Meet The Superintendent

I attended the "Meet The Superintendent Night" at Normandy High School on July 21st. My very first impression of Dr. Graham was that he looks young, seems very confident, and appears to be well aware of the difficult challenge ahead of him, and intends to succeed. The question is, will the citizens in this community help him or just stand around criticizing every move? Dr. Graham faced a packed room full of very concerned citizens, who had a multitude of pointed questions, and I for one was impressed with the way that he handled himself. One of the main concerns of this audience early on seemed to be whether or not Normandy High School was slated for closing. Dr. Graham reminded people that a committee had been formed to consider all of the options available to the district, was going through the process currently, and would most likely be making their recommendations sometime in January; until then, no decision had been made, no matter how many rumors were flying about.

Dr. Graham did not shy away from answering "yes" when asked if the failure of the levy could result in even more cuts. He pointed out that cuts were first made into the fat, then the muscle, and now we are down to the bone. In the end, we will ultimately have to focus on providing the best education that we can for the money we have, and that, he pointed out, will be his main responsibility. He made it clear that he would not spend any time passing judgement on decisions that were made in the past, as he was not here and did not have the facts. He promised to be focused on today and what will happen next, and that, in my opinion, is the very best that we as citizens in this school district can hope for.

Dr. Graham stated that he felt that far too often, people seemed to start with solutions even before they asked all of the important questions. He pledged to first build trust and maintain consistency, and that he would gather as much information as he could before making decisions. Dr. Graham revealed that upon examination, he came to the conclusion that far too many great things were happening within the Parma City School District that people seemed to be totally unaware of, and his goal is to change that. Bill Mason, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor and product of the Parma Schools, is a key figure in the effort to pass the levy, and he informed those assembled that much more help from concerned citizens in the District is badly needed in order to assure that the levy is passed, and he urged people to come forward and join the effort. I couldn't agree more, because in the end, on Election Day, it will take the votes of those of us in this community to make the next step possible in our effort to rebuild our school system to the state of excellence that we know in our hearts it should be and should stay. We have met the Superintendent, and he is ours.

To view a video of this "Meet The Superintendent Night" meeting, go to the Observation Deck on our website at www.parmaobserver.com. While you're there, sign up in the Member Center and write your story!