Board President Announces 2015 Goals
At its January 12th meeting, the Beachwood Board of Education elected Mitchel Luxenburg to serve as its president for 2015, and Dr. Brian Weiss as its vice president. Mr. Luxenburg articulated the Board's 2015 goals for the Administration during this meeting. Please watch the YouTube video below or read the condensed version of his remarks below the video.
Dear Beachwood Residents,
Happy New Year! Your Board of Education thanks you for the trust you place in us and for allowing us to serve. I consider it an honor to do my part to ensure that Beachwood remains the premier place to live, work and raise a family.
I am proud to state:
- The Beachwood City School District achieved its highest-ever Performance Index Score in 2014, ranking eighth out of 611 districts in Ohio;
- Our academic, extracurricular and athletics offerings continue to expand and our students continue to excel in them;
- Relationships between the Administration and staff, and with the City and business community, are strong;
- Per-pupil expenditures have been flat since 2010 and in fact, when adjusted for inflation, have been reduced compared with a decade ago.
All of this has been accomplished while maintaining the highest possible bond rating and managing to keep an operating levy off of the ballot since 2005, longer than any other school district in Northeast Ohio, if not the State.
While we celebrate both our new and continuing successes, we must continually look to the future. The Board's and Administration's overall goal is always to maintain and achieve even greater excellence in our academic, athletic and extracurricular programs in the most fiscally responsible and transparent manner. To do this, the Administration is always fine-tuning, enhancing and improving our offerings to provide the most effective and efficient learning environment for our students.
Each year the Board sets a series of goals for the Administration. Last year the Board highlighted for the community specific goals relating to a development plan, our athletic teams and facilities, and the conditions of our elementary schools. The Administration thoroughly addressed each of these goals and is prepared to take them to the next stages of implementation. Below is an update relating to each of these directives and representing the next steps in the continuation of the ongoing, never-ending work of our Administration.
- Development: The Board approved the creation and hiring of a director of development who is already working with the various school support organizations, activities and clubs, to assist in their respective efforts and facilitate collaboration between them and outside organizations. Director of Development Shana Wallenstein will make a formal presentation to the Board at our March 9th meeting.
- Athletics Programming: The Board moved the athletic director's reporting duties to the Superintendent which emphasizes that athletics is a K-12 initiative. The AD has developed and is perfecting an athletic plan that will improve our programs for our younger athletes to build on our 2014 successes and ensure we remain competitive in years to come. Director of Athletics Ryan Peters will present more of his plan to the Board at our February 23rd meeting.
- Athletics Facilities: In 2014, the Administration assembled a committee of administrators, coaches, student-athletes and parents to assess our athletic facilities and to make a recommendation of the improvements and changes that will best address the utilization issues facing our athletic facilities. We anticipate in the very near future retaining the services of a design firm that will work with the committee on ensuring the greatest space utilization, design and efficiency. The Administration will present a formal update to the Board at our March 23rd meeting.
- Elementary Schools Facilities: The Administration recommended that the Board expand the Fairmount facility to make it a Pre-K-through-5 building, taking Bryden and Hilltop offline to convert them to residential development and recreational space/fields, respectively. The residential development will result in approximately $125,000 extra revenue to the district per year in addition to the sale proceeds. The development of Hilltop into recreational space will provide the community with much needed green space and provide our schools with increased options to address our athletic field over-utilization. A newly-formed committee will work with a design firm to further explore this option and present its findings to the Board with a final recommendation, at which time the Board will make a determination if it wishes to proceed with the consolidation of our elementary programs into one building, or proceed with major renovations (similar to the high school project) of our existing buildings.
It is also important to let you know that while we have stretched our operating dollars, operating levies are inevitable for ALL school districts, including Beachwood. Regardless and separate from the capital issues that will be required to address our elementary and athletic facilities, we will require an operating levy within the next 12-24 months.
Be assured that your School Board will do what is necessary to ensure that Beachwood Schools remain at the top, meeting and exceeding all challenges presented in the most efficient and effective manner. We act in the best interest of the community's children and aim to uphold the highest level of fiduciary duty to our community. As always, we appreciate and thank our Administration, faculty and staff for all they do and we thank you - the community - for your unwavering support of our schools. We look forward to sharing many more successes with you over the coming year.
While we welcome you at any of our Board meetings, we also record formal presentations made to the Board and post them on our School's web site. The Board looks forward to sharing many more successes with you over the coming year.
Sincerely,
Mitchel E. Luxenburg, President
Beachwood Board of Education