Cleaveland Traditional College and Career Readiness Magnet School

Cleaveland Elementary opened in 1956 using all-portable buildings. A permanent structure opened 1962. 

Cleaveland Elementary was named in honor of Cynthia Weymouth Cleaveland. Miss Cleaveland was born on April 15, 1853. She moved to Wichita in 1886 at the age of 33. She was a beloved teacher in the Wichita system for more than forty years. She helped organize the Wichita City Teachers Association, and she served as the organization’s president in 1941.

Miss Cleaveland also had a part in organizing the Wichita Music Club in May of 1892. “Music Club Magazine” had a small article on the group when it turned 125 in 2017.

When the club was formed, there was only one music teacher for all five of Wichita’s schools.  The group asked the city’s elite to bring more music to the city. Soon a club was formed that began to tour the state. Leader Jean Mulford said the club’s purpose “is the same as it was when founded, ‘To elevate the standards of musical tastes in the city.’”  

Cleveland died on July 18, 1931 at the age of 78.  She is interred at Maple Grove Cemetery.  She has a small grave stone and a larger marker nearby.  

The Epitaph reads:

Dedicated to the Memory of Cynthia Weymouth Cleaveland who rests seventy-five feet west of this monument. Educator, friend of children, founding member of Wichita Teachers’ Association

And only the master shall praise us, and only the master shall blame, and no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame… – Rudyard Kipling

Erected by the students and teachers of Cleaveland Traditional Magnet School

2000

“Pride in Excellence”

Cleaveland School closed in 1996, students were sent to Woodman and Kelly. Later that year, Cleaveland reopened as a traditional magnet program.