Graham returns as CEO

Academic Distress Commission says it will enter into contract with former superintendent

Former Lorain City School Superintendent Jeff Graham will return to become CEO of the district, according to a proposal by the Academic Distress Commission.

On May 27, the Academic Distress Commission announced it would enter contract negotiations with Graham to take the helm as chief executive of the district. Graham previously served as superintendent in the district from August 2015 to December 2017.

“I’m excited, I really am,” Gra- ham said. “I love Canton, I love everything about Canton, a school district with good people. I bought a home there. The plan was to stay there long term but it didn’t work out.

“There’s an opportunity for me to go back to Lorain and I’m excited,” Graham said.

New relationship

As the former superintendent, Graham left Lorain City Schools during the tenure of CEO David Hardy Jr.

Graham said he could not comment on issues when he was not working in the district.

But he predicted a closer working relationship with School Board members Mark Ballard, Bill Sturgill, Yvonne Johnson, Courtney Nazario and Timothy Williams. In the past they lamented having little, if any, interaction with Hardy.

Graham said the board members in Lorain are community leaders who contribute to the education of young people in the city, Graham said.

“I think our relationship will be much closer to a traditional school district,” Graham said. “My focus is not what happened in the course of the last two years. I think we need to appreciate where we’ve been, but this is about moving forward.

“Our focus is on, where are we now? Where do we need to be? And how do we get there?” Graham said.

COVID-19

In his published interview, Graham emphasized the need for student and staff safety in planning for the 2020-21 school year with health precautions to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

He repeated the point on May 28 and cited examples of how Canton students learned through technology, as teachers helped each other learn to teach remotely that way.

Graham said it would be naive and arrogant to pretend he has all the answers about dealing with COVID-19 or any major projects coming for Lorain Schools.

But Lorain Schools staff have expertise to deal with those issues, so the key is to get the right people in the room, figure out where the district is and needs to be, then how to get there, Graham said.

“That’s got to be our mantra,” he said.

On the job

The Academic Distress Commission will start contract negotiations with Graham as soon as possible in hopes of finishing an agreement in June, said Randall Sampson, chairman of the Academic Distress Commission.

Graham could have a transition period in July as interim CEO Greg Ring’s contract winds down at the end of that month, Sampson said.

Graham said he intends officially to start Aug. 1, but house shopping will start May 29.

The finalists

Graham was a finalist with Jim Grubbs, superintendent of Galion City Schools, and Tracy Reed, chief academic officer of Fort Wayne Community Schools.

All three were outstanding candidates, Sampson said.

“If we could have hired three ADC CEOs, we would have hired all three of them, but at this juncture we can only offer one,” he said.

At least some factors differentiated Graham from the group. The current novel coronavirus pandemic was one factor of those, Sampson said.

Graham has a high level of experience as a superintendent, including leading a larger scale school district during the COVID-19 public health situation, Sampson said.

Before COVID-19 spread, Graham had direct knowledge of House Bill 70, experience dealing with the Academic Distress Commission and forging a partnership with the Ohio Department of Education, Sampson said.

House Bill 70 is the state law governing state takeovers of school district struggling in the “academic distress” ranking.

On the financial side, Graham had experience managing the fiscal health of a school district and passing school levies in different locations, Sampson said.

“Now how well that works in Lorain, we don’t know,” especially with high jobless rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sampson said. But that skill set is crucial now with the current economic situation.

“Those are all big differentiators, and the ability for this individual to come in and hit the ground running,” he said.

Long before the pandemic, Graham guided the addition of Mercy Health clinics in the schools for Lorain students.

“Just having that kind of vision was critical,” Sampson said.

Partnership

In the last few years, the Lorain City School community, including students, parents, faculty, staff and supporters, have faced uncertainty and conflict due to the state takeover of the district.

CEO David Hardy Jr. created “The Lorain Promise” academic turnaround plan, but faced opposition from some school supporters who emphasized the need for local control of the district.

On May 28, Sampson again emphasized a new level of partnership among the Academic Distress Commission, Ohio Department of Education and the Lorain City Schools Board, with assistance from the Lorain County Educational Service Center.

“I think, in my opinion, we couldn’t have gotten to this point if it was not for the school board, for the ESC, for the ADC and for the Ohio Department of Education all working together as one unified unit to make it happen,” Sampson said.

“And the community input helped tremendously,” he added, referring to the panel of a dozen representatives of school workers, businesses, local government and nonprofits who interviewed the finalists on May 26.

The most recent experience in Lorain could serve as a template for how an Academic Distress Commission can empower a local school board and how boards and administrators can work with state officials to improve education, Sampson said. He also praised the Ohio Department of Education for staff willingness to help Lorain.

“It’s not us versus them, it’s we together,” Sampson said.

Graham