EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated from its original posting to reflect that the building sale has not been finalized. Due to an editing error, an earlier version said the building was sold.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Allentown School Board has approved selling the district's former Cleveland Elementary School building to a group that hopes to turn it into a $20 million youth center it says is vitally needed by the community.
The board recently approved selling the building to the nonprofit Community Action Lehigh Valley for $320,000.
- Allentown School District recently approved selling shuttered Cleveland Elementary to Community Action Lehigh Valley
- The group wants to build a youth center with sports, arts activities and hang-out spaces
- Executive Director Dawn Godshall said it will cost $20 million
CALV has tried to buy the North Ninth Street building for about two years.
Dawn Godshall, CALV’s executive director, said the acquisition has yet to be finalized but CALV plans to start a targeted fundraising effort for $20 million to convert the facility into a youth center.
“The gang violence, gun violence and the lack of safe places for kids to go to do constructive things are a concern for everyone in the region. So for us as an organization, we want to change that.”Dawn Godshall, executive director of Community Action Lehigh Valley
“The gang violence, gun violence and the lack of safe places for kids to go to do constructive things are a concern for everyone in the region,” Godshall said. “So for us as an organization, we want to change that.”
'A place where I knew I was safe'
Godshall said a youth center was a saving grace for her as a child. She said she grew up in foster homes and relied on that facility as a place where she could get her homework done and also play basketball and socialize.
“It was a place where I knew I was safe, where I knew I could do productive things,” Godshall said.
Godshall points to the cuts the Allentown School District made starting in 2011 in music, art, gym classes and library time because of financial strains. New Superintendent Carol Birks has made it a priority to increase arts education in the schools and has included additional art teacher positions in the budget for the next fiscal year.
District officials also point to the after-school programming through the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community grant program. It provides homework help, tutoring and some activities, such as hip-hop dance, art and music.
Community Action helps provide programming in the district and the region, Godshall said. She said many organizations’ programs in the city are outdated and don’t relate to youth today.
“They want to learn how to code instead of just playing video games. So while there are programs that exist, many have not [been] updated in quite some time, and again kids are learning differently than they did years ago because of cell phones and computers and iPads.”Community Action of Lehigh Valley Executive Director Dawn Goodshall
“They want to learn how to code instead of just playing video games,” she said. “So while there are programs that exist, many have not [been] updated in quite some time, and again kids are learning differently than they did years ago because of cell phones and computers and iPads.”
Other schools to be sold
The planned youth center would include sports fields, classrooms, trade workshops, theater space, studio space and a recording studio.
Godshall said she said ideally the center would open around 2027.
The school district is negotiating to sell McKinley Elementary School to another nonprofit group, Ripple Community Inc. Both Cleveland and McKinley were built in the 1880s and closed in 2020 after Hays Elementary replaced them.
Ripple has said it intends to create affordable housing in the space.
Allentown Schools Facilities Manager Tom Smith and Director of Student Services Tiffany Polek currently sit on the organization’s board of directors.
The Ripple Community’s board president, Charlie Thiel, was a longtime school board director before abruptly resigning in January citing professional obligations.
