Tenacious Teachers

Fall Fall Newsletter Newsletter 2014 2014

4th Annual Breakthrough BASH 2015 Tenacious Teachers – Spirited Students! Be Tenacious Board of Directors Volunteer Sponsorship and reservations available at Michael Merriman and Spirited! SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015 Chair Tenacious = determined, persistent, relentless, steadfast, unswerving www.BreakthroughSchools.org/Friends/Events Spotlight: Proud Founding William Koehler Spirited = bright, energetic, enthusiastic, fearless, passionate We’d like you, our friend, Supporter: THANK YOU TO OUR BASH HOST COMMITTEE Vice Chair continued to attend one of our Diane Singer – Chair Tom Rudibaugh Vice Chair A Note from John Zitzner upcoming tours/urban Dale and Gigi Kates – Co-Chairs “I came to a college Karen Davies There is nothing easy about totally transforming the way our education update John and Eliza Saada – Co-Chairs night for Breakthrough Presenting Corporate Sponsor: Secretary children are being prepared for college-prep high schools and sessions in the next few Sanjay and Rita Sehgal – Co-Chairs Schools and some Jen Grossman success in life. In partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan months, and we need students and faculty Treasurer School District and other high-performing public schools, we are from ONU were there. you to invite a few Laura DeMarco Petkovic | Ann Dreher | Debbie and Marc Duvin | Kristen Baird Adams relentlessly pursuing this mission. After talking to them friends of your own to Jennifer Goldberg | Sonja Harris-Haywood | Lawrence and Linda Hatch | Honorees: I decided to check Anshawn Ivery | Whitney and Clarke Jones | Megan Kayser | Suresh Bafna Our Tenacious Teachers work with our Spirited Students every join you. Breakthrough’s Tony Asher – Graystone Properties Jeff Berlin the school out and Chris and Christine Kelly | Katie and Charlie Lougheed | day. Every minute matters, and every second counts as we all Tenacious Teachers and and Scott Berlin work hard to catch kids up and help them compete with their apply. After visiting Susie and Dan Mascaro | Lee Trotter and Lolly McDavid | Kurt Meinberg | Spirited Students Bob and Phil Perkins – Frank Bird suburban peers. As you can see in the simple graph below, the hard work pays off. Our scholars are ONU it became my Lori and Pat Morris | Randy and Amy Paine | Robert and Judy Rawson | need you to help spread Perkins Malo Hunter Foundation Julia Bolton making incredible gains. Some of our middle schools are in the top 1% of all 3,444 schools in the number one choice the word! John Sinnenberg and Cassi Handler | Gauri Wagle Don Bullock state in terms of “value added scores.” More simply put, we are catching kids up who are way, way because I completely Denise Carkhuff fell in love with it. It’s Contact Katie Emerson, behind... through no fault of their own. And, we don’t make excuses by blaming others. We simply Jeffrey Cristal help them learn what they need to learn. a small school, has a Director of Engagement th Swing for the Stars – 4 Annual Golf Outing Michael Cristal very good engineering and Donor Relations, Robert Gillespie Through your financial gifts and your generous contribution of time and talent, you are part of this Monday, September 8, 2014 was a beautiful day for golf and to hear from Breakthrough student program, the people Ian Gresham incredible journey. The entire greater Cleveland community can help turn this around. Our city WILL kemerson@ Micah Caldwell. Micah shared her story about transitioning to a Breakthrough School and the were friendly; I could Emmanuel Glover be the Championship City of Urban Education in America. With the 4 P’s of persistence, patience, breakthroughschools.org or success she is having! see myself spending Jeff Gotschall a positive outlook, and peace, we will prevail. (216) 373-8360 to arrange four years of my life Presenting Sponsors: Thomas Haught a visit or go online Thank you to our sponsors: Please join Friends of Breakthrough and be a vital there. I ended up CBIZ, Inc., Cyprium, Dollar Ira Kaplan www.BreakthroughSchools. partner in the most important initiative in Cleveland’s picking ONU because it Bank, Fairmount Minerals, Andrew Kline org/Friends/Tour-Our- Kevin Kuhn transformation... educating our children to help create was my dream school Fredon, Hartland, Lubrizol, a prosperous city. and I had an amazing Schools. Beverages and Putting Contest Courtesy of: The Haslam 3 Foundation, Paul Lehrman John LeMay financial aid package Western Reserve, Wrap Tite that allows me to pay David Lowman Thank you for your support, Bridget Moreno basically nothing to Jane Outcalt attend school, which Richard Pace I owe a big thanks to Superhero Flyby 5k Peter Rome Breakthrough and Bob Peter Roth Kerscher for helping to Saturday, September 20, 2014 – The race John Zitzner Dan Sheets make that possible.” – was organized by Breakthrough Schools’ John Sinnenberg Celeste Kamasa young professionals group. Race Chair Rick Ron Stepanovic Ferrara, a longtime Cleveland resident and Brian Tucker Volunteer Spotlight Thank you, Bob! attorney, believes strong schools are critical William Vogelgesang The support and guidance of our volunteers and donors makes a difference in our students’ to improving urban communities: Cary Zimmerman lives from Kindergarten through College. Perfect example: Bob Kerscher has been making “Breakthrough Schools is changing the Advisory Board a difference and opening doors to Breakthrough students for many years. While not only future for thousands of Cleveland families, all Jeanette Grasselli Brown financially donating and volunteering his time to Breakthrough Schools, Bob has started a without ‘Waiting for Superman.’” David Gunning program with Ohio Northern University (ONU) that offers scholarships solely to qualifying Walter Kalberer Breakthrough students! Currently there are four students enrolled at ONU thanks to John Sherwin, Jr. Bob’s efforts. Chartering a bus and exposing Breakthrough students and their Thank you to our families to experience the college campus is just one opportunity that Bob has sponsors: assisted with. He hopes that programs like the one at ONU will expand to other Capital Advisors, college campuses offering Breakthrough students options to continue learning. Upcoming donate Grant Thornton, Human Arc, Bob meets with and follows the students that attend ONU. Events JoAnn, Lyndall Insurance, (continued on next column) See back page! volunteer Materion, Nexus Academy of Cleveland, Sherwin-Williams, Learn how you can get involved and support our students: The Harp, Walthall LLP, BreakthroughSchools.org/Friends Wind Swishers advocate 3615 Superior Avenue, Suite 3103A • Cleveland, OH 44114 • (216) 539-9349 Fall Spirited Fall Newsletter Newsletter 2014 Students 2014

Tenacious Spirited = bright, energetic, Teachers, a key factor in the success of enthusiastic, fearless, the Breakthrough Schools network! Our teachers make personal passionate sacrifices by working long hours and a longer school year to ensure our Congratulations 8th Grade children receive the high-quality education that they deserve. The care Graduates and class of 2014! and concern of our teachers is reflected in the way that our students Continue to Shine at Your perform and represent themselves, both in and out of the classroom. New High School: Recognizing the importance of our educators, Breakthrough Bard High School Early College welcomed teachers and staff to the inaugural Breakthrough Beaumont Network-Wide Professional Development Day for Educators Benedictine held on August 6, 2014. Over 300 teachers and staff spent the day, Brush High School appropriately hosted by Notre Dame College, attending sessions from Cleveland Central Catholic Cleveland Heights High School Weaving Character into the DNA of our Classrooms (K-8), the Common Cleveland High School for Core (6-8), Assessment-PALOOZA: A Festival for Middle School Math

the Digital Arts and Science Educators (5-8), and more. Cleveland School of the Arts Following the 10 schools coming together for the first Design Lab Early College network professional development day, an Moving Facing History New Tech inaugural all-staff BASH was held High School at Charles Mooney Gilmour Academy to further reinforce and celebrate Ginn Academy Forward! the importance of everyone in our Hawken network. Held at the Cleveland Horizon Science Academy State University Student Center, the One of the biggest challenges for high-performing public school John Adams High School celebration and kick-off for FY15 networks around the country, including Breakthrough, is helping our John Hay Science and Medicine relentless, was received with excitement! scholars persist through high school and college. While our charter John Hay Architecture and Design Check out this “Wordle”, school peers are far outperforming the results of most urban John Hay Early College a creation from one-word districts, the results are not yet what we have hoped for. Even the Lake Catholic answers provided about best in our field are seeing only a 40% college graduation rate. Lakewood High School what makes “Breakthrough It’s a huge challenge with so many contributing factors. Lutheran East High School Charter Schools”! MC2STEM Breakthrough only has two years of results so far, and we wanted you to know exactly how it’s going: Mentor High School Our first 8th grade class graduated from high school in 2013 and our second class graduated this past June. Montessori Poly-Technical High School

determined, Of the scholars we are able to track through our Breakthrough Through College department (of two persons), Saint Edward High School we can report that: Saint Ignatius 1. 90% of the first class graduated from Saint Martin de Porres high school (vs. 50+% district rate) and Solon High School 81% were accepted to and attended Trinity college (vs. 45% national low income average) Twinsburg High School University School 2. 95% of the second class graduated Villa Angela Saint Joseph from high school. At this time, 61% are Washington Park Environmental enrolled in college. Others were accepted, Studies but for a variety of reasons, did not attend Whitney Young steadfast, unswerving Tenacious Tenacious = persistent, Fall Spirited Fall Newsletter Newsletter 2014 Students 2014