“You're the BEST!”. That’s what the decorative vase read that was presented to outgoing BEST Committee Facilitator Jim Zwisler at the Cuyahoga Heights Schools’ Board of Education’s Organizational Meeting on January 5, 2022. Zwisler has directed the BEST Committee’s work for the past 10 years.
“It’s my pleasure to recognize Jim for his years of service as the facilitator for the BEST committee which directs our Continuous Improvement Plan,” remarked Superintendent Tom Evans. “This plan is one of the most active, useful, group-facilitated, community member-initiated documents that I’ve ever seen in all my time in education. Those of us in education have sat through a lot of initiatives. We put a lot of time and hours into it and we create a big document that ends up sitting on a shelf somewhere.” Evans said that certainly wasn’t the case with the document the district’s BEST Committee developed.
“The beauty of BEST is that from the time Jim came through the doors in 2012, until today, it's been an ongoing, ever-changing document that addresses the needs of the district and the needs of the community. I’ll tell anyone who will listen to me that you are 95% of that progress. Your facilitation, the way you keep meetings moving, the way you have them planned and organized is unequal to anybody I have ever worked with in education. I can’t thank you enough for the work you’ve done while I've been a principal and then as a superintendent. Your work has been a labor of love.”
“I just want to thank all of you – the Board, the administration, the parents and the wonderful students I’ve had a chance to work with,” remarked Zwisler. “ I’m very lucky in my 50 years as an educator, to save the best for last. My thoughts and prayers will always be with the district. I will always love the district and will still be one of its greatest fans.”
Lora Garrett, former district administrator, replaces Zwisler as the facilitator for the BEST Committee. Its members include district staff, community residents, parents, students, and public officials. They are charged with assisting the school district in fine tuning its strengths and addressing opportunities for improvement.