The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Report slams CEO plan, teachers union leader says
A state report quietly ripped the former administrative leader for the actions taking place — or not taking place — to improve learning in Lorain City Schools, the teachers union chief said.
This month, the Ohio Department of Education published the “Lorain City Schools Targeted Review April 22-25, 2019.”
A close reading of the 89-page report reveals criticisms of The Lorain Promise, the academic turnaround plan authored by former CEO David Hardy Jr., said Jay Pickering, president of the Lorain Education Association.
“As you look through it, there’s a lot of little intricacies here and there, a lot of very negative comments about the way things were being run,” Pickering said.
A vocal critic of Hardy’s performance, Pickering spoke at the Jan. 13 meeting of the Lorain School Board.
School board members Mark Ballard, Bill Sturgill, Yvonne Johnson, Courtney Nazario and Timothy Williams took no formal action on the report.
However, Williams encouraged the board and the Lorain Academic Distress Commission to invite Ohio Department of Education representatives to a meeting to present their findings to the school leaders and the community.
‘Targeted Review’
The state examiners considered the specific commitments, goals and strategies of The Lorain Promise,
Among 15 commitments, goals and strategies, the state reviewers rated 13 as
“in progress and ongoing” and two as “not in progress.”
Generally, the report rated those as “in progress and ongoing” within Lorain Schools.
One area of fiscal management was ranked as “not in progress.”
The Lorain Promise, the academic improvement plan Hardy created, was like “world peace,” because no one could argue with anything in it, Pickering said.
“I will tell you, when I first saw the Promise, I said, well, how could anybody argue with it?” Pickering said. “It’s like world peace. It had every item that you would want for education and said we should do it.
“But I always said from the beginning, I don’t see a plan inside this promise. I was kind of relieved when some people took a look at it that had some educational background and I think they kind of came to the same conclusion.”
Negative reviews
Among 15 strategies, 12 of the state reviews were negative, Pickering said.
For example, the first commitment in The Lorain Promise was to “Support the whole child, beginning at birth.”
As part of that, the second strategy was to “focus on providing resources our scholars need to be healthy and present every day.”
Pickering read from the state review: “The Lorain Promise states the district has identified resources needed for scholars to be successful. However, the Lorain Promise lacks baseline information on current resources and how they are being used. The plan also lacks specific and measurable goals, action steps and incremental data points for reaching those targets.”
“As you look through this, nearly every strategy has the same comment,” Pickering said. “There’s no strategy, there’s no goals, there’s no incremental points, there’s no way to measure whether this Promise is actually being done.”
Pickering said if anyone thinks The Lorain Promise is worth continuing, it needs more specific details because it is a statement things no one can argue with.
The state review also noted the district received $1 million “in matching funds from the Achievement Network’s Breakthrough Results Fund for a four-year partnership with the organization to improve assessment and instruction.”
Pickering noted it appeared the district had to match that money.
He said the Lorain Schools Board of Education has called for a legal review of contracts from the previous administration.