Staff Board of Trustees
This is the first in a series of information updates about the five small schools at Heights High.
Small Schools Information Night is on Tuesday, October 12, 7:00-8:30pm, in the Heights High Auditorium.
The Small Schools initiative is in its infancy stage at Heights High. This first stage is focused on improving relationships. The staff is working to make the relationships strong between the four important groups at the high school: staff, students, parents and community. When people know each other well, student achievement and communities are stronger.
Toward that end, the three existing small schools held an orientation meeting before school started to inform students about the logistics of the start of school, to get students excited about the opportunities for the new school year and to start the process of really knowing and understanding students.
Each school is working to improve student achievement for all students. Here are a few examples of how the schools are working on that goal:
The P.R.I.D.E. School has student “greeters,” teachers at each door near the P.R.I.D.E. School. In the mornings, the role of these teachers is to welcome the students to the building and in the afternoons, the teachers ask the students if they have everything they need to complete their homework. During third period, when most P.R.I.D.E. students have lunch, teachers will staff the Achievement Center where students can do homework and get help with assignments. The center, located in the area overlooking the Social Room, will soon be open before and after school also.
The R.E.A.L School is connecting to the community in several ways. They are working with Case professors (and Cleveland Heights residents) Drs. David and Alice Kolb who are knowledgeable in experiential learning practices. Principal Marc Aden and lead teacher Mark Sack will speak to the CH-UH Non-Profit Network next week. “We want the local non-profit leaders to know about our school. We hope to form a partnership with many of the organizations so our students can both learn and serve,” said Principal Mark Aden.
Three Renaissance and one 11-12th grade teacher traveled to Columbus for a summer seminar on differentiating instruction. This practice allows a teacher to instruct a classroom of students at different levels using tests to access what students know, data from the tests and targeted classroom instruction to reach each student. The teachers who took the seminar then lead a discussion session on these methods for the Renaissance staff. The staff is also working together to incorporate the state standards-the list of skills that a student should have in high school- into the curriculum. Steve Young, teacher leader for the school reports that the Socratic seminar discussion method- a hallmark of the Renaissance School- has been exciting to implement in his classroom. “The kids caught on quickly and had some great input, respected others opinions and used the reading to support their views,” he said.
During the second week of school some students were moved into different classes for two reasons: to place more students in classes with students and teachers from their small schools and to alleviate a few large classes. Some student schedules in the 11 and 12 Grade School were also changed to lower class size.
Heights High was closed all summer for improvements, some were driven by small schools and some were necessary for maintenance and upkeep of the building. The following is a list of work done over the summer:
Each school has an office that houses the principal, teacher leader, a secretary and two counselors.
Two teams are in the planning year for the additional small schools that will open in August of 2005. Principal Terrance Menefee and teacher leader John Stephens are leading one of the schools and principal Marc Engoglia and teacher Jeanne Lee will lead the other school. They are in the research phase this month and will have their development committees of teachers, administrators, parents and community members on board soon to help them in the deeper planning. They are located in room 106.
Darcel Williams, Administrative Principal, Heights High 371-7101, D_Williams@chuh.org
Marc Aden, R.E.A.L. Principal
320-3129 M_Aden@chuh.org
Mark Sack, R.E.A.L teacher leader
320-3137 M_Sack@chuh.org
James Reed, Renaissance Principal
320-3111 J_Reed@chuh.org
Steve Young, Renaissance teacher leader
320-3141 S_Young@chuh.org
Janet Tribble, P.R.I.D.E. Principal
320-3116 J_Tribble@chuh.org
Crystal Maclin, P.R.I.D.E. teacher leader
320-3130 M_Maclin@chuh.org
Small Schools 4 and 5 principals and teachers leaders:
Terrance Menefee, principal
320-3183 Te_Menefee@chuh.org
John Stephens, teacher leader
320-3092 J_Stephens@chuh.org
Marc Engoglia, principal
320-3094 M_Engoglia@chuh.org
Jeanne Lee, teacher leader
320-3148 J_Lee@chuh.org
Steven Bowman, Transitional School Principal
320-3051 S_Bowman@chuh.org
Larry Mlynek, 11th grade principal 320-3051 M_Mlynek@chuh.org
Robert Black, 12th grade principal 320-3093 R_Black@chuh.org
Small Schools Coordinator Meghan Zehnder 320-3004 M_Zehnder@chuh.org
