Inside: Community business leaders work on plan.

Meeting marks ‘significant day,’ CEO Hardy says

Area business and community leaders are contributing to the plan that will improve education in Lorain Schools, says the district’s chief executive officer, David Hardy Jr.

On Nov. 15, at least 40 people came out for the monthly meeting of the Community Business Schools Partnership group, which aims to connect Lorain City Schools to needed resources in the community.

Hardy called it “a very significant day” because it was the first after “The Lorain Promise” improvement plan was published in draft form Oct. 22.

“This is the day that we take what we’ve been talking about and begin to put it in action,” Hardy said. “And I’m excited to see not only a lot of returning faces but a lot of new faces here today, because this is the day we actually start to move.”

The district has had multiple meetings about the status of the schools. The recent gatherings have been great, Hardy said, but were based on a lot of announcements and information, not a lot of work.

“Today’s the day when we make that shift,” Hardy said.

At least 40 people and six Lorain High School scholars crowded the LHS

“This is the day that we take what we’ve been talking about and begin to put it in action.”

— District’s chief executive officer, David Hardy Jr

Performing Arts Atrium for the morning meeting. Hardy predicted the group will grow in size as people see progress.

The meeting started with participants reviewing a printed summary of “The Lorain Promise: Five Commitments to the Community.” They are:

• Support the whole child beginning at birth

• Invest in our early scholars

• Promote equity

• Create schools where adults and scholars thrive

• Prepare scholars for the world of tomorrow

Participants also received printed notes on the process of putting ideas into practice.

The notes had some benchmarks and timelines so when the attendees divided into smaller groups, “you’ll start to think about, what does this look like over time, from pre-K through 12th grade and who are the partners who are going to lock arms and ideas together to build this out over time?” Hardy said.

Around the room, large blank sheets of paper were set up for “design thinking,” a brainstorming method to generate ideas that will be examined, culled and streamlined to create an approach to the plan, Hardy said.

The participants were seated at tables and briefly discussed the five commitments. The selected one that sparked their interest, then divided up into five groups to discuss the five school district commitments.

Then the brainstorming began. The groups embraced the task, using yellow Post-it notes to write down dreams, goals and “nightmares,” the term used for challenges or barriers to success.

The five groups went through several dozen of the yellow notes, along with larger sheets to write down to draft their ideas.

The meeting last 90 minutes, but the conversation is not over, Hardy said. He asked those attending to give their emails so they could receive written reports about the commitments they examined.

Each group gave a synopsis of their group’s work. The ideas will be collected and emailed to the participants, then mapped out over time, Hardy said.

“This is a work in progress,” he said. “This is the beginning, this is where we start. Now we’re ready to crawl and then soon we’ll be ready to run. It starts with us building this plan together.”

ERIC BONZAR — THE MORNING JOURNAL Sixteen-year-old Lorain City Schools scholar Vianka Vega assists Assistant Superintendent Mic Becerra during the Lorain Community Business Schools Partnership meeting at Lorain High School, Nov. 15.

ERIC BONZAR — THE MORNING JOURNAL Post-it notes line the window of Lorain City Schools’ Performing Arts Atrium as community leaders and school officials map out their contribution to the Lorain Promise, during the Lorain Community Business Schools Partnership meeting at Lorain High...