BOE candidate blog series: Cheri Scott-Geraci

Cheri Scott-Geraci
2144 Williams Avenue
Candidate for Norwood City School Board

I have lived in Norwood for 40 years. I am a product of the Norwood School District. I attended Sharpsburg Elementary and Norwood High School. My mom Venita (Dugan) Scott graduated from Norwood in 1947. My sister Sue Scott Schwankhaus graduated from Norwood High School in 1971 and was a teacher at Sharpsburg Elementary until her death in 2001. I have a lot of history with this community and this district. I have been married to Chris Geraci, a 1977 graduate, for 27 years, and we have four children: Matthew, 25, Amanda, 23, Adam, 19, and Maegan 11. Matt and Amanda graduated from Purcell Marion High School, Adam graduated from Norwood High School in 2006 and Maegan is in the sixth grade at Williams Ave Elementary. After graduating from Norwood High School, I attended the University of Cincinnati and received an Associate of Applied Science Degree. I have worked in the banking industry for 27 years and am currently a Vice President, Corporate Trust, for Huntington National Bank.

I decided to run for School Board because I feel that we aren’t doing enough to improve and promote our District. This district has a rich history of graduates who have become very successful in their lives. We need to continue that success. I don’t believe that the administration is making the right choices for our students or our stakeholders. We need open honest communication from our administrators regarding the issues facing our district. We need more accountability and responsibility from administration on decisions being made that affect our students. We need to raise the bar and set a higher standard for our district. I’m very tired of hearing excuses for why we aren’t succeeding instead of hearing solutions or taking action to help the district succeed in the future.

I think we should work more closely with our City leaders to improve our community involvement with our District. I am tired of hearing young couples say that they are moving out of Norwood because they don’t trust the school district. This is a problem that needs to be addressed and resolved. Obviously what we have been doing isn’t working, so we need to change. We need to change attitudes from administration on down. We need to change the outsiders’ perceptions of our district. We need to change the way we are running our school. I want to help make these changes when I am elected to the board.