Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education meeting highlights [10-4-11]

OCTOBER 4, 2011

• Website praised
• Levy campaign committee
• Appeal to vote no on Issue 2
• Race to the Top (RttT) report
• Facilities improvements
• City councils support levy
• Heights High in the news

All board members were present.

Website praised

The national award of merit from the National School Public Relations Association recognized the quality of the district’s website.

Levy campaign committee

The co-chairs of a citizen-initiated campaign for the levy on the fall ballot explained their activities. They recognized the district for its excellent financial stewardship and noted that the success of the schools depends on the community. The committee was formed because people believed that the levy campaign must be mounted by parents and other citizens in the district. They have estimated that $70,000 will be needed for the campaign, of which they have raised about 75 percent, mostly from district parents. They distributed campaign literature on Oct. 1, despite the rainy weather.

Appeal to vote no on Issue 2

Ari Klein, vice president of the Cleveland Heights Teachers Union, asked citizens to repeal Senate Bill 5 by voting no on Issue 2. He urged the board to make a statement on Issue 2. He pointed out that the district administration and union collaborate well and that Senate Bill 5 erects barriers to such collaboration. 

Race to the Top (RttT) report

Progress has been on target. The Legacy School has now met all criteria for the RttT $750,000 Innovation Award, so its New Tech Network RttT activities will be fully funded. The next phase in the RttT plan involves professional development for teachers.

Facilities improvements

The board unanimously approved two contracts for facilities master planning and constructability services. The contracts are the first steps to the board’s charge after the Citizens’ Facilities Committee reported earlier this summer. The committee had concluded that substantial permanent improvement dollars were being spent to “band-aid” outdated facilities. Moreover, about $40 million worth of improvements would be needed just to bring structures up to the original construction standards. Therefore, the committee recommended that the district 1) redirect a portion of the permanent improvement dollars toward developing a comprehensive facilities plan and 2) contract with professionals to develop the best improvement plan.

For the master plan contract, a team of three architectural and engineering consultants was selected, one of which, Studio Techne, is a local firm chosen in part to spearhead community engagement and communication. The constructability services contract (costs and budget) will be managed by a single firm. The Ohio School Facilities Commission provided guidance and also sat in on the interviews of the candidate firms.

Responding to questions from the board, Business Services Director Steven Shergalis said that employees of the contracted firms will be monitored by the district, and that electrical and mechanical systems have been determined to be obsolete and will be replaced. In addition, one of the architectural firms, Fielding-Nair, assessed the buildings for their educational effectiveness in order to determine how the buildings support the educational programs. This assessment differs from the two traditional assessments the district obtained, which evaluated characteristics, such as building construction and mechanical systems.

City councils support levy

Cleveland Heights City Council has unanimously endorsed the levy. Also, University Heights City Council is drafting a letter of endorsement.

Heights High in the news

The Heights High marching band played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a Fox News broadcast, and the football team, at the time of this board meeting, had a 6-0 record.

LWV observer:Cassandra Talerico-Kaplin

These meeting summaries are abstracted from LWV observers’ written reports. The summaries have been edited and prepared by Anne McFarland, Charlene Morse and Maryann Barnes. To receive e-mail postings of full reports, send an e-mail to mbarnes9515@gmail.com or join through Google groups using “lwv-chuh observer reports” as a search phrase.

These reports contain member observation and selected highlights of public meetings and are not official statements of the Heights Chapter of the League of Women Voters Cuyahoga Area. This disclaimer must accompany any redistribution of these reports.