Former Lorain School superintendents and another local district administrator apply to be the next CEO

LORAIN — Two former Lorain Schools leaders and another local administrator are looking to run the district. Lorain Schools Academic Distress Commission contracted with the Educational Service Center of Lorain County to conduct a fast-tracked CEO search, hoping to fill the position by Aug. 1. The application period closed 11:59 p.m. Monday, with 12 current and former school district leaders applying for the position, according to applications supplied to The Chronicle-Telegram via a public records request. Of those, two are former leaders of Lorain Schools — Jeff Graham and Tom Tucker — and one is the current superintendent of Wellington Schools, Ed Weber. Jeff Graham left Lorain Schools in late 2017, after former CEO David Hardy Jr. was hired by the district's Academic Distress Commission. At the time, Hardy sparked uncertainty by announcing Graham had resigned from his position, when Graham told The Chronicle-Telegram he had done no such thing. Graham was hired by the Lorain Board of Education and its first Academic Distress Commission to lead the school district, assuming the position mere hours before House Bill 70 passed in 2015 — paving the way for the state takeover of Lorain, Youngstown and East Cleveland schools. Graham had left Parma Schools to serve as Lorain's academic leader, and once ousted there, served in Cleveland Metropolitan Schools as a regional superintendent, before moving to his current job as Canton Schools superintendent. Lorain School Board President Mark Ballard said Graham has been vetted by the local board before. "We think Jeff has done a terrific job and I'm excited to see he still has a heart to want to come back here after the way he was treated," he said. "I just really know his heart is really here and he was really well respected and received by this community." Graham declined to comment in detail on his decision to apply for the open position, instead pointing to his answer on the CEO application asking why he was interested: "Family," he wrote. "In all its meanings." If he is not selected to return to Lorain, he would look to continue working in Canton Schools, he confirmed. Tom Tucker retired from the district in 2015 after a change to the state retirement system, and is currently an adjunct professor at Cleveland State University. He was born and raised in Lorain, spending more than 30 years of his career there. When he last served in Lorain Schools, the district's initial ADC was formed despite slow but continued progress on its state report card. At that time, the commission was in an advisory role, lacking the power to hire a CEO like the current law allows. "From what I understand, the last CEO, what my research has shown, is he was allowed to do what he needed to do and they allowed that to happen," he said. "When I was there, the commission and my team, we weren't quite allowed to have that kind of freedom. It's a different time now with three commissions in place and they're viewed a little differently than they were five years ago." Ed Weber is the current superintendent of Wellington Schools, hired by Tucker when he was the interim superintendent for the rural district. Prior to accepting the job in Wellington in 2017, Weber was a principal in Cleveland Metropolitan Schools for almost 15 years. He did not return a request for comment Tuesday evening. Lorain Schools Academic Distress chairman Randall Sampson said all the candidates will be given the same consideration, regardless of whether they have previous ties to the district or not. Sampson plans to meet with the Ohio Department of Education this week to discuss a salary range for the state-paid CEO. He said it is unclear how Gov. Mike DeWine's recent cuts to education amid the coronavirus outbreak could impact that price point. If the law changes and local control is returned, it will be up to the city's school board to renegotiate a contract with the CEO or find a new superintendent who can live within the district's means, Ballard confirmed. Finalists are slated to be announced next week, with a chance for public input via a remote public meeting, he said, followed by an executive session to further narrow candidates. The goal is to start contract negotiations with the ADC's pick by June 2. "I've had the conversation multiple times with multiple people, and I've actually pushed back on some stuff but I wanted to make sure that we have an above-board process that's transparent, that it's a public process, even though we're in this virtual environment now with distance meetings and that kind of stuff." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.