LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — The three finalists for the superintendent position at Lima City Schools participated in a “Meet the Candidate” night, engaging with community members and staff during a public forum.
Tom Domzalski of East Cleveland City Schools, Andre Rudolph of Reynoldsburg City Schools, and Darnell Collins, principal of Lima Senior High School, each took 40 minutes to answer questions from the public. Attendees were then invited to provide written feedback on each candidate for the school board to consider. The finalists shared their educational philosophies and outlined their visions for the superintendent role.
“Authenticity is like the number one piece. Everyone says, ‘Oh, I have an open door policy. You can contact me about this.’ Yeah, absolutely. But I want the image that I want people to have in their mind of me as a superintendent in this district would be, if you're worried that I'm not working, don't have to worry about it. Know that I am working on this and I've got the best interest of students and families in mind,” said Tom Domzalski, director of curriculum and instruction at East Cleveland City Schools.
“We don't have the opportunities to pick and choose who gets to come through our doors and who we get to educate us, and we do a very good job of educating the people that come through our doors. We are so much more than what our grade card says. If people would take the opportunity to actually come in and see what's going on in our buildings, they would understand that,” said Darnell Collins, principal of Lima Senior High School.
“We want to prepare our babies to go on a global community. But ,if we only have people from Lima, we don't give them a global perspective, and that's a huge issue. If we think that only people that can grow our babies are from within, then we're limited already,” said Andre Rudolph, assistant superintendent at Reynoldsburg City Schools.
In addition to the public event, the school board held its second round of interviews with each candidate Wednesday night. The board will review community feedback before making its final decision, which could come as early as next week.
