I want to continue first with a bit more explication of the history of our schools. As I mentioned in my first post, the CHUH schools were once the envy of the nation, topped only by our neighbors in the Shaker Heights system.
Our success at that time was not inevitable, by any means. Instead, it was the outcome of a confluence of many factors. (Among these were a widespread civic pride in our schools, perhaps raising a chicken and egg problem for future historians.) Looking back to the time of the original CHHS at Cedar and Lee in 1925, one is struck, first, by the prominence of the location chosen. Central to the community and at the confluence of two major roads, the school enjoyed pride of place. It was large, although not, as it turned out, large enough for the burgeoning school population it attracted, so additions were constructed every few years both there and at many of our other school sites. Here is a link to a helpful history.
Second, I want to address the issue of educational achievement. A lot of folks are rightly concerned about the the educational aspects of our schools. That makes sense, since, after all, education is their primary objective. Many of these people object to spending money on “bricks and sticks” when, as they see it, the schools are not serving our children’s needs adequately. Here’s how I see it:
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One of the biggest educational problems we face, as a District, arises from the confluence of several social trends:
An increasing proportion of economically advantaged families choose to use one or more of the many excellent private schools in our area. In doing so, they remove many of the best and brightest students from our public school rolls. [Family socio-economic status is the number one most important and reliable predictor of academic success, overshadowing all others. This holds true across all areas of the country.]
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The collapse of the housing market and the general economic slowdown have hurt our community. As more homes fall into foreclosure, struggling homeowners seek other options. This has resulted in an increasing population of rental tenants, many of whom are themselves economically disadvantaged.
An increasing proportion of our students are from economically disadvantaged homes, often from single-parent families with that one parent working two jobs to try to make ends meet. This is laudable, but the fact remains that kids who don’t get to see and interact with their parents on a regular basis do not do as well in school as those who do.
An increasing proportion of our students are from transient families who are in the district for only brief periods of their schooling. Many of these children arrive with skill deficits of many grade levels, leaving us with, for example, 10th graders who have only second grade reading skills. Compounding this problem is the fact that many children move in and back out and back into the district in a single school year as a result of unstable family economics or other dynamics.
In spite of all this, as I mentioned earlier, our district is one of only a few in the State to earn straight-A’s in all four Value Added categories (Overall, Gifted, Lowest 20%, and Students with Disabilities.)
We should do better, a whole lot better, in other measures as well. But our facilities are, in fact, holding us back, though they are obviously not the only factors at play.
The very real educational progress we are making comes about in spite of poor physical facilities: overheated or freezing classrooms, poor lighting, an incessant barrage of background noise, etc. Our facilities should help our students by providing quiet, well-lit, comfortable spaces with good indoor air quality. Issue 81 will help with that.
Recent Heights graduates have gone on to educational success at top colleges and universities throughout the United States: Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Carnegie-Mellon, CWRU, Princeton, to name a few. Others have achieved success directly in their chosen career fields. This information should reassure those who worry. Kids who are in our district for the long-haul generally do well, often extremely well.
Additionally, the facilities renovation program that begins with Issue 81 will result in long-term operational savings. Our energy consumption can be slashed by as much as 80%. The current lull in the historic rise of energy prices is unlikely to persist much beyond the current decade, so the savings in this area alone will become significant. Further, our antiquated mechanical systems require constant maintenance, especially as they approach the end of their useful lives. Modern, clean, efficient systems will require less staff labor, and the eventual closing of two elementary schools will reduce operating costs still further. The ongoing operational cost savings can be used to help with teacher salaries.
Let me be very clear: I do not see Issue 81, and the entire school facilities project as a panacea for all that ails our schools. But I do see it as a necessary step in the right direction and as a partial fulfillment of our civic obligation to the next generation, and the ones to follow.
Next time, I hope to address the question of affordability.