Lorain School District’s turnaround plan has its challenges | Lorain County

Lorain Schools administrators, teachers, students and their families are working to implement the district’s academic turnaround plan.

But engaging students in the pandemic school year has been a challenge, said the chiefs of Lorain’s three middle schools.

The Lorain Academic Distress Commission held a joint online meeting with the board of education on April 19. The session included more than an hour of presentations from leaders of General Johnnie Wilson, Southview and Longfellow Middle Schools.

The discussion centered on the steps getting started with “We Believe,” the educational improvement plan that starts now and will last through 2025.

Chairman guidance

The educators are in a tough time, but must have a goal to make students fall back in love with learning, said Randall Sampson, chairman of the Academic Distress Commission.

With students learning online, Lorain Schools must compete with TikTok, Instagram and any number of other things that students are engaged in 365 days a year, he said.

The meetings are intended to display how Lorain’s academic turnaround plan is working so far, even in the middle of a pandemic, Sampson said in an interview with The Morning Journal.

Lorain schools will grant autonomy for its principals to use the strategic plan, he said.

State lawmakers, Ohio Department of Education and local residents will watch Lorain Schools meetings and they will have a clear understanding of what each school is trying to accomplish in the plan, Sampson said.

The school board, CEO and Academic Distress Commission all are supporting those steps, with help from the Ohio Department of Education, Sampson said.

Lorain Schools remain under the control of the state-appointed Academic Distress Commission.

The plan is a beginning step toward more local control for Lorain Schools, he said, because it will show what the district could look like or should look like in coming years.

At the schools

In the meeting, Graham said they would cover successes and challenges.

“Most importantly, I think the point of emphasis to walk away with today is, what are we doing about that? What are we doing to take our weaknesses, for lack of a better term, and make them our strengths?” said CEO/Superintendent Jeff Graham.

Educators knew there would be challenges in the 2020-2021 school year, but they are moving forward with the best ways to help kids, said Aretha Taylor-Paydock, director of secondary curriculum and instruction.

The middle school leaders covered plan areas including creating a healthy culture, equity, teaching and learning and student supports, particularly for those ready to move from grade eight to high school.

General Johnnie Wilson Principal Nikole Barfield-Davis described basic Spanish language classes for staff so they could greet students, helping them to feel they belong at the building.

The school has had movie nights for students and online and in-person parent nights, said Mary Adamo, assistant principal there.

The staff had walking for wellness sessions for physical health and camaraderie, said Reggie Shaw, assistant principal there.

For Southview Middle School, the administrators asked the students and staff for advice on the upcoming year. They agreed the school leaders should try to keep things as normal as possible, said Principal Paul Williams.

The school had honor and merit rolls and awards for kindness, keyboard skills and technology, because those are important in the pandemic, said Assistant Principal Melissa Morgan.

Longfellow Middle School administrators recognized meaningful relationships, adult to adult, adult to student, and student to student, are the cornerstone for a health culture in a school building, said Principal Andrew Hoffman.

“As it’s been documented pretty well over the last hour or so, our challenges are not all that different. Student engagement, it became quite clear quite quickly that getting kids to feel connected to our school in a time of isolation and lack of structure was really, really going to be difficult,” he said. “So if you could think of it, we tried it, as far as trying to get kids engaged and learning opportunities, social-emotional supports and all that type of stuff.”

Finding leaders

The school district administrators have about 50 applicants for a new leadership team dedicated to “We Believe,” said Michael Scott, assistant superintendent for school improvement, and Ross May, executive director of strategic planning, data and process.

They will be ranked on written answers to questions relating to their definitions of equity in schools, the biggest challenges for Lorain Schools and how to address them.

The applicants will have assigned numbers to eliminate biases of the review committee. The leadership team will be intentionally diverse, coming close to a reflection of the school district’s demographics and giving representation to those who normally may not have, May and Scott said.