I'll agree with this portion of your post:
"the hand picked lay commitee"

Which aggravates the Hell outta me.

Those who run the schools can only do as well as the students and families using the schools. In other words, when you have a school system where a significant percentage of the students come from impoverished backgrounds and broke homes, it's kind of silly to believe that these students are going to be outscoring their peers from wealthier families in places like Beachwood, Orange, or Solon. It may be convenient to pass blame for poor schools and property values on the leadership of the schools, but that's a lazy argument considering there are a great many other factors at play. Could the district do better? I certainly believe so, but a lot of what's going on is well beyond their control.

UH Resident: the lazy approach is to ignore and pretend there is no solution for poor academic performance. The lazy approach is to refocus the sheeple on a potential $100 million rebuild of the schools. Shaker Heights has similarly aged schools and yet you hear no outcry from the taxpayer to rebuild them all like here. There you hear concern and dialogue about maintaining excellent academics and achievement test scores despite their similar demographics and challenges of being an inner ring suburb. I would never support the Heights schools in the present scenario and wil be encouraging my neighbors to do likewise.

"michael," no one is saying that there is no solution to poor academic performance. What many ARE saying is that the solution is mostly beyond the control of the school/district. If students are inherently unmotivated, unprepared, or worse, subjected to inhumane home conditions, there is little that schools can do to change that if the parents aren't willing to get on board. It's not a coincidence that the schools that have the worst test scores also tend to be in urban areas with high concentrations of poor families.

I just wish they would exit the echo chamber, and allow different ideas to infiltrate.

I actually agree with this idea completely. Although there is little that the district leadership can do to control who walks through the doors, they can significantly improve things by making school environments better for those that do want to learn by isolating the problem (like Taylor used to allow them to do) and giving high-achievers a place they can call home. The honors high school idea has worked wonders in other urban districts and it would work here, too. Heck you may even make some extra money if you teamed up with neighboring districts such as SE-L or EC that could use a place for its high achievers, too.

There are plenty of "self-respecting families" that choose to use the schools for their children. And many of them have watched as their kids made it all the way through the schools and went on to places Ivy+ universities. So your comment is far from accurate. The bottom line is that any family or student that is hard-working and motivated can succeed in the Heights schools, regardless of what their peers may be doing.

UH resident: the same can be said of the city of Cleveland and East Cleveland system as well. Every system has their few star students, but that does not make my statement false. For the vast majority of families, the Heights schools are a well known failure throughout the area and the high taxes with corresponding poor performance make it virtually impossible to attract any new residents who will actually use the system. In fact, according to the census, people continue to leave in droves the first chance they get. By putting "yes" people in charge you will never get beyond the status quo.

It may not make your statement false, but it casts serious doubt on the argument you're trying to make. If you took a deep breath and thought for a moment about the militantly anti-CHUH arguments you're trying to make, you'd realize that it's not all the schools' fault. In fact, it's not even mostly the schools' fault. They do the absolute best they can with the kids that walk in through the door. The perception within the region, even if incorrect, is a problem. I think we agree on one possible solution, that is the creation of tiered schools, but unfortunately that will never happen if it's nothing more than message board fodder. If you want to change the status quo than you need to start attending meetings and making your voice heard throughout the community in other ways. Have you done that?

As for the tax part of the equation, I don't know what to tell you. The state has stacked the deck against bedroom communities like ours that have limited industry, and thus require more of a burden on residents.

UH resident : "its not the schools fault"? That is nebulous and almost meaningless. You are right about one thing though: It is not the teachers or admins fault. It is the fault of the BOE, the Superintendent AND the parents of the so called responsbile students to tolerate the fiasco the Heights schools have become over the past 30 years and the rapid decline that has taken place in the last 10 or so. The Heights libs are phonies. Gushing about diversity and other such meaningless nonsense while subjecting their children to the chaos occuring at Heights High and Rox Middle (as per parent of students and ex students who were rightfully yanked out of the schools) is inexcusable. There will be no meaningful change until the phony puppet lay committee yes people, the Super and the BOE are all replaced. But as we all know, the Heights libs talk a good game, but apparently, unlike parents in other districts like Shaker who would not tolerate this crap to begin with, don't think their is anything wrong anyway so nothing will be changing any time soon.

If the Heights schools have become a "fiasco" over the past 30 years, it's because of things beyond the control of any of the groups of people that you named. Demographics have changed within the city and the district and there are a lot of students and families using the schools now that simply do not take advantage of the opportunity they have been given. And if we're being honest here, Shaker Heights has seen the same thing happen, although less thoroughly and more slowly. The big difference between SH and CH is that SH has more wealthy families using the schools and less impoverished families. If more folks in CH opted to give the CHUH schools a try, the district could look and behave more like SH almost overnight. Oh and you should visit the SH schools sometime...they do a lot of "gushing about diversity," too.

An interesting comment on the PD website about the article on Zagaras where some half wit in the comments section starts gushing about all the "diversity" in Cleveland Heights. The next poster responds something to the effect that diversity as used in describing a place just means unsafe. Thinking about it he is right on. Cleveland Heights and its schools ahave become more dangerous as the term "diverse: is used more and more. Think about it.

"michael," more dangerous based on what metric?

Why don't you come out and say what you're really implying here?

Well, I didn't say "pre-ordained". But there's nothing outwardly new or different coming from this committee. Not so far, anyways.

Fine, you don't have to say that it's pre-ordained, but I will.