Lessons Learned....

Recently the Lorain School Board made the decision to wait until November to ask the residents of Lorain to pass a levy for new money. It has been over twenty years since that the Lorain School district has received any new money. This means that the Lorain School district has been doing the best it can with the scraps it has been giving. Passing this levy is vital to the future of Lorain.

Long before Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson, long before the previous administration, and even before Charter schools we've learned that the vast majority of registered voters of Lorain do not want to invest in educating Lorain's children. We have a tendency to point the finger at the head and rightly so. I was reminded by a close friend of mine that when you are in a leadership position it opens you up for criticism. I understand it comes with the territory and I am also reminded that when you point the finger you have three pointed right back at you.

The City of Lorain's hopes of bringing and attracting people back into this city, to revitalize downtown and ultimately provide a state of the art School campus is four years away. Whether you agreed with the site or didn't agree with the site the reality is there were cuts...cuts...cuts! Some of whom were quality teachers that cared about our sons, daughters, grandchildren, neighbors, etc. Our children need the City's support now more than ever.

What has Lorain learned in the past twenty years besides failures of levies? I said Lorain because one of the things we need to learn is that the school system is not just made up of teachers, students, administrators and parents. The community is also part of the school system! Eistein said, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Marian Anderson said it best, "there are many persons ready to what is right because in their heart they know it is right. But they hestitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the first move and he in turn waits for you."

Words of Wisdom: Selecting a levy committee should have been in place May 5th 2010. It is time to change our mindset and strategies in bridging the communication gap amongst the informed and uninformed voters of Lorain.