table of contents

Sixth & St. Clair

CEO WINS NATIONAL RECOGNITION
The Council of Great City Schools, a coalition of 56 urban districts, has recognized Cleveland schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett with its annual award for outstanding contributions to urban education.

With the award, Byrd-Bennett receives a $10,000 college scholarship to present to a high school senior from the Cleveland district. Past recipients include United States Secretary of Education Rodney Paige, who won two years ago as Houston superintendent.

PTA GROWTH BRINGS AWARD
The Ohio Parent Teacher Association awarded Cleveland’s PTA for the largest annual increase in membership, about 31 percent. The local group’s membership increased 31 percent.

The number of Cleveland schools with a PTA chapter grew to 27 from 20 last year, says Machelle Gully, parent and East Side advisor for the Cleveland PTA. Gully says she helped start chapters at schools such as Harry E. Davis Middle School and Stephen E. Howe Elementary.

PTA president Henrietta Long says the association is important because it provides state and national conferences, parent training, information and advocacy materials, and opportunities for children and schools to participate in state and national competitions. “If you can do something in the school and involve the state [PTA] and the national, that’s all the better,” Long says.

Still, present membership is still low in comparison with the past. Mary Mason, past president and great grandmother of two Cleveland school children, says she remembers the 1970s, when all Cleveland schools had PTA chapters.

NEW BOARD MEMBER APPOINTED
Bratenahl resident Elaine A. Murphy took her seat on the Cleveland School Board in September, filling the vacancy left by the March resignation of Douglas D. Fear.

Murphy, who worked 14 years as a purchasing agent for Cleveland area companies, says she will bring experience negotiating and writing contracts to her work with the board. A former resident of

Cleveland’s west side, she previously served on the board of the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation.

She says her interest in the Cleveland schools led her to apply for a board position when Mayor Michael R. White first appointed board members in 1998. She wasn’t selected then but decided to try again when Fear left.

“I guess they felt I had something to offer,” she says. “I’m enthusiastic and learning.”

PERSONNEL CHANGES
The district’s Chief Operations Officer Michael Eugene, a key staffer in efforts to rehabilitate Cleveland’s school facilities, resigned December 21. Eugene had initially resigned from the district a year ago, but stayed on during its successful $335 million capital bond issue campaign and afterward to launch the facilities project. In a statement, Byrd-Bennett said she had no immediate plans to replace Eugene. She noted that other large urban districts do not have a COO position and that Cleveland might adopt such a model as central office undergoes restructuring.

In other staff changes, Peter Robertson was promoted to Chief Research and Information Officer. His new responsibilities will include overseeing the district’s Office of Management Information Services in addition to his present duties as director of the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment.

Management Information Services formerly reported to the COO.
Compiled by Piet van Lier and Caitlin Scott