#iamshaker Profile: Celebrating the Success
of Shaker Heights Students, Staff, and Alumni
At only 18 years old, Shaker Heights High School Class of 2019 graduate
Haley Hughes-Gill is a modern-day Renaissance woman.
She’s as comfortable rushing out of the goalie cage on a lacrosse field to take on
an opposing player as she is stepping on stage to perform a classical piece on one of
the three instruments she’s mastered: flute, piccolo, and tenor saxophone. Haley’s
sense of adventure once took her to Montreal to drive a dog sled across Canada’s
wintry countryside, and her curiosity about the world led her to the shelves of the
Shaker Heights Public Library, where she poured over every book about African
American history the library offered – and she was only in the second grade.
Indeed, Haley is an extraordinary young woman. She is also remarkably humble
and credits the supportive Shaker Heights community and the Shaker Heights Schools
for their part in cultivating her various interests.
Haley has been a member of the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony, the Raider
Marching Band (she traveled to Italy with the Symphony and the Band), and several
music ensembles at Shaker Heights High School. She played varsity goalie for the
Shaker Heights High School lacrosse team for four years and competed with several
other local travel teams, including Ohio Premier, Black Dog Lacrosse, and Burning River
Lacrosse. While a student at Shaker Heights High School, Haley took Chinese, French,
and Spanish.
This year, she’s a freshman at Pittsburgh’s Chatham University, where she earned
an academic scholarship and an academic merit grant. Haley also earned a classical
music instrumental scholarship and the opportunity to play with the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra through a collaborative Chatham University program. This
opportunity is especially meaningful as Haley’s maternal great-great grandfather
played violin and trumpet with the Pittsburgh Orchestra, the predecessor to the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. And although it’s still too early to commit, she says
she’d like to study history.
“There have been so many opportunities for me in Shaker,” Haley says. “Shaker helped me
to be well-rounded and prepared for the real world so that I can take on what’s next for me.”
WWW.SHAKER.LIFE | FALL 2019 13
District Announces Directors
of Primary and Secondary Education
Erin Herbruck (right) has been named director of primary education,
overseeing curriculum and instruction for grades PreK-4, and Micki Krantz
(far right) has been named director of secondary education, overseeing grades
5-12. Both positions will be a part of the Curriculum & Instruction Department,
under the leadership of chief academic officer Dr. Marla Robinson.
Herbruck, a career Shaker educator and the District’s director of professional
learning, served as the project manager for the High School Principal Search. She has served in
various central office leadership roles for the past nine years and was a teacher at Shaker Heights
Middle School for 15 years. Herbruck earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kenyon College.
She also holds a master’s degree in education from John Carroll University and earned her Ph.D. from
Cleveland State University.
Krantz most recently served as the director of instruction at Canton City Schools. Since 2003, she also has worked as an adjunct
professor at Ashland University. Krantz has expertise in a wide range of areas, including diversity, equity and inclusion, restorative
practices in education, and positive behavior and intervention supports. Krantz earned her bachelor’s in education from Walsh
University and her master’s in reading education from Ashland University.
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