Long-time educator brings experience, ideas to board
Bill Mullane said Raymond John Wean Foundation is working for reform
Bill Mullane said he is honored to be a member of the board of The Raymond John Wean Foundation, an organization that he credits with helping to transform the lives of residents of the Mahoning Valley.
Mullane, supervisor of school improvement for the Ashtabula County Educational Service Center and the Jefferson Area Local Schools, had served as principal at Warren G. Harding High School and was a teacher and administrator in the Warren City Schools for 28 years.
Mullane said educators have to be engaged in “a level of reflection within our communities commensurate with the challenges that schools and neighborhoods face in America.”
Reflection alone, however, is not enough, Mullane said. Instead, he said, educational reform requires more than money or the development of curriculum and standards.
“It will require a cultural change within the profession,” he said. “We must advocate for changes in the structure of schools that will assist students in bridging the gap between their potential and performance and becoming successful economically, socially and emotionally.”
Although he advocates for educational reform, Mullane said there are changes that must also take place in other segments of the community and he believes that The Raymond John Wean Foundation is helping to facilitate some of that work.
“It is my hope that the Foundation’s work will enhance our neighborhoods and help their residents to take back their communities,” Mullane said. “I am convinced that investing in our community’s capacity at the grassroots, nonprofit, organizational, political and educational level to collaborate and strategically pursue economic growth, educational opportunity and social justice for all of our citizens will lead to our region’s revitalization.”
In addition to his work as an educator, Mullane has been involved in the region’s arts community for more than 30 years. He currently serves as a member of the board of the Trumbull Art Gallery, chairperson of the board of the Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County and co-chair of the Power of the Arts conversation in the Mahoning Valley.