Fraley ends 31-year career with Lima schools

LIMA — “You have one job to do and that is to come to school and learn.”

For years, Heritage Elementary School pupils heard Kevin Fraley say those words each day during morning announcements. Next, usually came an urging for them to “put all you have into it.”

Pupils and staff heard Fraley for the last time this week. With 33 years in education, 31 of those with Lima schools, Fraley announced his retirement. He left quietly, but not easily.

“It is horrible, horrible. I hate it, hate it,” he said on his first day of retirement. “I am going through a little bit of a grieving process right now. That is a tough thing. I miss the teachers already, miss the kids already.”

His staff and pupils are having a tough time believing their “leader” isn't there anymore, teacher Annette Zell said.

“You think of him when you think of Heritage,” she said. “You could not ask for a better guy. Whether it be the staff or students, he made everything so personal. His leadership abilities were just outstanding.”

Fraley, 54, said he had considered retiring last year, following the disappointment of seeing his school staff and pupils broken up by district restructuring. The arts magnet program had been housed at Heritage but moved this year to its own building with the middle school program. Fraley decided to see things through the transition.

“ I hit my 120th day this year and thought the transition was going pretty well,” he said of the decision to leave now. “It is time for a younger person to get in here who has some vision for what they want to have happen.”

Retired Principal Jean Snyder will serve as interim principal until someone is permanently placed. The job will soon be posted.

Fraley started his career teaching at Whittier Elementary School for five years. He then served as elementary and middle school principal at Perry schools for two years.

Next, Fraley spent four years as principal at Lowell Elementary School before coming to Horace Mann Elementary. He remained 13 years, until the school was closed and Heritage opened.

Heritage has become the district's top elementary school, earning an excellent rating on the state report card for several years. Fraley takes little credit for that. Instead he points to his teachers and staff.

“Teachers I have worked with are amazing, smart, hard working and focused,” he said. “I have been blessed with a staff that is just incredible. ... I have treated them like my own kids, same way with the students, and I hope they have seen that.”

Zell credited Fraley with being tuned into how to make the school successful. He pulled the best out of his staff and pupils, always making himself visible and available to them.

“He was tough when he needed to be, and he was their big old father figure when he needed to be,” she said.

While enjoying some free time to walk his dogs and prepare to become a grandfather in a few months, Fraley isn't ruling out going back to work some day.

“I'm still young enough, so if something appeals to me I certainly would,” he said. “I will be real selective about that sort of thing. It would have to be the right fit, a place that really likes structure and is family oriented.”

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