CH-UH voters will elect two new school board members on Nov. 3

Nancy Peppler/Eric Coble.

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Residents of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District will elect two new members of the five-member CH-UH Board of Education this fall. The seats of Nancy Peppler and Eric Coble, who each served two four-year terms, are up for grabs as neither is running for re-election.

Three candidates will be on the Nov. 3 ballot: James Posch, CEO of Test.com Inc. and former president of the CH-UH Public Library System’s Board of Directors; Katura Simmons, an office administrator for QualaWash Holdings, LLC, and PTA Council co-president for 2014; and Beverly R. Wright.

Peppler and Coble, residents of the Coventry Village neighborhood of Cleveland Heights, were elected to the board in 2007, following the contentious closing of Coventry Elementary School.

“Part of why Nancy and I ran was in response to the seemingly periodic closing of a school in the name of efficiency without some larger facilities plan in place,” said Coble. “We have accomplished that through the Master Facilities Plan, which, while it does include closed schools (notably Wiley), provided a road map for how we want our district to look for the next 50 years, and dramatically improves all the remaining school buildings. We also leave a new five-year strategic plan and a widely supported new superintendent that I think will take our district to the next level in the coming years.” 

The two also wanted to rebuild community trust. “I think faith in the board is better than when we were elected,” Coble said, “as witnessed by two passed levies and one passed bond issue, though we’ve certainly taken some hits along the way, as shown by the failure of the recent levy.”  

Coble acknowledged that although test scores and other measurables are up from when the two were elected, “there is still a long way to go to be where we all want to be.” He cited both his increased travel schedule and that fact that the last of his children will graduate from the district this spring as among his reasons for deciding not to run for reelection. “I think it’s good for fresh, enthusiastic voices to join the board,” he said.

“Overall I’m proud of what we’ve done, though it will never seem like enough,” added Coble. “I leave optimistic about our community, and eager to see what our district will look like in the near future.”