CLEVELAND — It's been more than 10 years since students last walked the halls of South High School, but soon a different type of student will walk through its hallways bringing new life to the building.

​​"We want to see this activated again," said Ward 12 Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli. "Get rid of the boarded up windows, put in some really nice landscaping and create a place that's attractive as a training center as any place around."

South High School, in Cleveland's Slavic Village, closed its doors in 2010. On Monday, city council closed an agreement with Cleveland Metropolitan School District to buy the building and turn it into the new training facility for Cleveland police, fire and emergency services workers.

The city bought the building from the school district for almost $450,000.

"One of the unique components about us owning the facility, we won't have to rent it," Brancatelli said. "We will own it. That means we can do more classes. We can do classes often and we can have them staggered as we're going through. And with a facility this big as one class is going through training another class can come through behind them and you can have things happen concurrently."

It's a move city council hopes improves recruiting and retention of public safety workers. council members hope it encourages those from the city to want to protect and serve their hometown, especially as there's a shortage of public safety workers nationwide.

"That's really important that they're from our community, that they know about our community, and that they're trained in our community," said Brancatelli.

The training facility will be unique in that it will give police, fire and EMS a chance to train together since they already work different scenes together.

"It kind of creates a bond that the folks are training together both the physical training as well as the education side," said Brancatelli.

The building is already home to the Stella Walsh Recreation Center which will remain in the space. The new training facility will also have classrooms for Cleveland students to learn about public safety careers.

"It's going to have an opportunity to start them young, get them involved and understand what careers can be both in the safety forces as well as in public service," said Brancatelli.

EMS and fire will be able to use the pool to practice water rescues. The football field, track and gym will all be used for physical training. And there are some spaces that will be open to the public as well.

As a graduate of South High School, Brancatelli is excited to see the building come back to life.

"It's exciting that we're going to repurpose this and not going to hit the bulldozer," he said. "Having a training center here in the heart of Slavic Village is incredibly important."

The city plans to have the training facility open as soon as next year.