Draft:Urban Community School

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Urban Community School
Location
4909 Lorain Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio United States
Information
Religious affiliation(s)	Independent, non-sectarian
Established	1968
Founder	Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland
President	Tom Gill
Age range	Age 3 to 8th grade
Enrollment	750 students
Website	https://urbancommunityschool.org/

Urban Community School is a private, not-for-profit, educational institution founded by the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland in 1968. It enrolls children from age three to the eighth grade and was designed to mirror its existing city neighborhood, offer an affordable education and provide its students with individual learning. The school, founded by Catholic nuns, is non-sectarian, independent of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, and it is run by an autonomous board of directors. The school has received awards for excellence from the US Department of Education, the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation.

Founding and early growth

In 1968, after the merging of St. Patrick’s (Bridge Ave.) and St. Malachi elementary schools, the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland founded Urban Community School which they wanted to be diverse, fit and mirror the neighborhood, be affordable for all, and provide students individual learning opportunity.These were all considered radical thoughts in Catholic schools in the 60s. Assisting in planning for the school was the Rev. Paul J. Hritz, pastor of St. Malachi’s, the first Cleveland parish not based on neighborhood or nationality, from 1967 to 1994.

The school enrolls children from age 3 to eighth grade and demonstrates that, with support, children from poverty-stricken homes can thrive, with 90 percent going on to graduate from high school. Contrast that rate to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District graduation rate of 66%. The school remains faith-based; students must take either Christian or Catholic courses. But the institution is not officially a Catholic School. Rather it is an independent, nonsectarian organization, run by an independent board of directors.

In 2004, outgrowing its founding physical plant, the school moved to its present site at West 49th Street and Lorain Avenue on Cleveland’s “Near West” side. In 2011, a new $12 million main building opened on the Lorain property. In 2011, an anonymous $5 million donation allowed UCS to begin planning and construction of a dedicated middle school, which opened in 2014. In 2023, UCS petitioned the Cleveland Landmarks Commission for permission to demolish an 1890s building, deemed unsafe by the Cleveland Department of Building & Housing, on its campus to make way for a new mixed-use building.

Partnerships

Urban Squash

Beginning in 2010, Urban Squash Cleveland provided lessons and instruction in the game of squash to Urban Community students. Then, in 2017, the squash group built a 10,000 sq ft Youth Development Center on the UCS campus. Boasting four squash courts, classrooms, locker rooms and meeting rooms, the facility serves as a community center as well as an athletic resource. The courts are open to the public as well for a small membership fee.

USA LaCrosse

In 2022, USA Lacrosse president Steve Stenersen opened a new lacrosse field at UCS, the epicenter of the Lacrosse Communities Project, a 2017 initiative to establish and encourage the sport in racially and economically diverse neighborhoods. USA LaCrosse and its Cleveland chapter invested over $300,000 into the program, making lacrosse a destination sport in the Ohio city.

MetroHealth

In 2022, Cleveland MetroHealth, a county-wide hospital and health care system, opened a 32,000 sq. ft. Ohio City Family Healthcare Center on the UCS campus, to offer medical services as well as economic, social and legal services to the surrounding community. The $10 million project grew significantly from inception to completion, as more services continued to be added. The Ohio City Health Center offers behavioral health, gynecology, pediatrics, obstetrics, primary care and urgent care issues not needing emergency-room treatment. The center also provides financial counseling, WIC (supplemental nutrition for Women, Infants and Children), social workers and a counselor from the Cleveland Legal Aid Society. The center generated controversy as the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland ended its relationship with the school because the Healthcare Center pharmacy was providing contraceptive prescriptions. Consequently UCS is not considered a “Catholic Institution.”

Honors and awards

1988 U.S. Department of Education Excellence in Education Award; 2008 School of Excellence award from the Cleveland Foundation and George Gund Foundation; 2016-2018 5-star rating in the Ohio Department of Education’s Step Up to Quality program. US Department of Education National Green Ribbon School