Superintendent, board split over back to school message

Clearview Local Schools must join the fight against racial injustice — nationally and close to home, said the district’s superintendent.

But the Clearview Board of Education said the district’s back-to-school newsletter was the wrong format for Superintendent Jerome Davis to express his views. The Clearview Clippers returned to school Aug. 31.

During the same opening week of classes, the community was reacting to Davis’ 2020 backto-school newsletter and a postcard from school board members stating his essay was inappropriate.

The issue has prompted strong responses in the community, such as inquiries about refunding public tax money or withdrawing students from the schools, said Clearview Schools Board of Education President Heidi Adkins.

Others have used social media to slam the school board response.

Davis will not face disciplinary action over the issue, said Adkins, a Clearview High School alumna.

Due to the reactions, anyone with questions for the board should ask the members directly, Adkins said.

The next school board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Sept. 14, at the High School auditorium, 4700 Broadway.

Clearview High sits in Sheffield Township near the border with the city of Lorain.

Back to school

The district mailed out the back-to-school newsletter starting about the second week of August, Davis said.

It also was posted at clearviewschools.org.

In his three-page superintendent’s message, Davis discussed ending the 2019-2020 school year as the novel coronavirus pandemic grew and the “new normal” of COVID-19.

He continued by describing the protests and violence that erupted this summer in communities around the nation in response to racial injustice and police violence against African Americans.

The feelings of “sadness, anger, disappointment and frustration” hit close to home, said Davis, who described his own experience as a Black man in America.

“There is too much hatred and unrest,” he wrote. “Trust me when I say, it happens right here in Lorain County. Yes, some of the haters, who happen to be cruel and evil people, are right here amongst us in this very community.

“Please do not be naïve enough to believe that this hatred and unrest is not in our backyards because it absolutely, positively is here.”

Davis included the names of victims of police violence, including George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot and killed in Cleveland in 2014.

He pledged to stay strong for all students, especially Clearview’s Black and brown students.

Davis called for adults to set an example to “teach our children compassion, respect, inclusiveness, acceptance and gratitude for others.”

School board response

The week of Aug. 31, Adkins and school board members Darlene Baker, Mike Post, Michael Mielcarek and Michael Kokinda mailed a postcard to residents stating they were surprised at Davis’ message.

“The superintendent’s message was inappropriate and not consistent with past practice,” the board letter said. “Since this message went out, the school board has experienced some misplaced backlash.”

The board does not micromanage employees, but trusts them to make good decisions on their own, the postcard said.

“We can’t recall ever having any issues with

back to school newsletters in the past,” which is why the school board does not proofread them before publication, the board letter said.

A lot of people may misinterpret Davis’ newsletter and the board’s response, Adkins said.

Davis has a right to his opinions, but traditionally the back-to-school newsletter reports information families should know about the upcoming school year, not anybody’s personal message about what is going on in the world, she said.

Previous back-to-school newsletters included information about the end of the last school year, Adkins said.

In his superintendent’s message, Davis recounted the end of the school year during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that was a relatively small part of it, she said.

The 13-page newsletter included messages from the building principals who wrote about successes from spring or preparations and pep talks for the upcoming school year.

Davis added a two-page list of health precautions needed to slow the spread of COVID-19.

With almost 1,700 students, Clearview is an ethnically and racially diverse school system, Adkins said.

“Our school district has never been circled around color,” she said. “That has never been an issue.”

The school board’s statement was not about color, Adkins said.

But some residents felt Davis created division in the community with the personal message, she said.

“We need to teach our kids more about love and not about color,” Adkins said.

Racism in the community

Examples of racism show up on social media daily, Davis said, and the newsletter has never been a function of the school board.

“Unfortunately, because of the content of this year’s newsletter, there have been a few people who were offended because they refuse to acknowledge that racism exists,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, it is some of the very same people who tend to have racist tendencies.”

The Clearview community had a visible reminder of racism this summer, he said.

About the same time the newsletter was published, there was an incident in which someone spray painted “Black Lives Matter” on the side of a vacant home in Sheffield Township.

Shortly afterward, someone painted “White Lives Matter More” and “KKK” around the original message, Davis said.

Last month, Sheffield Township Trustee Chad Parsons held a voluntary painting session to cover the graffiti.

The vandalism was “completely unacceptable,” Parsons said.

“There is no room in Sheffield Township for that kind of hate and division,” he said at that time.

Parsons declined to comment specifically on the school district situation.

Adkins

Davis