This view is of the main entrance on the south side of the proposed new fieldhouse at Breakthrough Schools’ Woodland Hills Campus. The existing school building is to the right. This entrance to the fieldhouse will allow community activities, such as voting, to occur here and be separated from the classrooms during or after school hours (Marous). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Woodland Hills campus to gain community venue
Having affordable, comfortable places for the community to gather for events, sports and even voting can be hard to find in Cleveland’s Kinsman and Woodland Hills neighborhoods. But that could soon change for the better based on plans for a new fieldhouse at Breakthrough Schools’ Woodland Hills Campus, 9201 Crane Ave. Those plans were submitted this week to the city’s Building Department.
The plans show a $2.9 million, nearly 10,000-square-foot gymnasium and multipurpose facility to be built fronting Union Avenue, immediately west of the existing school building. The new facility will rise on the former site of the Gaines Funeral Home, 9116 Union, and a neighboring two-story house, 9108 Union. A garage behind that house and a car wash at the corner of Union and East 91st Street will remain.
The funeral home and house were among nine properties acquired in August 2023 for $185,700 by an affiliate of the Breakthrough Schools and demolished last year by Snavely Excavating Co. of Chagrin Falls at a cost of $160,000, according to county and city public records. Marous Brothers Construction of Willoughby is the design-build general contractor for the project.
A site plan for the Breakthrough Schools’ Woodland Hills Campus showing the new fieldhouse addition inside the dashed line. To build this facility, a funeral home and a two-story house on Union Avenue had to be acquired and demolished (Marous).
“This new gymnasium and multipurpose facility will not only enhance physical education and extracurricular opportunities but will also serve as a dynamic space for collaboration, innovation, and community engagement,” said Andrew McRae, CEO of Breakthrough Schools, in an e-mailed statement. “We are thrilled to invest in the future of our Woodland Hills Campus and empower our scholars to reach their full potential in every area of their development.”
Although the building permit applications were submitted on Monday, it typically takes at least a few months to get a permit awarded so construction can begin. But that didn’t stop the school and Marous from holding a groundbreaking ceremony Dec. 4.
The project will create a dedicated lunch space for students, expand programming capabilities and establish a community hub that will also serve as a polling site for the neighborhood’s voters, according to a project summary made available for the groundbreaking ceremony.
View of the new fieldhouse as seen along Union Avenue. The existing school building is between the new structure and the intersection of Union and East 93rd Street in the background, marked by the building with the cupola on the corner (Marous). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
“The gymnasium will create a vibrant space for classes, athletics, and community events, including bleacher seating for 200 spectators,” a Marous spokesperson said on LinkedIn. “The expanded administrative wing will house new offices, a multipurpose classroom, and upgraded student and staff amenities. The addition will have its own entrance for special events outside of regular school hours.”
Project designs and renderings have yet to go through the city’s design-review process but they have been made public on social media. Those graphics were produced in-house by Marous’ architectural department using Revit & Lumion rendering software.
The expansion project, expected to be completed during the 2025-2026 school year, is made possible through Friends of Breakthrough Schools comprehensive fundraising efforts.
Ground-floor plan of the proposed fieldhouse at Breakthrough Schools’ Woodland Hills Campus. While the structure allows students to walk between the addition and the existing school, at right, the new gymnasium will be a separate structure with a firewall between it and the school (Marous).
Those include generous donations from the Louise H. and Davis S. Ingalls Foundation, the Bruening Foundation and the Thompson Family Foundation, in addition to the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon Donors, spearheaded by Friends of Breakthrough Schools board member Larry Orwin.
Orwin helped raise more than $250,000 through his participation in the prestigious Badwater 135 Ultramarathon, known as the world’s toughest footrace. The funds Orwin raised were instrumental in securing the land for the expansion and completing the fundraising necessary for the project to move forward.
Woodland Hills Campus provides education for pre-K through 8th-grade students. Serving 100 percent low-income scholars, 89 percent of whom reside in Cleveland, the campus emphasizes academic excellence, critical thinking and community responsibility, school officials said. Breakthrough Schools is a network of free, charter schools in Cleveland with 3,000 students in 10 schools throughout the city.
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