In case you haven't had time to listen to the previous 8 episodes, this episode contains the highlights of those episodes. Featuring 14 guests sharing for a total of 16 minutes and 31 seconds, these subject matter experts ranging from the Assistant Director of Buildings and Grounds, to Board members, teachers, and residents discuss why they believe that passing Issue 13 is vital for Shaker Heights and why voting yes is in the best interests of our students and residents.

You can hear all the previous episodes by going here.

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The Committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and direct efforts towards ensuring their passage.

Dr. Donna McIntyre Whyte is a long time resident of Shaker Heights. Dr. Whyte moved to Shaker in 1982, reared her family here, earned her Ph.D. at Case Western Reserve University, and now teaches at Cleveland State University. Dr. Whyte explains why she chose the elementary school (Moreland) for her children and how she became involved in the school system, beginning with service on the PTO and eventually serving on the Board of Education.

While Dr. Whyte's story arc is familiar to some, it gives her a unique perspective on the role public schools play in the character and legacy of Shaker Heights. Because she served on the Board of Education in the 1990s, she also has experience with school levies. She has experience in weighing the pros and cons of proposing a levy to taxpayers and the degree to which any Board deliberates that action.

Though her children have graduated from Shaker schools and her youngest grandson graduates in June 2024, Dr. Whyte supports the levy, on that will not directly benefit her family.

Listen to why Dr. Whyte supports the levy and what she believes it means to the city of Shaker Heights and its residents.

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The Committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and direct efforts towards ensuring their passage.

The majority of residents of Shaker Heights do not have children in the Shaker Heights school system. For that reason, we feel it is important to hear from members of this constituency. So in this episode, we talk with four Shaker school district taxpayers, three of whom live in Shaker Heights and one who lives in the city of Cleveland (near Shaker Square) and pays Shaker Heights school taxes. Three of our guests don’t have children or grandchildren in the school district while one of them has two young boys who will be eligible for preK in the coming years.

We asked those who have no children in the district, why they support the levy. Conventional wisdom says that those who have children in the district will support the levy but those who don’t may not. But these three do support the levy . . . and their reasons are informative.
One participant, who has no children and doesn’t live in Shaker Heights proper, is a passionate supporter of the levy. Her reasons may surprise you.

To the young professional and mother whose children have yet to enter the Shaker system, we asked why she is choosing to send her children to Shaker schools and given the cost of the levy, why she supports it.

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and to direct efforts toward ensuring their passage.

In this episode, we talk with Heather Weingart and Jeffrey Issacs, both members of the School Board for the Shaker Heights School District. I asked Heather and Jeff a series of questions relating to the financial cost of the levy as well as a number of issues associated with how the Board determined the needs to be addressed by the levy. In addition, Heather and Jeff field a number of questions posed on social media.

The questions discussed include but are not limited to the following:

• How did the Board identify the needs to be addressed by the levy?
• What process was used to prioritize those needs?
• When was the last time the Board went to the citizens for a capital levy and what lessons were learned from that experience?
• How did the Board obtain community input for this levy?
• Describe the meetings the Board had with members of the Shaker Architects and Planning Committee and what impact, if any, those meetings had on the final proposed designs for the levy?
• During the past 24 months, the Board considered many options. Why did it consider a “single elementary school” option?
• Describe the process of working with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC).
• What incentives does the Board have to keep construction costs under control and what processes has it embraced to achieve these cost control objectives?
• What plans, if any, does the school district have to enable Shaker residents to get “off hour” access to school recreational facilities?
• What will the Board do if the levy doesn’t pass?

This one hour discussion goes to the heart of many concerns raised by Shaker Heights citizens.
If you would like to have further conversations with either Heather or Jeff, please reach them through these email addresses:

• Heather Weingart ([email protected])
• Jeffrey Isaacs ([email protected])

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and to direct efforts toward ensuring their passage.

In this episode (Part 2 of 2 of “Conversation with Shaker Teachers”), we talk with three teachers

• Kelly Grahl
• Jill DiPiero
• Alesha Edwards

These professionals teach in at Lomond Elementary school in Shaker Heights. We asked them to share from their experiences about the challenges they encounter in teaching in the Lomond school building.

The topics we discuss include:

• What it’s like to teach in schools that don’t have air conditioning (and how that impacts the children/students)
• What challenges they’ve encountered with the current (and limited) electrical system
• How the current configuration of the building classrooms impacts teaching in the 21st century
• Why reconfigurable space is necessary for individualized teaching and instruction
• What is needed to create and enhance school safety at Lomond (with an example of school safety done well – at Warrensville Heights Elementary school)
• What it means to be a Title 1 school (40% of the students live in homes below the poverty line) and what equity means for them
• The problem of the lack of access (non-ADA compliance)

I believe this episode is vital for residents interested in knowing why the school district needs this levy to pass.

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and to direct efforts toward ensuring their passage.

In this episode (Part 1 of 2 of “Conversation with Shaker Teachers”), we talk with three teachers

• Megan Konopinski
• Mercy Jenkins
• Tim Kalan

Because these three professionals work and teach in our Shaker school buildings, we asked them to share from their experiences about the challenges they encounter in working in the existing buildings (and, in the case of Megan Konopinski, what that experience is like both before and after a renovation).

The topics we discuss include:

• What it’s like to teach in schools that don’t have air conditioning (and how that impacts the children/students)
• What challenges they’ve encountered with the current (and limited) electrical system
• How the current configuration of the building classrooms impacts teaching in the 21st century
• The positive impact of the remodeled school configuration at Fernway on the classroom experience
• Why reconfigurable space is necessary for individualized teaching and instruction
• What is needed to create or enhance school safety at the schools

I believe this episode is vital for residents interested in knowing why the school district needs this levy to pass.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our conversation with teachers . . .

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and to direct efforts toward ensuring their passage.

In this episode, we talk with three candidates for the Shaker Heights School Board of Education who have endorsed Issue 13. In the order in which they first appear in the opening remarks on the show, they are:

• Pam Scott
• Doug Wang
• Andrea Boyd

In this discussion, I ask each of the candidates to talk about how they came to Shaker, why this election is important, what they believe they can bring to the Board, and where they think the Board can improve.

We also discuss Issue 13. I ask each candidate to articulate their perspective, how they came to support the plan, and why they believe citizens should vote for Issue 13.

Finally, I ask each of the candidates to respond to this question: “If someone who is opposed to Issue 13 were sitting with us at the table today, what would you say to them?”

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and to direct efforts toward ensuring their passage.

In this episode, we talk with Lora Cover, a member of the School Board for the Shaker Heights School District. I asked Lora to take us on the journey of how the Shaker Heights school board went from considering the issues associated with the school buildings' infrastructure to determining that the right course of action was to propose a levy on Shaker Heights citizens.

In this discussion, Lora covers a lot of ground, from how the needs were assessed, how community input was obtained, how the Board evaluated various options, and how -- and why -- the Board chose to engage with the Ohio Facility Construction Commission.

Lora addresses a number of issues raised in social media and by the League of Women Voters including:

• How can citizens be sure that the money allocated for this capital campaign will be spent according to the plans?
• What kind of due diligence was done by the Board and the OFCC to determine that Shaker Schools even needed the kind of work that is being proposed?
• What body of the Board has reviewed the plans to ensure that they are financially sound?
• How has the Board obtained community input for this levy?
• What options were considered before the final recommendation was chosen?
• How has the Board communicated its process, decision points, financial analysis, to the public?

This one hour discussion goes to the heart of many concerns raised by Shaker Heights citizens.

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and to direct efforts toward ensuring their passage.

Sean Brown is the Assistant Director of Buildings and Grounds for the Shaker Heights School district. Employed by the school district since 1990, Sean is intimately familiar with the current state of the Shaker Heights school buildings. Sean and his team are responsible for the daily maintenance of the schools many buildings.

In this episode, Sean discusses the pressing issues the school district faces regarding the school's facilities. Because some of the buildings are nearly 100 years in age, certain problems are occuring with increasing frequency. These include:

• Water leaks, both from roofs as well as drainage pipes and other aging infrastructure
• The lack of "all season" HVAC, which leaves some students and classrooms too hot or too cold
• The lack of adequate electricity to power many of the systems required for a 21st century education
• Buildings that do not have ADA compliant elevators
• Buildings that were never designed for the kind of school safety that have become unfortunately too common in today's world of school shooters

This podcast is hosted and produced by Mark Goode, a resident of Shaker Heights, on behalf of the Committee for Shaker Schools, a grassroots, citizen-based campaign organization that works to help pass Shaker Heights City School District levies and bond issues. The committee's primary mission is to inform voters about upcoming school levies and bond issues and to direct efforts toward ensuring their passage.