Parental involvement key to success

Lorain City Schools Chief Executive Officer David Hardy Jr. is off to a promising start after releasing his 90-Day Entry Plan for academic improvement Aug. 10, just two days after signing his contract.

Despite the positives in the plan, there doesn’t seem to be much parental involvement in it, which is crucial for success for the district of 6,700 students and 860 employees.

In his plan, Hardy says the district has to find the answers to the toughest questions and provide support the schools need.

Hardy says district leaders will be thoughtful in their relentless approach toward transformative academic progress, and they will have fun doing it along the way.

The 90-day plan, which began Aug. 8, is aligned with six components Hardy says will drive the listening sessions with stakeholders and tough conversations that need to occur. The six components include: • Learning: “What results of students, teachers and school leaders have impacted the ability of our children to be ready for life after high school?”

• Leadership: “How have we improved the lives of our young people?”

• Performance and Growth: “What has been the return on our investments made throughout the district over the past three years?”

• Equity: “Is our current approach leveling the playing field for all of our students to succeed?”

• Community: “How do we create a collaborative community environment to create the greatest collective impact?”

• Organizational Culture: “How do we create trust?”

Each area of focus has a four-step cycle of analysis for the district’s strategic plan.

The first step is prioritize, where Hardy says he will work with community engagement partners and district personnel to identify the areas of greatest concern identified by multiple data sources – both qualitative and quantitative.

These priorities will be organized from greatest-to-least impactful on student outcomes.

And this segment will be completed within the first 30 days and presented to the community Sept. 7.

The second step is to strategize, where after engaging deeply with the community and uncovering important data points through multiple district diagnostics, Hardy and his team will create a collective, district-wide strategy. This intense and urgent process will create a strategic direction for the district over the next 35 months to re-evaluate progress and correct what’s necessary after each school year.

Hardy says this segment will be completed in 70 days, and the community will see the first draft of the strategic plan Oct. 17.

The third step is operationalize, where Hardy will systemize the school and district operations.

He plans to spend significant time with those directly impacted by the strategic plan to ensure that their sentiments and needs are the drivers of the district’s strategic plan.

It will take 90 days to complete this process. The final draft of the strategic plan, organizational functions, intended year-one outcomes and projected year-three goals will be outlined and presented Nov. 6.

The final step is actualize, which Hardy says is the critical work of mapping out the implementation of the strategic plan for short- and longterm outcomes expected by the task and objectives identified.

These measures, and/or metrics, will be the centerpiece for all presentations made by the senior leadership team to the greater community on an ongoing monthly basis.

This segment of the process will be a completed draft within the first 150 days and will include how the district will monitor the progress of students, teachers and leaders.

These expectations will be outlined and shared with the community on a yet-to-be-determined interval.

While all of this sounds like Hardy’s on the right track, we still see a need for parents to be 100 percent involved in this strategic plan.

Only two references to parents are mentioned in Hardy’s 13-page plan: Page 6 where he says in the first 25 to 40 days, he plans to meet with parents to gain an understanding of teaching and learning.

Hardy mentions parents again on Page 12 that he plans to meet with them in the first 90 days.

Hardy, the school administrators and teachers alone can’t accomplish the goal of escaping academic distress.

He has hired TNTP of New York City to meet with students, staff and community members to glean insights and to inform on the strategic plan.

It seems as though Hardy is on the right track.

But parents also must be on that track.