Honoring Supt. Graner
Itwas a nice gesture for the Groton Board of Education earlier this month to name the library media center at the new middle school the “Dr. Michael Graner Library Media Center” in honor of the retiring superintendent.
If anything, given Graner’s influence on shaping the Groton school system, it doesn’t seem quite enough.
Graner, who announced in July his plans to retire, was hired as Groton superintendent in 2013 after a decade serving in that capacity in Ledyard. He inherited the leadership of a school system that continued to face the challenge of educating a large contingent of children of military families, whose frequent relocations create a special challenge. A school system with aging schools. And a town with wide swings in racial and economic makeup from one neighborhood elementary school to another.
To a significant degrees, all these challenges have been met during Graner’s seven years at the helm.
He leaves at month’s end with a new middle school having opened this school year adjacent to Fitch High School, consolidating the two former middle schools. Construction is underway for two intradistrict elementary magnet schools on those former middle school sites. Meanwhile, Groton moves forward with plans to operate all five of its elementary schools as intradistrict magnet schools, bringing the diversity in enrollment the town had lacked.
During Graner’s years of service Groton has received Department of Defense Education Activity grants to support added instructional programs. And the superintendent was among local school leaders who lobbied the state’s congressional delegation to assure subsidies for school systems with large military populations would not be curtailed.
Throughout there were challenges, including having to ask voters to approve some revisions after their initial school construction project approval in 2016, and persuading state officials why Groton, seeking racial diversity, deserved a greater state contribution toward construction costs.
Of course, no one person deserves all credit for such achievements. Successive school boards, those who volunteered for the school building committee work, and voters who took a leap of faith in approving the massive $184.5 building project, share in these achievements. But steady, trusted leadership was critical and Graner provided it.
A retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, Graner’s military background well acquainted him with the challenges military families face. He was a good fit for Groton, as he was for Ledyard, and we join the community in wishing him well in retirement.