Superintendent Eric Gordon with 1st grade students from Bolton PK-8 School at CMSD Headquarters
“Every ending is a beginning. We just don’t know it at the time” — Mitch Albom. Earlier this week I wrapped up some consultancy work with a national initiative funded with support from the Wallace Foundation. Ohio was one of eleven states participating in this initiative and one of the states I was fortunate to support.
The project in Ohio involved a network of school systems in Northeast, Ohio (Akron Public Schools, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cleveland State University, East Cleveland City School District, Lorain City School District, Maple Heights City School District), their Urban League affiliate and community partners, along with representatives from the Ohio Department of Education. The network, known as the Ohio ESSA Leadership Learning Community (ELLC) team, convened for six years with the overarching goal of building the capacity of education leaders to implement supports and interventions to turn around schools most in need of improvement.
During the last six years, the Ohio ELLC team convened recurring meetings to engage in strategies to improve educational leadership practice, networking, participating in coordinated professional learning experiences including site visits to high performing public-school districts across the nation, and accessing the latest research findings to support Social and Emotional Learning and identifying evidence-based interventions in addressing the unique needs of high needs districts.
Our final meeting time together in Cleveland, OH gave the team a chance to reflect on and discuss key accomplishments, lessons learned, and next steps as the national ELLC initiative ends. A final report by Policy Studies Associates synthesizing and documenting the work of the Ohio ELLC team is forthcoming and will be shared more broadly as the lessons learned from this initiative can be applied universally to any learning community.
As part of this trip, I also got to say farewell to a good friend and a champion of the Ohio ELLC team’s work throughout the last six years, Eric Gordon, Superintendent of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). CMSD hosted our final meeting and Eric has served admirably as the district’s Superintendent since 2011 (a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself). He previously announced he’s leaving CMSD of his own accord at the end of this school year.
Eric has received numerous awards and national recognition during his tenure, but one of the things he’s known for is spending time with students engaging in school activities across the community. While in Cleveland this week, we got to observe Eric enthusiastically read to a group of 1st graders and decorate the Christmas tree with students at CMSD Headquarters. I don’t know who had more fun, Eric or the students. Spending time with students and in schools is a great reminder of the importance of public education.
Happy holidays and best wishes to all for an enjoyable holiday break that hopefully provides a respite for educators and support staff alike to rest, relax, reflect, and recharge in preparation for a successful and safe second semester to the school year.