Ex Libris

E X L I B R I S • Y E L L O W S P R I N G S L I B R A R Y A S S O C I A T I O N • S P R I N G , 2 0 2 4 5 Review: DreamTown | Laura Meckler RICH BULLOCK YSLA Secretary This is a book about Shaker Heights, Ohio. But first, let’s get some local context, from the 2022–23 Yellow Springs Schools state report card: we have 632 students K-12; 41 (6.4%) are Black; 57 (9%) are Hispanic; 79 (12.5%) are Multiracial; and 444 students (70.3%) are White. 160 (25.4%) are considered economi- cally disadvantaged. Now con- sider achievement. The “Perform- ance Index” for English Language Arts achievement yielded scores of 98.7 for White kids—and 73.8 for Black kids. Economically dis- advantaged students scored 80.6. Math achievement was similar: White kids scored 87.9, while Black kids scored 62 and eco- nomically disadvantaged students scored 70.7. The state says YS “significantly exceeds state stand- ards in closing educational gaps.” But those performance numbers tell a different story, and what to do about them isn’t clear. They haven’t been clear for Shaker Heights, either, and this book details the efforts over 50 years by this affluent, planned community outside Cleveland to find ways to achieve the sorts of goals that Yellow Springs strug- gles with: how to maintain an integrated community in the face of economic and demographic pressures; how to address the housing needs of an increasingly economically diverse population; how to deal with persistent differ- ences in academic performance between White and Black students and affluent and poor students in a school system that is, by most measures, one of the best in the state, if not the country; and how to thread the needle of political pressures, contesting values, and changing economic needs to achieve lofty ideals in the community and its schools. Of course, Shaker Heights and Yellow Springs are very different: Shaker is an affluent community of 29,000, with 4,439 students attending 7–9 elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school; its student population is 45.4% Black, and 35.9% are economi- cally disadvantaged—a statistic that is surprising, given the city’s reputation for wealth. (Its schools’ overall rating is 4 of 5; ours is 5. Don’t gloat!) But outsiders looking at Yellow Springs are likely surprised at our numbers, too. A scrap of college-ruled paper on a windy, cold day is blown against my leg. It hangs there, buffeted, clinging like wet swim trunks to a young boy’s leg. Written on it in neat capital letters is a poem. Certain words are crossed out. Entire lines are rewritten. But I can see the final product already: It is wonderful. Clear. And tightly written. It resonates with my whole being. There is no title, no name in cursive, no idiosyncratic stream of initials scrawled across thebottomof thepaper scrap. There is no John Hancock screaming for attention. It feels like a missive from an unknown god that clung to my leg, seeped into my blood, and now clings to my soul. The next day: I make copies, dozens of copies, in my messy handwriting, and release them in batches of five, unsigned, from the blackened roof of the Dime Bank. And then I pray for the wind. Free Words: Poem | Todd Comer