A Message from Board of Education Chair, Denise W. Link
I am honored to represent the students, families, and local community as the Chair of the Board of Education. Mayor Frank Jackson first appointed me to the Board in 2007 and appointed me as Chair in 2009. On July 1, 2011, the Mayor reappointed me to another term on the Board and as Board Chair. I look forward to the excitement and challenges of the new school year.
Our School District begins this new school year with a new Chief Executive Officer. The Board appointed Eric Gordon as our new CEO. He began his new duties on July 1, 2011. Mr. Gordon had served as the Chief Academic Officer for CMSD since 2007. We all look forward to working together with him to provide an excellent education to all of Cleveland’s children. Our shared goals for this school year are 1) improve the District’s graduation rate; 2) move our lower performing schools out of Academic Emergency or Academic Watch; 3) increase enrollment at our higher performing schools; 4) develop evaluation systems that reward and support effective principals and teachers; and 5) revise our Districts Master Facility Plan.
Our Board is proud to open two new school buildings this year. Thanks to the voters’ support of the Issue 14 bond issue in 2001, we continue to make progress on our capital improvement plan, with the opening this fall of two new K-8 school buildings: Anton Grdina School and Mound School. This makes a total of twenty-seven new and five renovated school buildings that we have opened since 2005. These openings are another important step toward providing world class educational facilities for all of our students, while contributing to the revitalization of Cleveland neighborhoods.
This year the Board is also focused on improving our School District through the continued implementation of our Academic Transformation Plan.
As Board of Education Chair, I am fortunate to work with a dedicated, volunteer Board, made up of Board Vice Chair Louise Dempsey, other veteran members Willetta Milam, Robert Heard, Iris Rodriguez and Patricia Crutchfield, along with our newest members Shaletha Mitchell and Eric Wobser. Working closely with Mayor Frank Jackson and our new CEO Eric Gordon, we are committed to the goal of making the Cleveland Municipal School District a premier school district. We appreciate the continued and engaged support of all students, parents, teachers, staff and community members. We all need to work together to help our students achieve academic success.
The Board is always interested in hearing comments and concerns from the public. You may call the Board Office at 216-574-8585 with your input.
Thank you for your help in making the school year a success for our CMSD students.