Career teacher joins library board

Barry Arbreton is the newest member of the Heights Libraries' board.

Heights Libraries is pleased to announce the appointment of its newest board member, Barry Arbreton. His six-year, eight-month term began in May 2025. Arbreton replaces Anastasia McIntosh, who stepped down from the board in March after serving two months.

Arbreton grew up in Cleveland Heights, next to the Coventry Village Library, and attended the city’s public schools. At Boston University, he studied philosophy and psychology, then earned a master’s in education and a teaching certificate in early childhood education.

In his 30-plus-year career, Arbreton taught kindergarten in California and Michigan. During COVID, he organized monthly meetings with parents of his kindergarteners to help them learn how best to support their young children during that unprecedented time.

Retirement brought him back home to Cleveland Heights, and he has always maintained a connection to Heights Libraries.

“Every visit home between my college years and retirement included library visits for events and concerts with my mom, giving blood for the Red Cross, shopping for treasures from the FRIENDs of the Library, and to share in the resources (books, CDs, movies) available,” Arbreton wrote in his board application. “I would love dearly to give back even a small degree of the value I've received from the library and its stewards.”

Arbreton is looking forward to bringing his history of teaching and teamwork to his service on the library board.

"I am an educator at heart and by profession who has spent my career focused on questions of how we know what we know,” Arbreton wrote. “I revel in finding common ground as we create meaning to support growth toward fulfilling lives. I find that I also have a knack for creating teams and facilitating folks of all ages to set and accomplish well-informed goals.”

“Barry’s ability to create consensus and to understand the perspectives of educators, parents, and children will strengthen an already dedicated, diverse board,” said Nancy Levin, Heights Libraries’ director.