Jane Addams Business Careers Center often referred to as J.A.B.C.C. is one of six Career and Technical speciality schools within Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). It is known throughout the city for its exceptional student-operated restaurant, The Executive Grill. Visitors from throughout the city rave about the entrees and desserts, with their creme brulee being a proclaimed "the best in the city". Students apply and must be selected to attend Jane Addams. The school is named after Jane Addams, the first American Woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (1931).
Jane Addams Business Careers Center is the only CMSD high school which has been recognized (as a high school, not an elementary-turned into a high school) by the State Department of Education as an Ohio School of Promise for seven consecutive years for meeting the state established goals in reading or math.'School of Promise 2001-2007
History
Between 1920 and 1930 Cleveland Public Schools, now Cleveland Metropolitan School District, built 35 schools one of which was the Girls' Opportunity School which was built in 1924 and is the school that evolved into the current Jane Addams Business Careers Center. The programs offered were for young women who had difficulty with academic study. The school offered class work in cooking, hygiene, home nursing, English, and math. Girls' Opportunity School grew to an enrollment as high as 1,500 students over the next six years and changed its name to Jane Addams School.
Additional name changes followed: Jane Addams High School, Jane Addams Vocational High School and finally Jane Addams Business Careers Center. In addition, the all-girls school began admitting young men during the 1980s and added vocational classes leading to state certification in Dental Assisting, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, Computer Repair, Finance and Credit, and Tailoring.
Originally part of the extensive vocational education program in Ohio, Jane Addams is now a Career and Technical school where students may pursue both college preparatory classes and technology based careers in computer science, business and culinary arts. In 2008, Design Lab Early College was opened within Jane Addams as a separate high school. Design Lab is an early college public high school with a focus on Art and Industrial Design.
Location Change
Jane Addams High School was originally located at 6200 Euclid Avenue, which is now the site where Pierre's Ice Cream, a once local ice cream manufacturer, stands. Although In 1991 the original building was demolished when the property was acquired by Pierre's, in 1995 two members of the Jane Addams Alumni Association dedicated a cornerstone and a salvaged brick to be placed in an obelisk on the site where the original Girls Opportunity School, Jane Addams School, Jane Addams High School, and Jane Addams Vocational High School once stood.
Up until the fall of 1968, Jane Addams Vocational High School was located at 4940 Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. The building was designed by architect John Eisenmann in 1884. The building was originally called the Sibley School. The immense red brick school had 2 separate buildings which were connected to each other by a walkway and a tunnel (which students used to commute from one building to the other). Courses taught at this location on Carnegie Avenue included Fashion Studies: (tailoring, dressmaking, textiles studies, fashion illustration), Commercial Foods studies, Cosmetology, and Nursing. Jane Addams Vocational High School for Girls relocated in the fall of 1968 to their new building at the corner of East 30th and Community College Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.
Honors and awards
From the 2001-2002 school year through 2006-2007, Jane Addams Business Careers Center has been named by the State of Ohio Department of Education as an Ohio School of Promise for meeting state set standards for reading.
In May 2008, Jane Addams was named to America's Best High Schools and awarded a Bronze Medal by U.S. News & World Report.
Academics
Jane Addams offered a full of traditional academic college preparatory subjects in addition to post-secondary option classes, so students may earn both high school and college credit at the same time. In addition to a high school diploma, students receive a state certificate in the chosen career block, providing they meet the state standards and requirements for the individual discipline.