Black and Gold’s merger with Heights Observer

A year ago, I wrote of The Black and Gold’s growing pains as the student newspaper of Cleveland Heights High School moved its production from the classroom setting of a journalism elective to that of a club produced publication.  The process was painful: we encountered logistical, technical and financial difficulties as we competed with the allure of other extra-curricular groups, sports teams, after-school jobs and the various demands of home and school in order to keep The Black and Gold alive. However, we did it – if not prolifically then, at least, in spirit – when we published two issues last year. 

We are now undergoing a new spurt of growth that we are relieved to reveal has no pain attached to it, whatsoever.  After receiving an enormously generous grant through the Cleveland Heights High School Alumni Foundation, with Eric Silverman, ’87, as its president, we were able to accept The Heights Observer’s offer of merging with them as a tri-monthly school year insert.  With the start of the 2010 academic year, we will appear once in the fall, winter and spring, providing Heights Observer readers with news about our sports’ teams, music departments, clubs, opinions, politics, social activities and the “comings and goings” of  life at Cleveland Heights High School. 

We look forward to working with Deanna Bremer Fisher, Executive Director of FutureHeights, as well as the rest of her staff, as we embark on this new marriage. We all benefit with this merger: readers of The Heights Observer will become a part of the Cleveland Heights High School community, sharing in our triumphs and defeats.  We, in turn, become part of a greater community outside of our school campus.

Winston Churchill once said, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.” We are confident that we are heading the right way.