BBHHS ranks fourth among schools in Cleveland metro area

by Melissa Martin

Aug. 26 school board meeting

The district continues to improve its reputation among high schools in Ohio and the nation, according to the annual survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report.

In August, the online publication released its rankings of Best High Schools in the nation for the 2026-2027 school year. It also ranked the top high schools in each state, then broke down the metrics to calculate ratings for the best high schools in Ohio metropolitan areas, including Cleveland and Akron.

According to the report, the list was compiled after reviewing data for more than 27,000 public high schools across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Of those, nearly 18,000 schools were ranked on six factors based on performance on state assessments and how well they prepare students for college.

A total of 702 Ohio high schools were included in the rankings, which measured graduation rates, college readiness, college curriculum breadth and state assessment proficiency.

In the Cleveland metro area, Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School checked in at No. 4, up one notch from last year.

BBHHS also moved up in state rankings, from No. 27 in 2025 to No. 13 in 2026. On the national level, the district climbed from No. 724 last year to No. 440 this year.

School board member Tish Kwiatkowski pointed out the district scored almost 2% higher this year on its evaluation, moving up from 95.91% in 2025 to 97.55% in 2026.

“That’s a huge feat, especially when you factor in how hard it is to keep improving when you score so high to begin with,” she said.

Kwiatkowski said she expects to receive more positive news about the district when the state releases its state report card in mid-September.

First days of school

Superintendent Jeffrey Harrison told the board the first days of school went off without a hitch.

Harrison said he and Brecksville Mayor Daryl Kingston usually have a lengthy conversation every year regarding traffic congestion along Mill Road the morning school resumes.

“This year [Kingston] told me he had to call the city’s IT department that morning to see if his email was working,” Harrison said. “Typically, he said his phone and email get lit up that morning by parents, but this year, he didn’t receive one call or one email.”

The same was true for himself, Harrison said.

“I usually come to campus early that first day of school so that I’m ready when students get there,” he said. “But this year, I intentionally came late and drove along Mill Road so that I could get stuck in traffic and see what [parents, students and bus drivers] were experiencing. But there was no congestion at all. I drove right in.”

That first day of school, Harrison said, all 42 district school buses arrived and dropped off on time.

“All of our students were on time that day,” he said. “The [construction this summer] has not only made a major difference on campus but on Mill Road as well.”

Though work remains to be completed in the coming weeks, including filling in a retention pond and refining the lights along the new access road, Harrison said the bulk of the work is finished.

“We’re still trying to work on the lights,” he said. “We’re trying to refine it because we promised the Chippewa Hills Homeowners’ Association that we would have a schedule for the lights and when they dim. We said that outside of major events [including those at the football stadium], the lights would be off around 9 p.m. and we intend to live up to that promise.”

Harrison said the district is exploring the possibility of installing three monument signs across campus, as well as campus signage that carries a unified look.

“Unfortunately, this is a very expensive project that we’ll have to do in phases,” he said. “We’re going to install a few key signs so [motorists] know where they are going, but we’re going to eventually take that look and spread it across the district.”

Harrison told the board he’s received several questions from the community asking why installing new sidewalks along Mill Road and paving the campus access road stopped short of being completed.

“I’ve simply been telling them the funding stopped with the sidewalk and the road to the stadium stopped,” he said. “If nothing else, this project has opened our community’s eyes to other things they would like done, from adding new weight rooms to building new pavilions or replacing the speakers in the stadium. They now realize that we have limited dollars to be able to do those things and those permanent improvement funds we have are so valuable. … We try to stretch those dollars and manage our money as best we can.”

Financial forecast

District Treasurer Craig Yaniglos delivered his semiannual five-year forecast, the first he’s delivered in August as a result of new deadlines — Aug. 21 and Feb. 28 — imposed by the state in 2025.

Yaniglos explained the new filing deadlines work against the district’s ability to deliver accurate forecasts.

“At the August filing, we don’t even have our first supplement yet to determine what our taxes even look like, including delinquencies,” he said. “For districts like ours that are funded primarily with local tax dollars, this makes the picture very difficult to see what it is because we don’t have that information. February presents the same problem because we also don’t get to see our second half, which again, makes it incredibly difficult to deliver a forecast.”

Yaniglos said the district will begin deficit spending this year to the tune of approximately $2.7 million, possibly more.

“And [the deficit] just continues to build from there,” he said.