Since 2020, Cleveland Documenters have played a part in shaping the way citizens engage with local government. Documenters are residents who are trained and paid to take notes at local government meetings, creating a new form of public record. Meet members of the Cleveland Documenters community in our regular feature: Documenters community profiles.
Gayle Gadison is recently retired from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). She spoke to Signal Cleveland about her plans post retirement and the future of her role in civic engagement.
Good afternoon. You shared that you learned about the Cleveland Documenters through your work at CMSD. Can you tell us a little more about that?
I was the Social Studies content manager at CMSD for 50 years. I retired this past May. In 2021, myself and Connor Morris from Ideastream launched a program called Unsilenced Voices, which was an extension of Civics 2.0. We created that program to encourage the students to become more engaged in the civic process and to give them a platform to express themselves.
A part of their work was to document CMSD board meetings and other relevant meetings. I had never heard of Documenters until then. Once I saw the work that they were doing, I was very impressed, so I decided to join. The first meeting I covered didn’t go well for me, because I had some technical difficulties on my end. I took a step back for a while before accepting assignments again after that, but I’m getting back into the swing of things now that I have more free time.
Prior to documenting, what other type of civic engagement were you involved in?
Well, I live in Shaker Heights, but I always say my presence is in Cleveland. Through the years I did a ton of advocating on behalf of the students at CMSD. Whether it be funding for programs like Civics 2.0, discussing the curriculum and what we are teaching our youth, or addressing the lack of resources that prevent our teachers from providing the best education. I’ve always been someone who speaks up when they see something is not right.
I have a son who is autistic. Children with special needs require more attention, which ultimately means more resources. I’ve had to advocate for him to make sure the schools he has attended are giving him the best possible chance to succeed.
When we moved to the street we currently live on, the street was very dangerous. It is a narrow, two-way street, and people would park on both sides of the road. It was hard to get in and out of our driveway sometimes and hard to see other cars coming. People would speed down the street. And we had little children living on the street, so myself and my neighbors were very concerned. I got support from my neighbors and wrote a letter to the City of Cleveland, expressing our concerns.
The city eventually followed up with me. It took some time, but now, they have prohibited parking on the street, which myself and my neighbors were very happy about. In a way, I’ve been documenting before I even knew what it was.
Is there anything that you learned while documenting that has stuck with you over time?
It’s funny, when my students in Civics 2.0 would document meetings at Cleveland City Council, they would always say to me that they feel like the agencies don’t like to try different things, they do everything the same over and over again. I would have to agree with that.
You would think after all these issues we’ve had with gun violence and crime that we would be looking to implement new policies or try different approaches to addressing different issues. There have been some changes, but I believe we could be more aggressive and take things a step farther in our approach.
That’s why I am so hopeful for this next generation of young people. We have got to change it up in Cleveland. I think new voices and energy is the best way to do that.
Do you have an agency that you have enjoyed covering so far?
It’s hard to say. I’ve only covered a couple of the Cuyahoga County Council meetings so far. I feel like I need to document a few other meetings before I can answer that.
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If you were trying to convince someone to become a Cleveland Documenter, what would you tell them?
Documenting makes you really focus on local government, which we don’t always do. We see a lot of the national news dominating the media, but that local piece is what shapes our everyday lives. When people understand these agencies, who they are, what they do and how their tax dollars are being spent, I think that can be an avenue to civic activation.
What are some of the things that you are looking forward to in your retirement?
I plan on continuing to engage with the community, especially around getting residents to vote and getting our youth to vote. We have to be able to hold the powers that be accountable when they are not doing the right things. That accountability comes from informed citizens. For me, informed citizens participate in community politics, vote and engage with others.
I’m also working on a project called The Democracy Lab: Civics under the Microscope. It is designed for people of all ages. We want to provide them the information that they may not have gotten in a high school civics class. We did our first pop-up at the Hough Festival last month. We had games and prizes for the winners. The people there really enjoyed it. We are kind of making things up on the fly as we go, so it’s been a lot of fun.