"A Message from a New Leader"

The Lorain City Schools welcome Dr. Jeff Graham as their new CEO, a position he started mid-June. Dr. Graham began his career in education as a Physics teacher before being tapped as an assistant principal and then principal of Medina High School. He has served as a superintendent since 2003, leading improvement in Woodridge Local Schools, Parma City Schools, Lorain City Schools, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and Canton City Schools.

Dr. Graham's collaborative leadership style has helped recreate school districts by bringing people together to pass levies, build critical community partnerships, expand wraparound services, improve communication and engagement, and increase opportunities for students to achieve.

His commitment to transparency and open communication can be seen through his regularly scheduled listening sessions with various student groups, staff luncheons, parent forums, and open dialogue sessions throughout the community.

Jeff and his wife Erin recently purchased a home in Lorain. Together they have five children: AJ (27), Paige (25), Taryn (15), Cooper (12), and Calvin (9) and two very large, very fluffy dogs. You can learn more about Dr. Graham at jeffgraham.org and jeffgrahamblogs.com.

Dr. Graham – who insists we call him "just Jeff" – shared the following blog with us about the role our public schools play in the fight for equity:

I almost never get on social media, but I needed to experience how our children are learning about and experiencing current events. It is difficult to imagine what it must be like for children right now - quarantined in their homes with little social interaction beyond their families, and their phones.

This subject came up earlier today with my 15-year-old daughter, who, when asked how she and her friends were doing right now, simply shrugged her shoulders in that way that teenagers do.

she said in a reassuring way that was beyond her years.

Then she raised her eyebrows as if to question why the generations before her chose to change the world - or not change the world - in quite this way.

As an educator, my deep wish is that school could be in session right now. Not the "school of hard knocks" the year 2020 seems so desperate to enroll us in -- I'm talking about the purity of a classroom filled with young minds representing different backgrounds and unique influences, all present with a common understanding: we are here to learn from one another.

The great gift our schools present is that our youth will have a safe place to share their differing perspectives with the support of caring mentors whose sole purpose is to challenge them with the only question that matters: what kind of person do you want to be?

When I log on to social media, it shouldn't surprise you to know that this is not the supportive discourse taking place online right now. And yet, this is the default classroom for our children.

I'm not writing this to decry social media and its evils - I'm sure it has its place. However, as I observe my own children and how all five are responding to current events through the lens of their developmental age ranges (their ages span from 9 to 27), it's clear that youth and inexperience hinder the ability to process what's happening across the world.

Racism has itself become a virus - we've always known it's there, but if we haven't experienced it ourselves, it's hard to comprehend its danger. In this way, racism, like the flu, might not get your attention until it actually makes you sick.

I want to be very clear that I do not want to inadvertently convey the message that I understand what it's like to experience racism. I do not. I cannot. On the contrary, I am vividly aware that as a white man, it is merely chance, quite unearned, that literally protects me and my family with its privilege.

But here's what I do know:

Even during a pandemic, if you're hungry enough, eventually you have to go out and get food, or else your body will perish.

And even during a pandemic, if you are angry enough, you have to eventually demand change, or else your soul will perish.

We've heard the stories of racial injustice in Georgia and Minnesota, but we are not so naive to believe the disease of prejudice isn't present in every community across the world. I picture it like one of those graphics on the evening news, hatred blooming in ugly red circles of contagion that we can track across a map.

Before I sat down to write this, my daughter showed me a video that was being shared on social media among her friends. It was a video of a young person telling her 90-year-old grandfather that a Black man had been held to the ground for nine minutes, a knee pressed to his neck, with two more grown men kneeling upon his back until he died. As the grandfather in the video began to cry, I told my daughter that although I am neither black nor 90, I wanted to cry too.

My daughter nodded her head, and summed up the last 400 years in this country as only a child can do, with the simple question:

Urban school districts spend a lot of time with our staff in professional learning opportunities that ask that very question.

For instance, we may know intrinsically that change begins by first recognizing racism - but sometimes it's hard to identify when we are influenced by subconscious bias. It's hard to admit our subconscious may be racist. We also know that it is critical that we respond to racism both swift and fierce because until we have abolished racism, our work to sustain equity and equality is not complete.

As a nation, as a community, and as individuals, we need to do and be better. We need to expect more from one another and ourselves by asking,

Although I don't know the answer to that question yet, I do know that our public schools will play a critical role in that fight.

Jeff welcomes an open dialogue to continue working toward the best future for our children.

He has provided his direct contact information to make that dialogue possible:

Dr. Jeff Graham - jgraham@loraincsd.org - (440) 830-4000 - jeffgraham.org - jeffgrahamblogs.com