Karen M. Byron-Johnson is our fearless, engaged and unselfish leader of five years. She believes that, “Life isn’t about how to survive the storm but how to dance in it).” As leader of a dynamic school for gifted students with 100% Graduation rate for 4 years and 94.4 Attendance rate; she honors our School Theme: Becoming the Kings and Queens We Were Born to Be. Her holistic approach to the theme demonstrates concern for students, staff and faculty. She once wrote personalized thank you cards to all staff, which were presented at a staff luncheon. Communication is key to her position and students respect that.. The desire is to create a school climate conducive to learning and surpass the Excellent rating by the Ohio Department of Education and serve students, staff, faculty, the community and parents to the best of her ability. In school years 2009-10, 2010-2011 Whitney Young achieved the highest rating from The Ohio Department of Education, Excellence with Distinction. In 2011-2012 the school continued its academic excellence by receiving a mark of Excellent on the ODE state report card.