Revere Superintendent’s Corner by Dr. Michael Tefs

December 28, 2023

I have had several thoughtful and incredibly diverse questions over the past several weeks about our schools. I wanted to share a few of these with you.

Question: Did the school district purchase the property west of Richfield Elementary, north of the high school?

Response: Yes. The board of education sold 38.53 acres located on Everett Road, in Richfield, designated as Summit County parcel 5000323 for $450,000 to the West Creek Conservancy District. This property was predominantly wetlands and was not considered an asset in the board’s facilities Master Plan.

The board purchased the property located at 3395 Everett Rd. for $370,000. This property borders Richfield Elementary School and was evaluated as a significantly better asset for the school system.

Question: What are you most proud of and what are you, as superintendent of schools, most concerned with?

Response: I am most proud of our employees and their efforts. I find our employees to be wonderfully kind, compassionate, caring and incredibly professional. Our employees have our students and their families as the center of their daily work. Our 320 employees truly are what make Revere different and very special.

My greatest concern, what literally wakes me up on some nights, is the mental health of our students. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently reported that:

Approximately one in five youth aged 9–17 currently has a diagnosable mental health disorder that causes some degree of impairment while
One in 10 has a disorder that causes significant impairment.

The most common mental illnesses in adolescents are anxiety, mood, attention and behavior disorders. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people aged 15–24 years.

Times have certainly changed and the safety of our students is concerning and our most important strategy.

Question: You have two new board members starting in January. What is the onboarding process for them?

Response: Our two newly elected officials (Kasha Brackett and Natalie Rainey) will have an orientation with me, our Chief Financial Officer Rick Berdine and our board President Keith Malick.

They have also committed to attending the Ohio School Boards Association “Board 101: A comprehensive professional development experience for the first year of office” workshop in January.

Question: What is the school district doing during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse?

Response: This is sure to be a record-setting astronomical event, especially since the next total solar eclipse will not be visible across the contiguous U.S. again until August 2044. Revere schools will be closed on April 8, 2024.

Question: The UAW strike was brutal to watch. Don’t you have a union to deal with?

Response: YES. In fact, Revere has two labor unions. One union, the Revere Education Association, is the largest union with 209 members. REA represents our teachers, intervention specialists, aides, administrative assistants/secretaries, guidance counselors, speech and language specialists and psychologists.

The Ohio Association of Public School Employees represents approximately 42 employees. These are our bus drivers, food service workers, mechanics, maintenance, and custodial personnel.

Labor relations in Revere are terrific and I truly value the collective bargaining agreements of our two labor unions. Both unions are wonderfully well led and have Revere in their best interests. The partnership we have with our two labor unions is impressive.

If you have a question about your Revere Schools, please send us an email at: info@revereschools.org.

Next month we will help you get to know your Board of Education. We will introduce all of the Board members to you, emphasizing our two newest elected officials. You will get to know them, the new leadership (President/Vice President) of the Board, the committees they lead, and their goals.

Revere Pride. Living it every day!