The Garfield Heights City Schools collaboratively and cooperatively serves students and families of the City of Garfield Heights. Located in Cuyahoga County and bordered on the north by the City of Cleveland proper, and on all other sides by the first ring communities of Northeast Ohio. Our District proudly serves approximately 3,500 students in three Kindergarten through Grade 5 schools, one middle school, and one high school. The district also provides an award-winning Preschool program to educate the youngest students in our community at William Foster Elementary and also the Learning Center, a comprehensive academic resource to help right-track students who need supplemental education support at the middle school and high school level. All those who seek academic, co-curricular, student leadership, diversity, and community engagement success, can find these things and more in the Garfield Heights City Schools.

As a product of our community-based strategic planning process completed in 2021, our district’s mission is: As the heart of the community, Garfield Heights City Schools fully prepares students to pursue their dreams and give back as engaged citizens and future leaders. Our vision is: to become a premier educational institution, recognized throughout Ohio as fully preparing students to be leaders equipped with real-world skills to contribute to a global society.

The Garfield Heights City Schools prides itself on providing a rigorous and comprehensive pre-k through 12th-grade educational curriculum that clearly focuses on student success through college and career readiness. To that end, Garfield Heights High School offers a variety of Advanced Placement courses, including AP English, AP Government, AP American History, Honors Chemistry, Honors Calculus, Honors Physical Science, and more. While the District offers these high-level academic courses, the GHCS also proudly sends more than 225 students on an annual basis to the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center for those individuals deeply interested in learning a skilled profession or hands-on expertise in one of the trades. Middle School students have increasingly greater opportunities to prepare themselves for high school and parents are readily encouraged to be involved. Elementary School students in the GHCS also participate in such valuable literacy programs as LETRs and social/emotional initiatives as the Zones of Regulation. The GHCS places a great deal of emphasis at all levels of education on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (P.B.I.S.) and each school has won awards from the State of Ohio for encouraging and promoting positive behavior. 

A wide variety of co-curricular offerings are available to students of all ages in the Garfield Heights City Schools as well. Such opportunities include more than 18 varsity sports, the district’s show choir, Music Express, Marching Band, Theater, A ‘Capella Choir, National Honor Society, Student Council, Glass Ceiling, Future Engineers, and more.  These co-curricular offerings are award-winning on the state, regional and local levels. Students can expect success when they become involved in the various academic, co-curricular, and student leadership organizations in this District.

Most importantly, the Garfield Heights City Schools recognizes its place in the greater Garfield Heights Community. The district is proudly partnered with The Honorable Mayor Matt Burke, City Council, the Garfield Heights Police and Fire Departments, the Senior Organization and Jennings Hall, the Garfield Heights Kiwanis, Marymount Hospital, Overdrive Technologies, and other businesses, non-profit and community-based organizations.

For more information about the Garfield Heights City Schools, feel free to contact us at any time through our website, Facebook, Instagram, or by calling 216-475-8100.

Sincerely,

Christopher Hanke

Superintendent