Grover Cleveland Elementary School

Honestly, the health environment at Cleveland is pretty frustrating. My biggest gripe is how cramped the classrooms feel; with 700+ kids in that building, it feels like every time one kid gets a sniffle, the whole grade is out the next week. The communication during flu season is basically nonexistent, and I’ve definitely noticed some issues with the general cleanliness of the common areas. It’s a classic CPS situation where the staff is spread too thin to really keep on top of wellness. Our student-to-counselor ratio is way too high, and you can really feel it when your kid is struggling. It feels more like damage control than a proactive healthy environment.

My youngest is at Cleveland right now and honestly, the health stuff is pretty solid for such a big CPS school. The nurse is super responsive when my daughter had a playground scrape, and I really appreciate that they actually send out emails when there's a spike in strep or flu in the classrooms so we can keep an eye out. The building is older, of course, but the custodians do a decent job keeping the common areas from feeling 'grimy.' My only real gripe is that the sick-policy can be a bit of a headache with the return-to-school paperwork, but I guess it keeps the classrooms from becoming total germ zones!