LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / Cleveland Heights – University Heights Board of Education meeting highlights [online 2-2-2016]

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

• Awards and recognitions
• Public address
• Field trips
• Safe school strategies
• Donations
• Student harassment
• Facilities Accountability Committee openings
• Joint meeting with library board

All board members were present.

Awards and recognitions

Superintendent Talisa Dixon recognized students who won awards in the Cleveland Heights Martin Luther King, Jr. essay contest; Heights High’s January student of the month; the career tech student of the month; and the career tech program of the month.

Public address

Heights Coalition for Public Education:Katura Simmons, PTA Council president, stated that the position of the Heights Coalition for Public Education is that test scores should not be the defining factor of a school district. Rallies with the theme “We Are More Than a Score” will be held at all CH-UH district elementary schools on Feb. 17 from 8:30 to 10 a.m.

Field trips

The board approved the following field trips:

• Monticello and Roxboro middle school students to the Model UN Conference, March 13-16
• Heights High jazz ensembles to Ohio University and Holmes County, Ohio, April 15-17
• Heights High French Club students to Niagara Falls, Ont., Canada, April 16
• Heights High Robotics Club to California University of Pennsylvania in California, Penn., May 20-21

Safe school strategies

The district’s safe school strategy includes collaborations with the communities and the police; incident management teams; six part-time Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s deputies at Heights High; and emergency procedures in place in all schools. Specific strategies for special needs students include the availability of case managers with whom to discuss and report any problem, incident or harassment. Communication with special needs students and their families will be a focus. Along with the effort to promote positive student behavior and understand underlying factors in behavior problems, every building has a student assistance team that includes the counselor and social worker.

Donations

The board accepted donations to seven schools ranging in value from $198.20 to Boulevard Elementary School to $18,497 to Heights High.

Student harassment

On behalf of the board, administration, staff, parents and community members, Board President Kal Zucker expressed disgust over a recent incident of student-on-student harassment, and stated that the district must not be defined by one non-compassionate act. He advised that students need encouragement to make positive choices.

Facilities Accountability Committee openings

The board has received a number of applications for two openings for community members on the Facilities Accountability Committee (FAC),  and will make the appointments at the next meeting. They will also assess how the FAC is working and discuss the possibility of a second such committee to monitor and report on the upcoming middle school projects.

Joint meeting with library board

A joint meeting with the library board will be arranged for March.

LWV Observer: Nancy Dietrich.

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 of Greater Cleveland. This disclaimer must accompany any redistribution of these reports.