I have a short column this week because I’m working on something big to lay on you next week, a project that is taking some time to put together, but please don’t misread the brevity of this piece to underestimate its gravity.

This is important.

For the past week, as part of our Cleveland’s Promise series, we’ve been telling you about the crisis facing the family support specialists in the Cleveland Public Schools. These are the people who make the critical difference in a students' success, by spotting their special needs and connecting them to needed services -- often the social services funded by the Cuyahoga County taxes we all pay.

Leila Atassi, our Public Interest and Advocacy editor, introduced the subject with a column setting the stage for the second part of the series. (In the first part, reporters Cameron Fields and Hannah Drown were embedded in a fourth-grade classroom, to illustrate the challenges of educating children in poverty. In part 2, they follow the students into fifth grade.)

Leila explained that a funding shortfall threatens the family support specialists and made a persuasive case for Cuyahoga County Council to make up the difference. Cuyahoga County is the government agency charged with providing social services. Not Cleveland. Not the school district. Cuyahoga County government. (You can read Leila’s piece at https://tinyurl.com/councilcrisis )

Through the week, Hannah and Cameron told stories about how the specialists came to the rescue in tough situations to keep the children learning. You can find the stories at https://cleveland.com/promise

These were powerful pieces, and we hope they moved you. If they did, you can do something about it. You can write to or call Cuyahoga County Council members to tell them to stop failing Cleveland’s children and provide the money to keep the specialists employed.

These are the same council members who squandered $66 million in slush funds they controlled, spending millions on such things as a golf clubhouse. Yet here they are balking at their responsibility to children in need.

Some council members are trying to hold on to the money by creating phony divides, by trying to say they don’t have a responsibility here and that other government entities do. Don’t buy it. It is solely their responsibility. We all voted for taxes to help exactly the kinds of children who are featured in Cleveland’s Promise. Council holds the purse strings of those taxes.

You can contact all of the council members, or, if you wish, just the one that represents you. Most people have no idea who their council member is, so you can find out by visiting https://tinyurl.com/findmycouncilmember

Here are the office addresses and phone numbers of each council member.

District 1 - Patrick Kelly

Office: (216) 698-2047 ----pkelly01@cuyahogacounty.us

District 2 - Dale Miller

Office: (216) 698-2011 damiller@cuyahogacounty.us

District 3 - Martin J. Sweeney

Office: (216) 698-2230 mjsweeney@cuyahogacounty.us

District 4 - Scott Tuma

Office: (216) 698-2013 stuma@cuyahogacounty.us

District 5 - Michael Gallagher

Office: (216) 698-2015 mjgallagher@cuyahogacounty.us

District 6 - Jack Schron