of the community,” said Cleveland ISD Superintendent Stephen McCanless.
McCanless highlighted his vision for improving accessibility for parents and the community. He expressed his desire to simulcast and broadcast district board meetings from the South Service Center, allowing parents to attend and participate locally or interact online if needed.
“If it wasn’t for the kids, none of us would be here, so that is our focus of what we do in Cleveland ISD. We are very proud of this building. It even turned out better than what I even thought. When they sent the pictures of the lettering, it was a proud moment because it showed that Cleveland ISD will continue to grow and prosper and be successful. It won’t be long before we are adding on to this building, we are adding an additional complex,” McCanless said.
The South Service Center currently accommodates 50 buses, with space available for up to 80 buses. It serves 45 routes, addressing the district’s growing transportation needs.
Board President Willie Carter praised the center’s value to the district.
“First of all, we want to say thank you all for showing up today. The weather started out to be very bad. But this is a betterment that was very well needed in this district. This service center being here is going to save us thousands and thousands of dollars,” Carter said.
CISD Director of Transportation Georgia Taylor also emphasized the financial benefits of the new center. She noted significant savings on fuel and reduced wear and tear on buses, as well as the ability to hire more staff to better serve the community. She described the building’s operations as efficient and effective.
“I am the lucky person to be able to call this office my home. Thank you, Mr. McCanless and the board president, for trusting me to oversee this operation for our district. Our goal is one district, two regions. We want to make sure that we continue the pipeline of services that we provide to all of our employees and being able to provide services here to almost seven hundred employees in the area, which is about 40 percent of our workforce. It’s tremendous. My heart is very warm and fuzzy right now to see everyone here to support,” said CISD Assistant Superintendent Rebecca Sanford.
The South Service Center also serves as a juvenile processing center for the CISD Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies.
“One of the things I would like to say to the law enforcement agencies in the area here, I know that one of the things that we can offer here is that we have been named a juvenile processing center and all of your agencies have access to process for juveniles here so that an officer won’t have to leave the area and go to town or to the county to do it. They are welcome to use our juvenile processing here so that they can stay in the area and be released back to their parents when they have. If you do not have a keycard, we will make sure to get you one,” said Chief of CISD Police Angela Allen.
So much crime there that they need on on-site juvenile processing center. Why am I not surprised?
If birthright citizenship had been ended a decade ago, we wouldn’t be paying for yet another facility to cater to these parasites. Hopefully soon they will stop coming here to endlessly shit out their crotch fruit- even though the damage to our community’s sanctity is already done and likely irreversible.