For the first time in a long time, graduates in Marietta’s Class of 2022 didn’t receive their diploma directly from the hand of longtime Board of Education member Frank Lornes.
For 34 years Lornes has served Marietta as a school board member, 27 of those years as board president. As president, it was Lornes’s job approximately 2,000 times to simultaneously pass graduates a diploma, shake their hand, and smile while Lawrence Anderson memorialized the proud moment with a photograph.
Lornes would then confirm the group as graduates of MHS and duck out of the way as the mortarboards began to fly into the air in celebration.
But this year, things changed. In April, Marietta’s Board of Education restructured. Judy Sanchez-Fernandez became board president and “chief diploma hander-outer,” but there are no hard feelings about the change. Not at all.
“I gave Judy her diploma when she graduated from Marietta High School,” said Lornes with a smile, “and I was so proud when she took the responsibility of being a school board member, to know that she has the heart to serve her community, it feels good to watch her. She’s well prepared, and the board is in good hands. It was time to change the guard.”
Lornes isn’t going anywhere. He’ll continue to serve on the school board just like he has since Karen O’Connor encouraged him to do in the mid-1980s.
“Karen approached me and told me it was time for me to get involved and give back to my community,” Lornes explained. “I was a kid from Dunbar and didn’t think I had much to offer, but I love kids and, after everything Marietta had done for me, I wanted to see what I could do to help. So after a year, I ran for a seat, and I’ve been here ever since.”
Despite the fact that serving on a local board of education is often a thankless task, Lornes, who is humble to a fault, insists that it really doesn’t take any special skill set.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist,” he said. “All it takes is a servant’s heart, the desire to see kids excel, and the willingness to do what it takes to make that happen. Thick skin doesn’t hurt either, because you have to know in your heart that you’ve made the best decisions you can make, even though people may not thank you for it.”
Lornes admits that the first few years of his service were a little rocky but says that things smoothed out over time.
During his tenure, Lornes has seen school board members, administrators, and teachers come and go, and says he’s worked with a lot of good ones. He took a moment to brag on current Superintendent Brandi Naylor, calling her “one of the good ones,” and commenting on her good stewardship of the district’s finances.
Lornes has seen a lot of other changes, too.
“During the time I’ve been on the school board, technology has just taken over,” explained Lornes. “It’s expensive, but it’s incumbent on school board members to make sure that we provide the opportunities that our kids need to be competitive and successful in the world they’re going to face.”
Another change that Lornes discussed was school financing.
“I remember when we used to bond four or five years for a few thousand dollars,” he said. “Now it’s 12-to 15-year series bonds for millions of dollars. I never thought I would see anything like that.”
Two shifts that Lornes mentioned he finds particularly disheartening. One is the necessity to focus so much energy on student protection. Lornes said when he became a school board member, they didn’t worry about violent attacks on schools, and now it’s regrettably something that requires their constant attention and emphasis.
Another sad trend is the teacher shortage.
“Used to when we lost a teacher, we could go to the pool and easily find a good replacement,” he said. “Now people aren’t going into education because it’s not where the money is. It’s much harder to get teachers to fill our needs and it’s discouraging. I’m hoping that trend will reverse because we need good teachers, people who want to do it because that’s what satisfies their heart, because they’re not going to get rich doing it.”
Interestingly enough, satisfying his heart has been what’s kept Lornes on the school board for over 30 years, much of it spent as board president, shaking hands and handing out diplomas.
“Serving the district, having the opportunity to make a difference, it’s been something I’ve loved doing,” remarked Lornes, “and shaking those kids’ hands, knowing that I am shaking the hand of someone who could go on and have great success, that’s why I’ve done this for so long.
“I gave those kids their diplomas knowing that they could take the education that diploma represented and go on to do anything they wanted to do. I’ve seen it happen time and again, and it’s a wonderful thing knowing that you’ve played a very small part in somebody’s accomplishments. All kids need is an opportunity to succeed, and as a school board member, I’ve had the chance to help provide that opportunity. That’s the reward.”
Lornes joined the school board in 1988. In 1989, he was able to hand his son Greg an MHS diploma, and in 1998, he gave his daughter Shataka hers. In the years since becoming a board member, he’s handed thousands of diplomas to thousands of MHS graduates.
That’s now somebody else’s job, but Lornes will still be standing, shaking the hands of graduates, congratulating them, and offering his best wishes.
“It was privilege and an honor for me to be able to hand our students their diplomas,” he said, “but it was never about being president of the board because I didn’t think about where I served, just that I was able to serve. It was about being present at their graduation, being a part of their success. That’s what’s really important.”