Mansfield Senior High Assistant Principal Fuzzie Davis listens as Lori Crum describes her approach to being the assistant principal in charge of the newly implemented freshman academy.
Lori Crum takes the words of her late mother to work with her every day.
“My mother told me, ‘Sometimes people get positions and titles and they think they are really somebody. You’re there to help someone. Never forget that,’” Crum said.
Crum, the new assistant principal who will lead the freshman academy at Mansfield Senior High School, has never forgotten.
“When you were an undergraduate you had that textbook philosophy of teaching and being an educator,” she said. “I’m 47 now and I can tell you it has truly evolved. The bottom line is that you treat children the way you want someone to treat your own child.
“This is a field of service. I am here to serve students and provide support to them. There is no cookie-cutter approach. Each student is different. That requires knowing each one individually. My goal is to reach 100 percent of students and helped them all move on.
“I am not an administrator who sits in the office. I need to be where the rubber meets the road. I like to interact with kids, sit down and have lunch with them.”
Principal Jose Hernandez announced creation of the freshman academy last spring, explaining that it is designed to reduce dropout rates by ensuring that all ninth-graders have a successful first year of high school. Freshmen will have their own faculty and be clustered in classrooms on the first floor of the high school’s south wing.
The concept is not new to Crum. Her 20 years of education administration included running the freshman academy at Warrensville Heights High School. Crum said the emphasis on freshmen there was much like what Senior High’s academy will be.
“We focused on the success of students. If a student was slipping in a particular academic area – English, math, science or social studies – we provided weekly intervention during what we called ‘Power Wednesdays,” she said.
“We saw a 10 percent increase in all academic content areas, a reduction in disciplinary offenses and an increase in attendance. Research shows that those who don’t make it out of ninth grade the first time have only a 6 to 10 percent chance of graduating.”
In addition to attention to academics Crum said the academy staff will emphasize character education, positive behavior and counseling where needed.
Students who do well academically will be challenged to aim higher.
“We’ll push the envelope, including urging them to take the preliminary SAT as practice for when they are juniors and seniors. We need kids to be used to rigor,” Crum said.
Crum earned her undergraduate degree in elementary education from the University of Akron, a master’s in education administration from Cleveland State University and an education specialist in administration degree, also from Cleveland State. She received a superintendent license from Ashland University.
She served as an elementary, middle school and high school principal with Cleveland Metropolitan Schools and most recently was director of alternative education for a consortium of five schools on Cleveland’s west side.
She has two daughters and a son: Alexus, 20, a student at the University of Akron; Lauryn, 18, a student at Ohio University and Jonathan, a high school junior in South Euclid.
“I had been in the classroom three years when my principal came to me, told me I was ‘a natural leader,’ and said she wanted me to become an assistant principal,” Crum said. “I was very honored. I took the plunge and never looked back.
“I am very glad to be part of the administrative team here in Mansfield.”