Hardy seeks 7 chiefs for schools

Leadership team positions attract at least 213 applicants

The educator at the helm of Lorain City Schools is seeking a leadership team to help guide the district out of academic distress.

Lorain Schools Chief Executive Officer David Hardy Jr. has posted seven positions for new “chief” positions for the district.

They are: chief of staff; chief strategy and innovation officer; chief operations officer; chief schools officer; chief equity and achievement officer; chief family officer; and chief people officer.

Hardy also is seeking a senior project manager

for the district.

Most of the jobs were posted online Oct. 30.

Hardy introduced the leadership structure in a meeting of the state appointed Lorain Academic Distress Commission.

In the Nov. 29 meeting of the Academic Distress Commission, Hardy said there are at least 213 applicants for the jobs.

“I was excited to see how many people were either curious, excited or just motivated to be a part of pre-transformational improvement

in the city of Lorain,” he said.

Interviews began Nov. 28, but Hardy has not named anyone to the positions yet.

“It will take a couple more weeks before we announce anyone for any office,” he said. “But I think we will be close to finding some really great candidates pretty soon.”

Hardy said he wants to bring the team together “as soon as I can, but as slow as I must.”

A target date is March, Hardy said, but with luck, there will be a few new team members joining in January and February.

“I want to really be thoughtful and intentional

in who we’re bringing in,” he said.

The chief of schools may be the first to be filled, Hardy said.

“Through the interview process, I think we found someone,” he said, so the school district will do additional screening and checking on the candidate.

He described the interviews as “pretty rigorous … really digging into the nuts and bolts of the job,” usually in daylong meetings with himself and the candidates.

The job openings were advertised internally and nationally outside the district.

Applications have come from Florida, Pennsylvania,

New Jersey, Oklahoma, along with Ohio and surrounding states, Hardy said.

The job descriptions are to remain online until the positions are filled. Starting dates and salaries are to be determined later.

The job descriptions run two to three pages and include a summary about Lorain Schools.

“We are a district that will disrupt the status quo for 6,700 scholars across 15 campuses in northeast Ohio, just outside of Cleveland,” said the description of Lorain Schools. “To do so, we will transform the way that we look at educating our scholars, performing

as leaders, and inspiring as people, all while having fun doing it.”

The job descriptions included the district’s shared values: scholars first; one for all; experience joy; expect excellence; collaborate with integrity; and take pride.

Hardy said he has and will continue to restructure and cut some jobs in the district that will free up funding for the posts.

Some of the candidates may not start until July next year, so money for the posts would be part of the 201819 school year, Hardy said.

As the district changes its management structure, he predicted there will be

slightly fewer staff in the administrative office.

Ultimately, Hardy said he would like to get as much money as possible to the classroom.

He noted the Ohio School District Report Cards list each public school district’s percentage of funds spent on classroom instruction.

Lorain is at 66.1 percent, ranking 37 out of 46 districts of similar size, according to the state figures.

Among the comparable districts, Upper Arlington ranks first, with 77.2 percent of funds going to classroom instruction; Youngstown ranks last at 59.3 percent, according to the state figures.