CEO offers soft unveiling of plan

Corrective criticism sought for academic improvement plan

David Hardy Jr. hopes people who care about Lorain City Schools students will read a draft academic improvement plan and offer corrective criticism.

The chief executive officer chosen by a Lorain Academic Distress Commission in August to lead the district, Hardy offers the public a soft release of the plan Oct. 22 online at www.lorainschools.org.

“I’m tremendously excited,” Hardy said. “We’re at a stage now where I’ve heard hundreds, if not thousands, of individual voices, and feel very confident the message I’ve heard very clearly from the community will shine through in the plan going forward,” Hardy said. “I finally feel this is the day we can now come together and galvanize around the direction and celebrate a bit, celebrate in a sense that we’re unifying ourselves. But then start to put together the harder work of implementing the plan. So it’s a very exciting time for me.”

In meetings leading up to the soft release, Hardy said people collecting information listened to 2,082 people in 35 focus groups, 68 one-on-one meetings, 24 community town halls and school events, and 1,113 survey responses, he said.

According to a document presented by Hardy, students want:

• Schools that make their families feel welcome

• More interactive learning and classrooms

• Extra support for peers who are struggling

• More opportunities to share

their ideas with the district

• Continued emphasis on the wealth of extracurricular activities offered in schools

During a six-hour Lorain Academic Distress Commission executive session Oct. 19 at Lorain County Community College, Hardy said very good conversations took place, but he could not comment on specifics.

“More than anything else I think we came out more prepared for the direction we need to go,” Hardy said. “And the conversations allowed us to deepen our understanding of the challenges and the promise and the opportunity ahead of us. I would have to say we left as a more complete and unifying unit toward pushing the Lorain Promise forward.”

His highest priorities are the adults who support the scholars, and the scholars themselves.

“Big picture, we are about to unveil a new direction, a new day for Lorain City Schools, and we want every one of our members of our community to be a part of that and we invite them to the two meetings.”

A first meeting unveiling the Lorain Promise for the Spanish speaking community is 5:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at Sacred Heart

Chapel at 4301 Pearl Ave. in Lorain.

A second meeting unveiling the Lorain Promise in English is 5:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at a Performing Arts Center of Lorain High School at 2600 Ashland Ave. in Lorain. Park on the Pole Avenue side of the building.

“We want to galvanize our direction and make sure our scholars are truly put first,” Hardy said.

The Lorain Academic Distress Commission officially approves the plan by Nov. 7, and submits the plan to the Ohio Department of Education, he said.

Between Nov. 1-7, Hardy will begin mobilizing parts of the plan, he said, which will start to trigger some internal and external changes.

The district employees will be thinking about the new direction and how it impacts constituents, he said.

“Part of it is setting up the stage for implementation,” Hardy said. “The big message being there will be a level of accountability for the work we do that I will hold myself to, but hold all the other people within the organization to as well. Because at this point we cannot allow our scholars to suffer from the educational malpractice they have experienced because of the lack of accountability that has been held upon everyone within the community and within the school district.”