The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
CEO Hardy proposes security task force
In the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting and local security concerns, Lorain City Schools will create a task force to enhance safety by creating a welcoming environment, said the district’s chief executive.
Meanwhile, Lorain Schools CEO David Hardy Jr. said he has never been invited to a Lorain Board of Education meeting.
The issues came up March 1, when Hardy published an open letter to the community asking for anyone interested to volunteer for a task force team that focuses “on creating the culture we want to see.”
“This task force will be charged with enhancing our safety by creating a place where all are welcomed,” Hardy said. “The idea of ‘seeing something, saying something’ will be alive and well, and it will create a place where we feel proud of who we are as Titans.
“We will be looking for a group of scholars, teachers, leaders, staff, and community stakeholders to come together and help us create a new way to create safety and more importantly, love,” he wrote.
Hardy referred to plans for a 17-minute nationwide
school walkout scheduled at 10 a.m. March 14, the one-month anniversary of the deadly Florida school shooting.
It was unclear if Lorain students would participate in the walkout. Hardy said he could not encourage Lorain students to participate because he is concerned about students remaining safe outside school boundaries.
“However, as the inspiring Parkland students have shown us with their words and actions, being engaged citizens with a voice is a valuable part of our young people’s learning
and contributions as citizens,” Hardy wrote. “I will always encourage students to use their voice meaningfully and participate in important civic conversations that affect our community and our nation’s schools.
Anyone interested in serving on the task force should email Chief of Staff Elena Gonzalez at egonzalez@loraincsd.org.
The letter was sent out via email the afternoon of March 1.
Meanwhile, despite claims to the contrary, Hardy said he never has received a formal invitation to a school board meeting.
“If I have at any point missed an email that indicated such an invitation, I deeply apologize, however, I don’t recall a formal invitation,” he said.
While he has no plans on going to future board meetings, Hardy said he would welcome the school board members to his upcoming Town Hall meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. March 8 at Longfellow Middle School, 305 Louisiana Ave., Lorain.
Hardy spoke March 1 about recent public discussions by the Lorain Board of Education. Members Tony Dimacchia, Timothy Williams, Yvonne Johnson, Bill Sturgill and Mark Ballard this week said they have invited Hardy to attend their meetings, but he has not responded.
“My number one priority is to ensure that all of our scholars get everything they need to be successful,” Hardy said. “It breaks my heart every single day when our focus is not on our kids. Anything that detracts the conversation away from that will not garner my time.
“For that reason I intentionally want to focus on the well-being of our community because that’s what I care about,” he said. “I hope that at some point that the great people that sit on the school board, the great people in the community, great people here in this district can come together and do what is best for our kids.”
Attendance at the school board meetings is not the answer to Lorain’s educational challenges, Hardy said.
The answer will come from people who care deeply about the community, Hardy said, so that is where he will focus his energies.
Dimacchia, who is school board president, has made at least two public records requests seeking information from the school district.
In preparation for the board meeting of Feb. 27, Dimacchia asked for information about district salaries, the Pipe Yard baseball stadium, the Early College program for scholars and other topics.
He also has asked about the analysis performed by Mehta Advisory Partners, or MAP. The company performed a “vendor spend analysis” that reported Lorain schools could save $540,000 to $1.07 million a year by revising certain programs within the district.
Hardy said there is no school information he won’t share with people who ask for it. He added he is excited about the next Town Hall meeting to provide updates on various aspects of the schools.