Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education and Cleveland Heights City Council—highlights of special joint meeting 2-12-14
FEBRUARY 12, 2014
- School district website
- Facilities update
- Vacant school properties
- Superintendent search
- Cleveland Heights development projects
- Future meetings
City Council Member Janine Boyd was absent.
School district website
Angee Shaker, director of communications for the school district, spoke and demonstrated the district’s website.
Facilities update
Stephen Shergalis, director of business services for the school district, described the consultant team and construction manager put in place for the upcoming remodeling of Wiley Middle School. Wiley will be adapted into a swing school to accommodate students during construction at the high school and, subsequently, at Monticello and Roxboro middle schools. High school bidding and construction will begin the summer of 2015 and be completed by the start of school in 2017. Middle school design, bidding and construction will be during 2018–19.
Vacant school properties
Millikin: Transportation, grounds, trades, and storage functions currently at Wiley would be moved, possibly to the Millikin School building. Locations are being considered for school bus parking. Modular classrooms will be needed at Wiley. Housing vocational and technical classes present a special problem. Heights Youth Theatre may move to Millikin.
Coventry tenants: The Open Office has not been successful and will move out of Coventry by the end of February. Current tenants include Family Connections, Waldorf School, Coventry Day Care, Ensemble Theatre and Lake Erie Ink. The board is conferring with FutureHeights and Reaching Heights about taking space in Coventry.
Superintendent search
The firm of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates has been selected to help design a profile of the person to be sought. This firm did the same work with Shaker Heights and a number of other “minority majority” school systems in Ohio. An open community forum will take place Monday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Cleveland Heights High School Social Room. A survey regarding the “desired characteristics” of a new superintendent was posted online [the survey closed on Feb. 19].
Cleveland Heights development projects
Mayor Dennis Wilcox described the Turkey Ridge project to build high-end homes on the border with Cleveland at Edgehill and Overlook roads. The unique geology of the site will require pylons driven into the bedrock. Tax abatement is necessary because of competition with similar developments in Cleveland. A community meeting will be held soon. Another developer is interested in the empty lot at Coventry and Cedar Roads as a site for four units with five-year tax abatement.
Future meetings
All in attendance agreed to hold joint meetings regularly, but the next meeting was not scheduled.
LWV Observer: Blanche Valancy.
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