December 15, 2004 At the regular meeting of the Shaker Heights Board of Education on December 14, 2004, the Superintendent reported the following:

One hundred and twenty-two Shaker Heights High School students and June 2004 graduates have been named AP Scholars by The College Board in recognition of their outstanding performance on national Advanced Placement (AP) examinations administered in May 2004. This represents 38 percent of the 322 Shaker students who took one or more AP exams. About 17 percent of the more than one million high school students in almost 15,000 secondary schools worldwide who took AP exams performed at a sufficiently high level to merit the recognition of AP Scholar. The College Board’s Advanced Placement program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still in high school and to receive college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP exams. The exams are graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, and most U.S. colleges will grant credit or upper-level placement for a grade of 3 or higher. Shaker Heights High School offers 17 Advanced Placement courses in art; computer science; English; foreign languages, including French, Spanish, German, and Latin; mathematics, including calculus and statistics; science, including chemistry, environmental science, and physics; and social studies, including American government, economics, modern European history, psychology, and U.S. history. In any given year, approximately one-third of Shaker sophomores, juniors, and seniors are enrolled in at least one AP course. The students honored graduated in 2004 unless otherwise noted. Forty-two students were named AP Scholars by completing three or more AP exams with grades of 3 or higher. They are Alexander Anderson, Sarah Cannon, Brittany Clair, Caitlin Corrigan, Hannah Corrigan (’05), Anna Dev (’05), Alexander Garner, Jacqueline Gleisser, Michelle Grossman, John Gustafson (’05), Ryan Hacala, Rebecca Heide (’05), Ian Henderson, Travis Henry, Andrew Hopkins, John Hornick (’05), Christopher Inniss (’05), Matthew Knittel, Lauren Kutik, Joseph Lesnefsky, Leah Michelson, Dmitry Mikin, Jessica Miller, David Morgenstern, David Powers, Kathleen Rains, Lee Reis (’05), Charles Reynolds, Emily Rosenberg (’05), Alexandra Russo, Benjamin Sattin (’05), Caroline Smith (’05), Jonathan Strassfeld (’05), Elisa Super, Akansha Thakur, Carolyn Troha (‘05), Jennifer Vanlunteren (’05), Gabriella Vari, Nathaniel Victor (’05), Jing Wang (’05), Eric Weiss, and Jacob Wick.

Twenty-two students qualified as AP Scholars with Honor by earning an average of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. These students are: Alexandra Buder-Shapiro, Alexander Campbell, Chinmoy Dev (’05), Colin Duffy (’05), Betty Elee, Stephanie Fungsang, Nicole Goddard, Karelle Hall, Abby Hexter, Julia Hurst, Zachary Juresko, Raghuraj Kasturi, Eric Kramer (’05), Eileen O’Neill, Lauren Robinson, David Schwarz, Matthew Seidner, William Seitz, Christina Senagore, Julia Sivertson (’05), Jonathan Stange, and Colleen Williams. Fifty-eight students qualified as AP Scholars with Distinction by earning an average of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on at least five exams. They are Benjamin Abelson, Nicholas Agich, Deborah Beim, Paul Bixenstine, Rebecca Bonthius, Leslie Brandon, Jordan Bray, Christopher Chin, Hallie Dietsch, Jonathan Distad, Laura Falender, Mitchell Frank, Renee Frantz, Samuel Freilich, David Frisof (’05), Adam Gall, Kathryn Glass, Marjorie Glick, Clifford Harding, Owen Hearey, Brett Heeger, Arlo Hill, Anna Hutt, Timothy Israel, William Issa, Daniel Kanter (’05), Michael Koler, Yutaro Komuro, Amanda Kovach, Michael Kowen, Caroline Krassen, Andrea Kutik, Sara Langhinrichs, Catherine Lee, Hyun Young Lee, Erika Leibovitch, Zachary Lerner, Adam Margolius (’05), Brian Math, Matthew O’Bryon, Emily Ozan, Vince Pavlish, Eliana Penzner, Shira Polster, David Pretzer, Cody Rose, Kyan Safavi, Kelly Schaefer, Harry Schnur, Alix Schrager, Selena Simmons-Duffin, Ashali Singham, Jennifer Stern, Jussi Tahtinen, Mark Vieyra, Alex Wang (’05), Nadav Weinberg, and William Wemer. In addition to being designated AP Scholars with Distinction, Deborah Beim, Paul Bixenstine, Christopher Chin, Samuel Freilich, Owen Hearey, Arlo Hill, Yutaro Komuro, Michael Kowen, Andrea Kutik, Vince Pavlish, Shira Polster, David Pretzer, Kelly Schaefer, Selena Simmons-Duffin, Ashali Singham, and Jussi Tahtinen were named AP National Scholars. This designation is reserved for students earning an average grade of 4 or higher on all AP exams taken and grades of 4 or higher on at least eight exams. Shaker students in this category were accepted at such colleges as Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard-Radcliffe College, M.I.T., University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and Yale University.

John Addison, a veteran administrator for the Shaker Heights schools, has agreed to serve as interim principal at Boulevard for the remainder of this school year following the retirement of Rebecca Kimberly. Addison served with distinction as an assistant principal at Woodbury and the High School prior to retiring. He has worked periodically as a substitute administrator since his retirement and most recently has been part of the leadership team at Lomond School during the principal’s extended absence. Addison and his wife live in Shaker Heights and are the parents of two Shaker students. The District is conducting a search for a permanent principal for Boulevard, with the goal of having the new principal in place for the beginning of the 2005-06 school year. Both internal and external candidates will be considered.

More than 60 Shaker teachers are now using District Link, a web-based program that gives parents and students online access to assignments, messages, grades on assignments and tests, and cumulative student progress. District Link may be reached from the Information for Parents area of www.shaker.org.

The Board honored the following:

The Board of Education honored Semifinalists and Commended Students in the National Merit and National Achievement Scholarship Programs. This year, 40 Shaker students have received these honors, again placing Shaker at the top among Northeast Ohio public schools. National Merit Semifinalists are David Anderson, Hannah Corrigan, David Frisof, Daniel Kanter, Jason Plautz, Lee Reis, Julia Sivertson, Caroline Smith, Meagan Steiner, Jonathan Strassfeld, Alex Wang, and Ben Wolpaw. In addition, Alexandra Buder Shapiro, who graduated a year early last June, was honored as a Semifinalist with this year's class. She is currently studying at the University of Pennsylvania. National Merit Commended Students are Liam Brett-Eiger, Andre Dev, Marc Engel, Julia Ferguson, Jenny Goldman (posthumous), John Gustafson, Rebecca Heide, Michael Kowen (graduated early), Eric Kramer, Emma Lawrence, Clare Malone, Adam Margolius, Kevin Margolius, Andrew McFarlane, Sean Muron, Christopher Nau, Emily Rosenberg, Andrew Schiraldi, Nathan Siegel, Zachary Simon-Curry, and Thomas Wilson. Commended Students in the National Achievement Scholarship Program for the nation's top African-American seniors are Dana Benders, Asia Greene, Christopher Inniss, India James-Gaskins, Danielle Jones, and Marguerite Moore. Students who were unable to attend the Board of Education meeting because of schedule conflicts will be invited to a future Board meeting. The Board heard the following:

A presentation by faculty members from the High School Art Department.. Department Chair Susan Weiner and teachers Keaf Holliday and Dan Whitely provides an overview of offerings and student work in drawing, painting, sculpture, graphic design, ceramics, jewelrymaking, and digital multimedia design.

A welcome from High School Principal Michael D. Griffith. The Board approved the following:

Personnel items, including appointments, special assignments, supplemental contracts, substitutes and temporary employees, leaves of absence, and resignations. Included was the retirement of Joe Katzenstein, athletic coordinator, effective January 31, 2005, after more than 43 years of service.

Financial statements and interim investments for November 2004.

Supplemental appropriations to accommodate grants from the State of Ohio. Establishment of January 11, 2005, as the date for the fiscal year 2005-06 tax budget hearing.

The meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. at Shaker Heights High School.

Authorization to issue $3,000,000 in bond anticipation notes to begin capital repairs. The five-month notes will be repaid from proceeds from the bond issue approved by the voters in November 2004.

UPCOMING EVENTS December 15 High School Winter Choir Alumni Concert, 7:30 p.m. December 17 High School Theatre Ensemble Winter Solstice Performance, 4 p.m. December 17-18 Speech & Debate Tournament at HS January 6 High School Orchestra Concert, 7:30 p.m. January 10 Theatre T3 Improv Show, 8 p.m. March 19 A Night for the Red & White, Intercontinental Hotel

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 11, 2005,

at Shaker Heights High School.