A small but spirited and engaged crowd joined Superintendent Jeffrey W. Patterson at Hayes Elementary School on January 18 for the first of a series of community meetings he is holding across the city over the next month to listen to what citizens have to say about the future of the Lakewood City Schools.
Winter is prime time for many high school and middle school honors festivals and with the amount of musical talent in the Lakewood City Schools, you can bet the district is well-represented at a number of the honors ensembles that have performed or will soon be performing throughout the state.
This year is shaping to be the year of the Kickers. CKLA (Cleveland Kickers Lakewood Academy), a Lakewood based youth soccer developmental program is aiming big and delivering even bigger this Spring. The girl’s side of the program has added three additional teams and is here to make a statement. CKLA Sporting Director and Lakewood High School – Girls Varsity Coach, Vladimir Godosev says, “I couldn’t be more proud of the dedication and progress this organization has made in our first two years. We started with just 5 teams, and now expanded to 12 for Spring.” He adds, “It’s been my dream to get a true developmental youth program going for kids, to not just give them a place to play, but an environment to learn, grow and experience the beautiful game at high competition.”
Once again, Lakewood City Schools has a good number of young artists that have been recognized for their artistic talent in the prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national competition. Three Lakewood High students were honored with the top award - Gold Key Winner - in the Cuyahoga County Region and will have their artwork judged on the national level next month. One of those Gold Key Winners, Elizabeth Taucher also was selected as one of only five artists in the region named a American Vision & Voice Nominee for her “best of show” Film and Animation piece, “Sydney the Giraffe” (view on YouTube at http://tinyurl.com/7pm3uuv).
The Lakewood City Schools will be hosting a Kindergarten Parent Information night for parents of preschoolers interested in learning about the District’s kindergarten program. The event will take place on Wednesday, February 22, at 7 p.m. at Hayes Elementary School’s Cafetorium. Hayes is located at 16401 Delaware Ave.
The LHS Barnstormers will stage, "The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later," Janury 26-28 at 8 p.m. in the high school’s Tryout Theater. In 2003 the Lakewood High School Barnstormers Drama Club produced the thought-provoking play, "The Laramie Project." This play was written as a look at the impact the violent and brutal murder of a gay University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, had on an entire community. The LHS Barnstormers produced it as a means of opening up a dialogue about violence, hatred, intolerance and acceptance. In short, this production was moving, eye-opening, and heart wrenching.
Lakewood Catholic Academy (LCA), a pre-K through eighth grade Catholic elementary school in Lakewood serving families across the West Shore, will hold an Open House for prospective families on Sunday, January 29, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at its campus at 14808 Lake Avenue in Lakewood. The Open House corresponds with the beginning of Catholic Schools Week, the annual celebration of Catholic education.
History can be abstract, particularly to the very young who look back at the amazing sweep of the 20th century.
Those in the “Baby Boom” generation were well-schooled in the horrors of the Holocaust, when more than 6 million Jews perished in Nazi Germany and its brutal system of concentration camps. For children who were born later, it is a much more distant event. The history of the Holocaust is certainly taught in school, but for junior high students at Lakewood Catholic Academy, history recently came to them in the form of Holocaust survivor Andrew Steinberg of Shaker Heights, who visited the school to relate his personal experience as a prisoner of the Nazis near the end of World War II.
As the Lakewood City Schools enters 2012 facing many opportunities and challenges, Superintendent Jeff Patterson has scheduled a series of community engagement meetings to inform citizens about the goals of the district, its financial standing, and to solicit the input of the community on solving the significant fiscal issues the district faces. The first one will be Wednesday, January 18 at 7 p.m. at Hayes Elementary School.
Although he doesn’t come on board with the Lakewood City Schools until next October, the District’s next treasurer, Timothy J. Penton, is eager to become part of the Lakewood community.
"I am excited to be part of the Lakewood community," said Penton during his introduction by the Lakewood Board of Education at its Jan. 3 meeting. “This is a homecoming of sorts for me,” said Penton, who grew up in Lorain County, has family in Lakewood and plans to live in Lakewood.
At a December 22 meeting, the Board of Education chose Penton, current treasurer of the Whitehall City Schools in Franklin County, as the District’s next treasurer after a thorough and months-long search led by the Ohio School Boards Association.
Penton will replace Richard Berdine, who earlier this year announced his resignation effective December 31, 2012. Penton will begin a transition period as assistant treasurer on October 1, 2012, working alongside Berdine and then assume the treasurer’s position on Jan. 1, 2013.
Congratulations to Lakewood High School Choir Director Dr. Lisa Hanson for being named the Ohio Music Education Association Teacher of the Year. Hanson was told of the honor in a surprise announcement at the conclusion of the Winter Choral Concert, December 14.
Hanson, who is in her 15th year at LHS, directs the 9th Grade Choir, Concert Choir, Symphonic Treble Choir, Symphonic Mixed Choir, Chamber Choir and also teaches AP Music Theory. Her choirs consistently earn "Superior" ratings at adjudicated events around the state.
She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music from Cleveland State and a Bachelor of Music Education from Wittenberg University. In the past, she has served as president of OMEA District 4 and has been elected to OMEA’s Board of Trustees.
Bonjour…Hola…Guten Tag…Buna Ziva…so many languages, so many ways to say hello!
Lakewood High School currently is recognizing its 50-year involvement with student exchange programs that have allowed our students to study abroad and that have brought students from all over the globe here. For many years, Lakewood students participated in the American Field Service exchange program, and for the last decade LHS been involved with the Rotary Exchange program, which is supported by Rotary International in 30 countries, including Germany, Brazil and France.
It’s a wrap! Lakewood Council of PTAs and Friends of Lakewood Public Library’s documentary film series, “School in the Cinema,” concludes on Tuesday, January 17. The last film, “Including Samuel,” will show at 7 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium.
Have you ever wondered about bullying? Earlier this fall, on October 20, there was a town hall meeting at WVIZ in Cleveland focusing on this subject. There was a live studio audience and a panel of students who had been bullied, plus Jill Rembrandt, the Associate Director of the Anti-Defamation League and Steve Dettelbach from the Ohio Defending Children Initiative. Lakewood Schools had been invited to participate. We (Liam and John, Harding Middle School 7th and 6th graders) were with three students from Lakewood High School, and our teacher, Mr. Spooner. Students from Garfield Middle School also attended.
The people introducing the panel explained that bullying is counter-productive and unacceptable, however, it has gotten worse in past years with expanding technology. Now bullying doesn’t stop when the school day ends. You can be bullied through comments and texts and once they are out there, they won’t go away (which is especially the case with the Internet).
There were four teenagers on the panel:
Luma Mufleh enthralled an overflow crowd at Garfield Middle School on December 6 as she told her tale of her journey from being a privileged child in Jordan to becoming the inspirational leader of a soccer team, the Fugees, which is made up of refugee boys from war-torn countries. Mufleh’s bond with her players eventually drove her to create a business to employ refugee family members, run a tutoring center and develop the first academy for refugees in the country.
Mufleh came to Lakewood as part of the Community Conversations series sponsored by Facing History & Ourselves and the Allstate Foundation. Facing History helps teachers develop curriculum that teaches students about making the right choices in the face of discrimination and intolerance. Lakewood High has been teaching Facing History courses for years and because of the close connection the school has had with the organization, LHS’ Race & Diversity Club, led by teacher Joe Lobozzo, was asked to be a co-host of the event.
Lakewood High School sophomore Matt Kerrigan may have a bright future in cyber security. Kerrigan recently competed in the national Cyber Foundation's competition sponsored by U.S. Cyber Challenge (USCC) and finished 18th in the nation and second in Ohio out of more than 2,000 students nationwide.
USCC’s Foundations contest included 2,034 students from 169 schools, 32 states and three U.S. territories. The online competition, conducted in collaboration with the SANS Institute, features a series of quizzes in the most important foundational fields of cyber security: networking, operating systems, and system administration. The top scoring students in each school and state will earn recognition and awards for their achievements. Those with an interest and aptitude may go on to pursue a career in cyber security and help fill the critical gap in the national cyber workforce.
Concentration, balance, perseverance, courage. These are just a few of the qualities you need to be a member of one of the more unique clubs in the Lakewood Schools: the Emerson Unicycle Club.
About 25 students meet each week after school to try to master this unusual skill. A visit to one of the practice sessions reveals that some have got it down pat while others are still snugly attached to the wall waiting for a spotter to help them along.
Coach Don Reis is joined by a number of parents and Emerson teacher/adviser Meg Fox to help the club members who are just starting out to get their “legs” under them. It seems it’s all about balance.
The Lakewood City School District Board of Education, which is seeking to replace its current treasurer, has identified six candidates who will be interviewed December 6 and December 7, 2011.
Ohio School Board Association consultant Kathy LaSota, who led the recruitment process for the Board, met with Board members on December 1 to present the results of the OSBA applicant screening.
"I was pleased with the results of OSBA‚s professional search process," Board member Linda Beebe said. "The school treasurer position is a challenging one. It is sometimes difficult to provide boards of education with the number and quality of candidates needed to fit our essential criteria. The Lakewood Board of Education, staff and community should be proud that top-notch applicants are attracted to our school district. The most difficult work is to come over the next several weeks as the Board narrows the field and identifies the successful candidate."
The Lakewood Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce that Morgan Harper, a 4th grade student at Hayes Elementary School, is the 2011 “Why I Love Lakewood” Essay Contest winner. Over 110 essays were submitted by 4th graders from the Lakewood City Schools and Lakewood Catholic Academy. A panel of seven judges used a rubric to assess the originality, organization, descriptive language, and grammar (including punctuation and spelling) of the essays, and the judges selected Morgan’s as best overall. Morgan is “proud to say I live in a community that really is a melting pot” and loves the “awesome library and great schools” plus the clubs and activities that bring people of so many ethnic and religious backgrounds together.
Long a supporter of the Horticulture program at Lakewood High School, the Lakewood Garden Club has ramped up that support with funding for a new and innovative project that will provide an outdoor learning lab for the program.
The Garden Club contributed $4,000 toward the project and raised almost all of the remainder of the nearly $20,000 needed for the project from local community sources and friends of Lakewood City Schools. Construction on the 3,664-square-foot Horticulture Outdoor Learning Lab, which will be located at the visitors’ entrance of Lakewood High School, 14100 Franklin Blvd., began on November 21.
Support Lakewood PTAs December 13 at Jammy Buggars!
The Lakewood High School Model United Nations Club turned in another outstanding performance at the Cleveland Council on World Affairs Model UN Conference held November 9 and 10. Seniors Kevin Kvasnicka, Jimmy Matthiesen and freshman Sean Weddell won a “Gavel” as the single most outstanding delegate in their committee. Matthiesen and Derek Dashiell won an Excellent Delegation Award.
The Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine have been special friends to Lakewood Catholic Academy since its opening in 2005. Many Lakewood residents will remember the difficult time when three Catholic parishes – St. James, St. Luke and St. Clement – faced the closing of their elementary schools. As a community, the parishes were determined to continue Catholic education in Lakewood and found hope when the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine – owners of the LCA campus property at 14808 Lake Avenue – agreed to lease the grounds to founders of a new, consolidated school. But the campus is much more than its beautiful lakefront location. A visit to LCA is like a walk through history, as the campus was once the site of an early convent and motherhouse for the Sisters of Charity and has been home to Catholic elementary and high school education for nearly 90 years.
The Lakewood Community Recreation and Education Commission is accepting letters of interest to fill open seats on the Adult Athletic Commission. The Adult Athletic Commission is the governing body of all adult athletic programs sponsored by the Community Recreation and Education Department of the Board of Education.
Lakewood City Academy, the district-sponsored community/charter school housed at the former Franklin Elementary School, has done such a good job in getting its students on track toward graduation that legislators in Columbus invited some of the staff down to the capital to share their strategies for success.
State Senators Peggy Lehner, Tom Sawyer and Nina Turner invited 10 of the top performing community/charter schools in the state to attend a discussion centered on appropriate and successful operating standards for drop-out recovery schools as changes in legislation regarding charter schools are in the pipeline for Spring 2012. Ohio Department of Education representatives were also participants in the discussion. The participants offered suggestions and input as to how student academic performance beyond the performance index can be accurately compared as well as measured.
Some Lakewood High School vocalists will be fortunate to be part of a very special performance later this month. On Friday, November 18, at 7:30 p.m., Trinity Cathedral downtown (2230 Euclid Ave.) is presenting Benjamin Britten’s St. Nicolas Cantata.
St. Nicolas Cantata is a 9-movement piece based on the life of St. Nicolas, who lived in the 4th century in what is now Turkey on the border of Greece. He was known for his generosity to the needy and as a protectorate of children.
Lakewood Catholic Academy (LCA), a pre-K through eighth grade Catholic elementary school in Lakewood serving families across the West Shore, will hold an Open House for prospective families on Sunday, November 20, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at its campus at 14808 Lake Avenue.
Visitors will have the opportunity to tour the lakefront campus and meet the community of teachers, current parents, faculty and staff. There will also be information about applying for financial aid, and LCA Principal Maureen Arbeznik will speak about “The Lakewood Catholic Academy Difference” at 3:00 p.m. in the school’s St. Augustine Library.
No reservations are necessary to attend the Open House.
I’ve been collecting some pretty impressive “resumes” in the form of campaign literature from local School Board candidates over the past few weeks. But when it comes to making my final selection(s) for Election Day, November 8th … it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.
The middle school years are notorious for being tough emotional ones for tweens and young teens coping with physical, emotional and social changes all while trying to succeed in school. Some more than others need extra support beyond their families and friends to help them navigate those middle years. That’s why Garfield Middle School teacher Pam Thompson started the Margaret Warner Ladies Luncheon Club six years ago with a grant from the Lakewood Alumni Foundation's Margaret Warner Educational Grants Fund – to provide a place where a group of girls could build strong self-images and friendships.
The Lakewood High School Barnstormers Club is set to put on its first performance of the year when it stages Elmer Rice’s comedy “Dream Girl” Nov. 3-5 at 8 p.m. in the high school’s Tryout Theater.
ADULT
Spanish-I Can Speak Spanish
Saturdays, Nov. 5th-Dec. 17th,
10:00-11:00am
Harding Middle School, Room 101
You’re On the Air-Voice-Overs!
Tuesday, November 8th, 7:00-9:00pm
Harding Middle School, Room 104
Top 10 Estate Planning Mistakes
Tuesday, November 8th, 7:00-8:00pm
Garfield Middle School, Room 116
Why should you care about the School Board’s updated financial forecast?
If you have kids they deserve to go to an "excellent" school for years to come. If you have no kids in the Lakewood schools, you still own property or rent and pay school taxes. If you own property - your property value can be affected by the school where you live. People like to live in cities with strong schools.
I care, so I attended the October 3, 2011 School Board meeting where district Treasurer Richard Berdine released and reviewed an updated 5-year (Fiscal Year 2012 to 2016) financial forecast for our School District. The forecast showed flat to declining revenue (property tax and state funding) and increasing costs (personal and healthcare) that will “require our attention now and into the future."
The presentation lasted approximately 20 minutes and included a PowerPoint presentation, an updated forecast and educational report, and a new 5 year financial forecast. If you are interested, it is available on the Board’s website (http://lakewoodcityschools.org/districtBoardEd.aspx).
What did the new forecast show?
The new forecast includes numerous new assumptions which reflect the economic reality the city, state and county are facing. Overall it shows an improved financial position next year (FY 2012) with a loss of $1.5 million versus the original assumption of a loss of $3.0 million driven by improved tangible personal property revenue and lower personal cost.
However, the next 4 years show deteriorating financials with losses of $5.0 million in FY 2013 ($4.9 million previously), $8.5 million in FY 2014 ($8.0 million previously), and $11.6 million in FY 2015 ($10.6 million previously). FY 2016 shows the District with a $14.5 million shortfall that needs to be addressed (no prior estimate).
The final forecasted numbers are actually worse than these numbers due to an error in the original forecast that was found during follow-up meetings with the treasurer. The corrections are discussed in detail later in this story.
Lakewood School Board President Matthew John Markling has been named the Ohio School Board Association (OSBA) Northeast Region Outstanding Board Member. Markling received the award at the Northeast Region’s annual fall conference in Akron on Oct. 5. At the fall conference, Markling was also nominated for the All-Ohio School Board Award to be announced at the OSBA’s Capital Conference in Columbus in November.
Thanks to a half-million dollar grant recently awarded to the Lakewood City Schools by the U.S. Department of Justice, Lakewood is set to become a national leader in the effort to prevent sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking among teens and adolescents. Lakewood City Schools is one of approximately 10 districts in the nation selected to participate in this grant program.
Fall is the time for the Ohio Music Education Association to select members for its All-State music ensembles. Once again, Lakewood High will be well-represented in the All-State Orchestra, All-State Choir and All-State band. The groups will perform in February at the OMEA's conference in Columbus.
Members of OMEA's Northeast Region Orchestra have also been selected and all 13 of the Lakewood High students who auditioned on Sept. 24 for this select group were chosen. Members for OMEA's All-State Orchestra were chosen from those who auditioned for Region and out of the 13 who auditioned, six were named to the All-State group and three were named alternates. The six selected for All-State is the highest number for any school in Northeast Ohio.
The 2011 edition of Lakewood High School’s Cinema yearbook has been recognized as outstanding by the American Scholastic Press Association.
Do you enjoy reading? Do you have some extra time on your hands? Do you get a kick out of working with children? If so, Lakewood City Schools needs you.
The Lakewood City School Community Recreation and Education Department is looking for your feedback. We have put together a survey to get your input into the activities and programs we offer, so that we can serve this great community in the best way possible. It is our mission to provide safe and meaningful recreational and educational opportunities for kids and adults of all ages. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey at http://tinyurl.com/4xrwovy, which will help us to meet your wants and needs in planning for future recreation and education opportunities in Lakewood. We are always striving to make our programs the best that they can be.