Group tackles info sharing

CEO’s performance comes up during Lorain Academic Distress Commission meeting

The Lorain City Schools Academic Distress Commission met March 21 to hear how CEO David Hardy Jr. is working on the system for educating children.

But exchanging information with the Lorain City School Board of Education and the public also came up for discussion as the Academic Distress Commission held its quarterly meeting.

Fewer than 30 people came out for the meeting at Lorain High School and part of the audience was made up of school administrators.

The Commission spent about two hours

hearing presentations from Hardy and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Joshua Hill. They discussed in depth the process to examine Lorain Schools and make changes that will improve the education of scholars there.

Lorain Board of Education members Yvonne Johnson and Bill Sturgill attended, as did representatives of the Lorain Branch of the NAACP.

On March 1 the school board held a vote of “no confidence” in Hardy and voted to seek a lawyer to investigate a legal challenge to the state law governing Lorain’s academic distress governance.

NAACP member Rhoda Lee and President E. Jean Wrice said the members are more concerned with the education of children and how things are going. Lee mentioned the board’s vote specifically.

“And in that, we are here to let you know that we do not agree with that and we do have confidence in our CEO,” Lee said.

Hardy has been out in the community, holding town hall meetings, setting up task forces and listening to the concerns of the community and discussing what the needs of the children are, Lee said.

House Bill 70 state law governing academic distress outlines the CEO’s powers, which Hardy is using now, Lee said.

“And he is working with the community, working with the parents, working with the students,” Lee said. “We want you to know as a Distress Commission, that we have no problems with our CEO and what he’s doing up to this point.”

Wrice said the school board is playing games and is politically involved, “which should have no place when it comes to our children.”

“I’m just sick and tired of all the playing games that they are doing,” she said.

The Commission members did not specifically address the school board votes from March 19. Academic Distress Commission Chairman Tony Richardson said the group is considering an evaluation of Hardy, but that likely will happen in the summer.

Sturgill said he was not able to stay for the entire meeting, due to another commitment.

As the newest school board member, Johnson said she has no hidden agenda about the district.

Her fellow board members Sturgill, Tony Dimacchia, Mark Ballard and Timothy Williams have stated they have not gotten enough financial information from Hardy to make a decision on placing a renewal levy on the ballot for Lorain Schools.

Richardson asked Johnson if she had “the requisite information you need, financially, to put a renewal levy on the ballot.”

“Absolutely, I never had any doubt about it,” Johnson said.

“Thank you,” Richardson said.

Commission member Steve Cawthon said he was disappointed that Hardy’s relationship with the school board has not improved in Hardy’s time in Lorain.

“As an optimist, I hold out hope that in some fashion a level of diplomacy can be bridged and that the board and Mr. Hardy can cultivate a relationship that will allow both to excel in accomplishing the task of improving Lorain City Schools and the placement of a renewal levy on the ballot that will benefit all of our students and the community,” Cawthon said.

Cawthon, Johnson and the audience members noted a number of recent academic, extracurricular and athletic achievements of Lorain students. In recent meetings the student accomplishments have sparked praise – and some concerns that the students could be ignored or forgotten as school leaders work through the academic distress process.

Richardson noted Hardy and Hill set out financial information for public review.

Their presentations included details about operations of Lorain City Schools and the instruction that students will get in the classrooms.

Hardy publicly has stated he wants a personnel audit of the district and he repeated that for the Academic Distress Commission.

“I fundamentally believe we have some challenges with past HR practices and how we brought people into our system and we need to look into it,” Hardy said. It potentially could cost $50,000 like the operational audit from Mehta Advisory Partners, he said, but that study estimated Lorain Schools could save $1 million or more.

Richardson noted the Commission does not oversee daily operations of the schools. But he agreed on the importance of attracting talent and use data to inform staff to make the best decisions for Lorain schools.

Relating it to The Lorain Promise academic turnaround plan, “a plan is a plan, right, but without the right personnel and the people on that team, you can’t drive it,” Richardson said.

In other business, the Commission heard from Bobby Sergent, a band and athletic booster volunteer. He asked about a rumor that Lorain City Schools would cut its sixth grade band.

Hardy said there have been “zero conversations” around the band program. Instead of cutting it, he said he would like to expand music education to lower grades, if possible.

Hardy’s administrative leaders attended the meeting. Present were Jeff Hawks, chief operations officer; LaKimbre Brown, chief schools officer; Arliss Prass, chief family officer; Elena Gonzalez, chief of staff; and Jacquie Younker, chief people officer.