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Sister Jerome to Supporters: Rise Above, Trust the Lord
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Sister Jerome Corcoran says she “encourages my friends to rise above” the events that led to her termination May 25 as the executive director of the Millcreek Community Center and the Youngstown Community School, “and trust in the Lord.”
The 96-year-old nun, a member of the Ursuline Order, founded the acclaimed institutions that worked with inner-city children and their parents to build strong foundations for educational success. “I know that this is just an event, an incident,” she wrote in an email. “Lots worse things happen.”
As news of her firing, confirmed Wednesday by The Business Journal (READ STORY), quickly spread, phone calls and letters reached our news desk.
“It’s pandemonium,” said one long-time volunteer at the school who asked her name not be used. “Suddenly Sister Jerome wasn't there and all they could say is she retired. Now we find out she was fired.”
Wrote Michael and Kathleen Reilley, former Youngstown residents who live in Connecticut, “It is beyond comprehension that this good woman and nun, the matriarch if you will, of this school, should be treated in this fashion. What is wrong with these people? In our visits to the school, we were always so very impressed by the love for her of the children at the school, which was also reciprocated by her love of them.”
Wrote a local businesswoman, who also asked her name not be used, in an email she sent to Sister Jerome and copied to The Business Journal, “May God continue to bless you with using your talents and intelligence to continue to fix this problem and while you have the spotlight, get the help from others to help you turn this negative situation into a miraculous happy ending.”
The secretary of the Millcreek Children’s Center board of directors, attorney Martha Bushey, issued a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon:
"We have the utmost love and admiration for Sister Jerome. We are extremely grateful for the school she created and our only interest is to do the best we can for Sister. Jerome, for the students, for their families and the staff, and the community. Mary Jane Gingher is an important part of this mission going forward. She’s an excellent leader, a competent manager and a great team builder, which we feel is important because we all understand that it’s going to be very difficult to replace Sister Jerome."
Gingher was hired as the new executive director of the Millcreek Children's Center and the Youngstown Community School.
Bushey declined to answer questions. "Out of respect for Sister Jerome, we will not discuss any of the details," she said.
In her email Wednesday, Sister Jerome emphasized that she started the succession planning process four years ago, “when I was 92. I decided that to keep Millcreek’s educational program functioning at top level, I would try to hire a new director with qualifications and compassion who would keep Millcreek the beautifully caring environment it has always been.”
Michele D. Grant, then associate director of YSU’s Rich Center of Autism, was presented to the public in November 2010 as Sister Jerome’s successor. Within weeks, she was gone. Patricia M. Sweeney, the newly appointed commissioner of the Mahoning County Board of Health, was the second person named to replace Sister Jerome. She left the post earlier this year.
“I now know that I should have looked for a replacement myself, but I humbly thought the board could do it better,” Sister Jerome writes.
On May 24, the day before she was fired, Sister Jerome sent a memo to board members and advisers, questioning the wisdom of hiring Gingher.
“Mary Jane has only a high shool diploma and a two-year degree is the minimum degree allowable for director/administrator of a child care center in Mahoning County. Mary Jane told me she will take college courses later on, not now. But she will make an arrangement like this: On Aug. 1, Mary Jane will become executive director and a licensed administrator will be hired to do the work that licensing requires.”
Sister Jerome estimated the cost of salaries and benefits for such arrangement at $125,000, and noted the board gave its approval at a meeting from which she was excluded, “the first such exclusion in 36 years.”
“We have all heard of persecutions but this is a new and ugly version,” her memo concluded.
IN-DEPTH COVERAGE:
Sister Jerome Fired from Institutions She Founded
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.