Reimagining, Rethinking and Rebuilding Community Engagement

Case Study: Graham Local Schools (St. Paris, Ohio)

How a small, rural school district turned community engagement norms on their head to pioneer a new vision for transformation

To residents of St. Paris, a small rural village in Ohio, and its larger county, Graham Local Schools (Graham) was a district that appeared to all but have turned away from its community. For years, the district seemed to exist only within itself, educating its students as though they lived only in school—not in a larger community, where most of them would return after college or stay to work after graduation, or in a rapidly changing world.

With community relations strained, Graham’s students were missing opportunities to obtain an education that was career relevant and future ready. The team, to a large extent, was failing to understand the skills employers sought in candidates—today and tomorrow—and incorporating them into instruction.

Fortunately, a new superintendent would see how unfair the district’s historic introversion had been to its students, staff, and the community. Instead, he would lead a revitalized Graham team through a true redefinition of what it means to be an organization in a larger community and county—and inspire thousands of people along the way to do the same.