Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education meeting highlights

FEBRUARY 21, 2023, work session

• Academic success update

Present were President Beverly Wright, Dan Heintz, James Posch, and Jodi Sourini. Malia Lewis was absent. Also present were Superintendent Elizabeth Kirby and Treasurer Scott Gainer. 

Academic success update 

The superintendent’s team presented an overview of the data collected for attendance, literacy, mathematics, and graduation for the first semester of the 2022-2023 school year. The data were compared against the district’s goals and the progress being made toward those goals. 

Attendance - The district is very close to its attendance goal of at least 89.4 percent but is investigating ways to decrease the chronic absenteeism rate. Student attendance has increased from last year.

Literacy – Third- and sixth-grade students were not on track to meet the literacy goals set by the district. Tenth-grade students were approaching being on track for this goal.

Mathematics – Third-, sixth-, and ninth-grade students were not on track to meet the mathematics goals.

Graduation - The district’s goal is a graduation rate of 91.4 percent. District administrators anticipate that the goal will be reached by the summer graduation.

The board discussed the goals the district had set. These goals were selected with the intent to stretch for excellence. Mr. Heintz wanted the public to understand that barely a majority of students achieves many of the standards set by the state. Also discussed was whether teachers using materials that were not board-approved was a problem or a mark of good teaching. 

LWV Observer: Robin Koslen.

Documents for all board meetings can be accessed from the Board of Education webpage: www.chuh.org/BoardofEducation.aspx. Go to “BoardDocs” in the menu; on BoardDocs go to “MEETINGS” in the top menu; click on “Agenda.” Board meetings are livestreamed on the district’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/CHUHSchools) and recorded for later viewing.