September 26, 2023 • 12 mins
Dr. Henry Pettiegrew, II is a refreshing leader who took a strikingly different approach to school leadership. Revitalization has been the tone of his tenure in the East Cleveland City School District. He was appointed by the state of Ohio as the CEO, and has been named as the superintendent by the local school board. He has coordinated transformational, district-wide school improvement strategies, and served as an educational administrator with specific demonstrated success in organizational systems, curriculum development, and principal professional development. Dr. Pettigrew has built a reputation for delivering actionable instructional leadership, and offering robust training to building the capacities of both teachers and leaders. Dr. Pettiegrew earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Urban Education from Cleveland State University and has provided consulting and professional development for principals, school districts and private businesses through his business The LEAD School. He is motivated to equip an army of learners as leaders to break the barriers of reactionary school systems. With excellence, empowerment, equity and empathy Dr. Pettigrew carries out His life’s work: investing daily in actualizing the true freedom of education for all!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
This is CEOs you should know OniHeartRadio, I'm Keith Hotchkiss. Think about
the challenges you might face running anentire school district. Now think about those
challenges in a district and academic distresswhere half the kids live in poverty.
This is the enormous challenge facing doctorHenry Pettigrew, Superintendent and CEO of East
Cleveland City Schools. On today's podcast, we dive into the power of education
(00:23):
on community, the impact of fooddeserts and quality housing, and how you
take children from nothing to something.So doctor Pettigrew, I happen to be
a fan of public education. Mydaughters are in public schools here in Ohio,
and you know, can you talka little bit about the value of
a public education and the value thatit brings to students in community. It's
(00:49):
been under attack a little bit thelast few years. Can you talk a
little bit about why it's still soimportant? Absolutely, and thank you for
having me today. Sure, I'llget first. I'll talk about my own
personal experience education public school. Cameup in Northeast Ohio, went to Bedford,
was at Cleveland State. All ofmy degrees come from Cleveland State.
Believe in public education, and itis the reason I'm sitting here with you
(01:11):
today. It truly has prepared mefor the task that I have at hand
educating East Cleveland Schools students. Publiceducation is the thing that could take you
from a student in East Cleveland wherethe family afford is making anywhere from twenty
five to twenty seven thousand dollars belowthe poverty level. Education can take you
to where you can get a highpaying job. We were just talking to
(01:34):
some folks working with our children atShaw High School where the medium income of
some jobs we're looking at and manufacturingare in the sixty seventy thousand dollars range.
A median income again in East Clevelandis below thirty thousand. So public
school and going to public school andtaking advantage of things that public school can
offer can actually change your life andyour family's life. So we hold really,
(01:57):
really dear to those those things thatare going on in a school.
I love public school. I'm apublic school kid. I'm so happy to
be a public school a leader atthis point. And you know, I
personally want to thank you for takingon I mean, this is not an
easy role. You're leading a districtwith financial challenges in a time when I
think that there's a certain segment ofthe population that wants to throw grenades at
(02:21):
anything that's not that they're not familiarwith, and certainly public education is one
of them. How do you weneed more people like you? But the
perception of the teaching has become morechallenging and maybe pays less on average than
the previous generation. I think that'shurting public education. Can you talk about
that? Is that? How dowe get more people excited to become educators
(02:43):
again? I think, getting onmy soapbox, it's about the classroom in
East Cleveland. We purposely don't takeChase State tests. We don't put a
lot of stock in looking at normreferenced NOD ranking of our students, which
really just tied to poverty and tieto socio economic issues. What we're trying
to do is make sure that ourstudents are college and career ready and that
(03:06):
they're moving in the right direction whenit comes to their families and their experiences.
So rather than teaching how to passa test, we're talking to students
about how to create a pathway,how to grab pathways that will accelerate the
pathway that you have in your ownlife. Listen, you're struggling with poverty.
The students that I'm dealing with,you're struggling with some of those societal
(03:27):
issues. I gotta abandoned buildings thatthey walk past. There's no grocery store,
there's no bank. So these thingsare what are the daily reality of
my student? Now what happens inthe classroom. We're trying to teach curriculum
that ultimately was approved in Texas orin some other state. We're looking at
standards and we're trying to go toa test, but that tests won't put
food on the table. So howdo we get more people attracted to education?
(03:52):
How do we get more people inpublic school? It's reframing the narrative.
We don't talk to the students enoughabout what they want, what they
need, what their dreams are.Our students tell us stop just telling us
older generation, stop telling us whatto do, Grab our hand and show
us what to do. So they'reasking for more authenticity. I know I
grew up as a young person withteachers. It was due as I say,
(04:15):
not as I do. There wasthis idea that students just needed to
conform and they need to just belittle robots. Really, public education primarily
was created for factories and manufacturing jobsin previous centuries. Now we're looking at
students that they're in the gig economy. Students are not taking long term jobs,
(04:36):
they're not going after those traditional pathways. School has to catch up to
where the students are of this generation. So when you talk to me about,
you know, how do we increasepublic school participation and engagement, it
starts with the students. It startstalking about their dreams, their ambitions,
and then redesign the system to fitthem, not maybe what we were years
(04:57):
ago. That's such an important thing. When you think about the district that
you're in and people that maybe couldn'tcome to school because of the social economic
issues that you're dealing with. Iwould imagine that that's resonating and that that
messaging was getting more people back intothe public school system. And then obviously
(05:18):
we had the pandemic. Right,how have you you mentioned to me earlier
that you had to change, right, you had to move, You had
to you know, you may havebeen caught flat footed, but who wasn't.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat the changes have meant and what
that's brought to your district absolutely well. One of the things we realized that
we were in a digital divide.Our students didn't have enough connectivity. So
(05:41):
we jumped out and started to purchasehotspots for families or actual hardwiring internet into
homes for families to make sure thatthe students could they connected. We gave
out the Chrome books as everybody elsedid, tried to keep up, but
we really were coming from behind.We did not have a structure or a
plan in our community for what happenswhen the schools shut down. In an
(06:01):
impoverished community. In the urban community, the school is the centerpiece of the
community. It is where the childrenget the food. I reference, we
don't have any real restaurants or grocerystores, so now the lunch becomes the
best meal of the day. Wehave all of these things that the students
are struggling with. So again,this is the focus in these Cleveland We're
(06:21):
trying to make sure that our studentsget the opportunity to move the socio economic
ladder. Poverty creates a stain acrossthe entire community. It really puts people
into traumatic moments and it triggers folks. You know, we see all kinds
of things that happen as effects ofpoverty. The solution is economic mobility.
The solution is showing students something differentthan these careers that they see on TV
(06:46):
or on Instagram. But now we'retrying to bring force people that are in
the community, people are outside ofthe community, that have non traditional jobs,
to show students more than just thethings that maybe they've been told.
This uh has been fascinating for thoseof us that maybe don't spend a lot
of time in your area. Rightwe're talking with doctor Henry Pettigrew, CEO
(07:09):
of the East Cleveland Public School System. So doctor, there's people like me
and the suburbs, and we hearthese stories. We know the value of
public education and we think, okay, yeah, this is a challenge school
district. How can we help?Is there a way to help? Is
that you know, every little bitI think sometimes can add things, but
(07:30):
you know, the needs of thestudents, the needs of the administrators and
the teachers, what are they whatis what could what could people in the
community outside of East Cleveland do tohelp grow the floor? Absolutely again,
and then if the word of theday of my interview today is economic mobility,
creating opportunities for internships, externships,job shadowing, opportunities to our students
(07:53):
to go out and see that there'sa bigger world. You talk about the
suburbs. To be clear, EastCleveland is the first first suburb of Cleveland,
and as I tell my students,then our suburbs should be rival to
any other suburb in northeast Ohio.But it starts with jobs. The jobs
have left East Cleveland, the opportunitiesto make money, they all go outside.
(08:15):
Realize when I just told you,and I know I'm talking a lot
about economics, but we don't havethese these resources of grocery stores and banks.
All of your money that you domake as a resident, it leaves
your city. So the city continuesto get smaller. People continue to leave
the city, and the folks thatI'm I have now my children in the
schools are the ones that could notmake it out. So there has been
(08:35):
a tenant to forget about those studentsand kind of look the other way.
But we choose to help them withtheir issues head on, whether it's childcare,
whether it's economics. As a schooldistrict, we hire our students,
We hire our parents. Over thelast forty years, there's not been a
PTA or PTO in East Cleveland.We put that together last year. So
(08:56):
really looking at what can we doto help, It's about creating conditions where
our folks can get that economic mobilitywhere they can change the narrative that maybe
has been going on generationally. Wedo have companies that we're partnering with and
talking to those of you that arelistening. If you have company that are
interested in potentially hiring folks or maybecreating pathways for our students to get jobs
(09:18):
in our families, that's what wewant to talk about because ultimately that changes
the narrative when I can see thatI can sustain my family by the efforts
that I'm putting in in this classroom. So, doctor Pettigrew, with all
the work that you've had to putin the last three or four years taking
over the district and then managing throughCOVID, we're kind of trying to come
(09:39):
out of it. I can sensethere's a tremendous amount of improvement and motivation
to continue to get better. Ifyou in three or four years look down
the road, what would be somethingyou'd really like to see happen in your
schools. What do you want tosee happening in the school districts, Something
that you can really hang your haton and be proud of. Currently,
we are under academic stress due toHouse Bill seventy. Give a little quick
(10:03):
synopsis of that. When a schoolin the state of Ohio had three fs
on local report cars three years ina row, they went through a process
called the Academic Distress Commission, Sowe had That's where I came in.
They had the state hired me tocome into this school district and to change
things and to take over this schooldistrict. I chose to do something a
little differently. I worked with thecommunity, work with the board. I
(10:24):
am now superintendent and CEO, SoI've transitioned from just the CEO as the
state appointed me. Now the boardhas confidence in me as well to lead
this school district. So I justwanted to make a little bit of that
first comparison. As all, we'retrying our best to link up resources.
Our students don't have the resources,they don't have the navigation skills the home.
(10:46):
When when fifty three percent of thehomes in East Cleveland are single parent
homes with no partner present, that'sfrom the US Census. That creates challenges
with students attendants, That creates challengeswith being able to have parents buying into
those things we're trying to do.So that's the ground, that's the footwork
that we're really trying to do.East Cleveland is a model of the nation
(11:09):
where we don't again chase test scores, but we have a scorecard and really
we're focused on GPA passing classes.Do you have interview skills? Have you
have you gone and got some softskills through extracurriculars and leadership skills. Those
are the things that we found employersare truly hiring. So when I look
five years on the road, Iwould like us to be off the Academic
(11:30):
Distress Commission, which we plan todo that next year. We are exceeding
expectations every year. Last year wemet ten of our twenty metrics. We
only need eleven for us to changethe narrative in our district and for us
to go back to be a locallycontrolled district. So when I see the
future, I see a bright futurein East Cleveland. I see economic development,
and I see students that are therethat live there in the community there
(11:54):
revitalizing themselves through some of the effortsthat we're doing in a school deal.
Doctor, this has been inspired tome and I hope to those listening right
the work you're doing is both someof the probably the most challenging work you've
ever had, and some of themprobably one of the hardest jobs in our
community. But at the same time, it's got to be somewhat rewarding when
you see the progress being made andthese kids and these students. So thank
(12:15):
you for all your doing, andagain, if you can be part of
the solution with the East Cleveland CitySchools, you can reach right out to
doctor Pettigrew and I'm sure you'd behappy to talk to you and your company
right absolutely reach out to us directly. You can find us on social media
or our website. I'll set upa meeting personally with you and we could
talk about how our students and yourcompany can benefit from a mutual relationship.
(12:37):
That's a fantastic and we'll be lookingforward to seeing war growth to come.
Thank you, doctor, thanks foryour time, and this has been iHeart
radio CEOs. You should know.Today's show is produced by Bob Coats and
I'm Keith Hotshkiss, We'll see younext time.
This is CEOs you should know OniHeartRadio, I'm Keith Hotchkiss. Think about
the challenges you might face running anentire school district. Now think about those
challenges in a district and academic distresswhere half the kids live in poverty.
This is the enormous challenge facing doctorHenry Pettigrew, Superintendent and CEO of East
Cleveland City Schools. On today's podcast, we dive into the power of education
(00:23):
on community, the impact of fooddeserts and quality housing, and how you
take children from nothing to something.So doctor Pettigrew, I happen to be
a fan of public education. Mydaughters are in public schools here in Ohio,
and you know, can you talka little bit about the value of
a public education and the value thatit brings to students in community. It's
(00:49):
been under attack a little bit thelast few years. Can you talk a
little bit about why it's still soimportant? Absolutely, and thank you for
having me today. Sure, I'llget first. I'll talk about my own
personal experience education public school. Cameup in Northeast Ohio, went to Bedford,
was at Cleveland State. All ofmy degrees come from Cleveland State.
Believe in public education, and itis the reason I'm sitting here with you
(01:11):
today. It truly has prepared mefor the task that I have at hand
educating East Cleveland Schools students. Publiceducation is the thing that could take you
from a student in East Cleveland wherethe family afford is making anywhere from twenty
five to twenty seven thousand dollars belowthe poverty level. Education can take you
to where you can get a highpaying job. We were just talking to
(01:34):
some folks working with our children atShaw High School where the medium income of
some jobs we're looking at and manufacturingare in the sixty seventy thousand dollars range.
A median income again in East Clevelandis below thirty thousand. So public
school and going to public school andtaking advantage of things that public school can
offer can actually change your life andyour family's life. So we hold really,
(01:57):
really dear to those those things thatare going on in a school.
I love public school. I'm apublic school kid. I'm so happy to
be a public school a leader atthis point. And you know, I
personally want to thank you for takingon I mean, this is not an
easy role. You're leading a districtwith financial challenges in a time when I
think that there's a certain segment ofthe population that wants to throw grenades at
(02:21):
anything that's not that they're not familiarwith, and certainly public education is one
of them. How do you weneed more people like you? But the
perception of the teaching has become morechallenging and maybe pays less on average than
the previous generation. I think that'shurting public education. Can you talk about
that? Is that? How dowe get more people excited to become educators
(02:43):
again? I think, getting onmy soapbox, it's about the classroom in
East Cleveland. We purposely don't takeChase State tests. We don't put a
lot of stock in looking at normreferenced NOD ranking of our students, which
really just tied to poverty and tieto socio economic issues. What we're trying
to do is make sure that ourstudents are college and career ready and that
(03:06):
they're moving in the right direction whenit comes to their families and their experiences.
So rather than teaching how to passa test, we're talking to students
about how to create a pathway,how to grab pathways that will accelerate the
pathway that you have in your ownlife. Listen, you're struggling with poverty.
The students that I'm dealing with,you're struggling with some of those societal
(03:27):
issues. I gotta abandoned buildings thatthey walk past. There's no grocery store,
there's no bank. So these thingsare what are the daily reality of
my student? Now what happens inthe classroom. We're trying to teach curriculum
that ultimately was approved in Texas orin some other state. We're looking at
standards and we're trying to go toa test, but that tests won't put
food on the table. So howdo we get more people attracted to education?
(03:52):
How do we get more people inpublic school? It's reframing the narrative.
We don't talk to the students enoughabout what they want, what they
need, what their dreams are.Our students tell us stop just telling us
older generation, stop telling us whatto do, Grab our hand and show
us what to do. So they'reasking for more authenticity. I know I
grew up as a young person withteachers. It was due as I say,
(04:15):
not as I do. There wasthis idea that students just needed to
conform and they need to just belittle robots. Really, public education primarily
was created for factories and manufacturing jobsin previous centuries. Now we're looking at
students that they're in the gig economy. Students are not taking long term jobs,
(04:36):
they're not going after those traditional pathways. School has to catch up to
where the students are of this generation. So when you talk to me about,
you know, how do we increasepublic school participation and engagement, it
starts with the students. It startstalking about their dreams, their ambitions,
and then redesign the system to fitthem, not maybe what we were years
(04:57):
ago. That's such an important thing. When you think about the district that
you're in and people that maybe couldn'tcome to school because of the social economic
issues that you're dealing with. Iwould imagine that that's resonating and that that
messaging was getting more people back intothe public school system. And then obviously
(05:18):
we had the pandemic. Right,how have you you mentioned to me earlier
that you had to change, right, you had to move, You had
to you know, you may havebeen caught flat footed, but who wasn't.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat the changes have meant and what
that's brought to your district absolutely well. One of the things we realized that
we were in a digital divide.Our students didn't have enough connectivity. So
(05:41):
we jumped out and started to purchasehotspots for families or actual hardwiring internet into
homes for families to make sure thatthe students could they connected. We gave
out the Chrome books as everybody elsedid, tried to keep up, but
we really were coming from behind.We did not have a structure or a
plan in our community for what happenswhen the schools shut down. In an
(06:01):
impoverished community. In the urban community, the school is the centerpiece of the
community. It is where the childrenget the food. I reference, we
don't have any real restaurants or grocerystores, so now the lunch becomes the
best meal of the day. Wehave all of these things that the students
are struggling with. So again,this is the focus in these Cleveland We're
(06:21):
trying to make sure that our studentsget the opportunity to move the socio economic
ladder. Poverty creates a stain acrossthe entire community. It really puts people
into traumatic moments and it triggers folks. You know, we see all kinds
of things that happen as effects ofpoverty. The solution is economic mobility.
The solution is showing students something differentthan these careers that they see on TV
(06:46):
or on Instagram. But now we'retrying to bring force people that are in
the community, people are outside ofthe community, that have non traditional jobs,
to show students more than just thethings that maybe they've been told.
This uh has been fascinating for thoseof us that maybe don't spend a lot
of time in your area. Rightwe're talking with doctor Henry Pettigrew, CEO
(07:09):
of the East Cleveland Public School System. So doctor, there's people like me
and the suburbs, and we hearthese stories. We know the value of
public education and we think, okay, yeah, this is a challenge school
district. How can we help?Is there a way to help? Is
that you know, every little bitI think sometimes can add things, but
(07:30):
you know, the needs of thestudents, the needs of the administrators and
the teachers, what are they whatis what could what could people in the
community outside of East Cleveland do tohelp grow the floor? Absolutely again,
and then if the word of theday of my interview today is economic mobility,
creating opportunities for internships, externships,job shadowing, opportunities to our students
(07:53):
to go out and see that there'sa bigger world. You talk about the
suburbs. To be clear, EastCleveland is the first first suburb of Cleveland,
and as I tell my students,then our suburbs should be rival to
any other suburb in northeast Ohio.But it starts with jobs. The jobs
have left East Cleveland, the opportunitiesto make money, they all go outside.
(08:15):
Realize when I just told you,and I know I'm talking a lot
about economics, but we don't havethese these resources of grocery stores and banks.
All of your money that you domake as a resident, it leaves
your city. So the city continuesto get smaller. People continue to leave
the city, and the folks thatI'm I have now my children in the
schools are the ones that could notmake it out. So there has been
(08:35):
a tenant to forget about those studentsand kind of look the other way.
But we choose to help them withtheir issues head on, whether it's childcare,
whether it's economics. As a schooldistrict, we hire our students,
We hire our parents. Over thelast forty years, there's not been a
PTA or PTO in East Cleveland.We put that together last year. So
(08:56):
really looking at what can we doto help, It's about creating conditions where
our folks can get that economic mobilitywhere they can change the narrative that maybe
has been going on generationally. Wedo have companies that we're partnering with and
talking to those of you that arelistening. If you have company that are
interested in potentially hiring folks or maybecreating pathways for our students to get jobs
(09:18):
in our families, that's what wewant to talk about because ultimately that changes
the narrative when I can see thatI can sustain my family by the efforts
that I'm putting in in this classroom. So, doctor Pettigrew, with all
the work that you've had to putin the last three or four years taking
over the district and then managing throughCOVID, we're kind of trying to come
(09:39):
out of it. I can sensethere's a tremendous amount of improvement and motivation
to continue to get better. Ifyou in three or four years look down
the road, what would be somethingyou'd really like to see happen in your
schools. What do you want tosee happening in the school districts, Something
that you can really hang your haton and be proud of. Currently,
we are under academic stress due toHouse Bill seventy. Give a little quick
(10:03):
synopsis of that. When a schoolin the state of Ohio had three fs
on local report cars three years ina row, they went through a process
called the Academic Distress Commission, Sowe had That's where I came in.
They had the state hired me tocome into this school district and to change
things and to take over this schooldistrict. I chose to do something a
little differently. I worked with thecommunity, work with the board. I
(10:24):
am now superintendent and CEO, SoI've transitioned from just the CEO as the
state appointed me. Now the boardhas confidence in me as well to lead
this school district. So I justwanted to make a little bit of that
first comparison. As all, we'retrying our best to link up resources.
Our students don't have the resources,they don't have the navigation skills the home.
(10:46):
When when fifty three percent of thehomes in East Cleveland are single parent
homes with no partner present, that'sfrom the US Census. That creates challenges
with students attendants, That creates challengeswith being able to have parents buying into
those things we're trying to do.So that's the ground, that's the footwork
that we're really trying to do.East Cleveland is a model of the nation
(11:09):
where we don't again chase test scores, but we have a scorecard and really
we're focused on GPA passing classes.Do you have interview skills? Have you
have you gone and got some softskills through extracurriculars and leadership skills. Those
are the things that we found employersare truly hiring. So when I look
five years on the road, Iwould like us to be off the Academic
(11:30):
Distress Commission, which we plan todo that next year. We are exceeding
expectations every year. Last year wemet ten of our twenty metrics. We
only need eleven for us to changethe narrative in our district and for us
to go back to be a locallycontrolled district. So when I see the
future, I see a bright futurein East Cleveland. I see economic development,
and I see students that are therethat live there in the community there
(11:54):
revitalizing themselves through some of the effortsthat we're doing in a school deal.
Doctor, this has been inspired tome and I hope to those listening right
the work you're doing is both someof the probably the most challenging work you've
ever had, and some of themprobably one of the hardest jobs in our
community. But at the same time, it's got to be somewhat rewarding when
you see the progress being made andthese kids and these students. So thank
(12:15):
you for all your doing, andagain, if you can be part of
the solution with the East Cleveland CitySchools, you can reach right out to
doctor Pettigrew and I'm sure you'd behappy to talk to you and your company
right absolutely reach out to us directly. You can find us on social media
or our website. I'll set upa meeting personally with you and we could
talk about how our students and yourcompany can benefit from a mutual relationship.
(12:37):
That's a fantastic and we'll be lookingforward to seeing war growth to come.
Thank you, doctor, thanks foryour time, and this has been iHeart
radio CEOs. You should know.Today's show is produced by Bob Coats and
I'm Keith Hotshkiss, We'll see younext time.
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