Apparently, skin color is still how we judge people

There were two parts of the Dayton Public Schools Board of Education meeting tonight. A meeting that started at 4:30 pm upstairs on the hot 4th floor- and then continued at 5:30 until 9pm downstairs.

It was a fitting end to the reign of terror of the last four years of incompetence. A comedy of errors turned a simple vote into many.

Speeches galore as Ron Lee, Joe Lacey and Dr. Hazel Rountree exit the board.

Considering the questions remain on how this board gave Rhonda Corr a glowing review just a little more than a month before they handed her walking papers- hasn’t been answered, there shouldn’t have been any speeches at all. But, I’m guessing it will all come out when they get deposed in the inevitable coming court actions. We also need to find out why they chose not to force Dr. Adil Baguirov to resign when they were informed that he didn’t live in the district ^[1].

But, the most astounding thing was in the first meeting which had existing members, Walker, Taylor, McManus and Harris meeting with new members Wick-Gagnet, Al-Hamdani and Rhynard to discuss who should be president and vice-president come January.

Again facilitated by Kathy Hollingsworth, when the existing board members were asked to describe what skills the new board president should have, Sheila Taylor jumped right in to say that the next president needs to be a male from that side of town – or something to that effect an African American. I will have the video up tomorrow.

For Reverend Harris to be judged purely by the color of his skin by Ms. Taylor shows how far we haven’t moved since 1963:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King, Aug 23, 1963- I Have A Dream speech- March on Washington

The suggested slate right now has Harris as President and John McManus as VP. Realistically, this is not the norm, that a rookie takes over as leader, without the institutional, procedural or proven experience.

If anyone needs a reminder of how well McManus can run a meeting, look back to where he stepped in to takeover for Dr. Adil Baguirov:

It was also floated that the board retain an outside parliamentarian by McManus in the early meeting, instead of allowing a board member to try to police other board members. DEA president David Romick might even apply for that job, if it means the kind of clusterduck voting that happened tonight won’t happen again.

The board did get the chance to celebrate some district accomplishments. After reading for weeks that a single Trotwood school was recognized by the State for major jumps in achievement, DPS trotted out four schools tonight that have done that: Kemp, Horace Mann, Edison and Cleveland Elementary all received honors with the MOMENTUM AWARD,  given to schools who have exceeded expectations in student growth on the Ohio School Report Card for the 2016-17 School year.

They also recognized Nicole Plennert, a Wright Brothers Middle School physical education teacher, who was awarded the Secondary Education Physical Education Teacher of the year for 2017 by the Ohio Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

But the take your breath away winner was the young man from the Dayton Boys Preparatory Academy who won first place in the  60th annual Lucia May Wiant Speech contest which was held November 8th at Wright Brothers Middle School.

Ve’Suan Smith gave his speech- “I can’t read” that brought tears to my eyes.

And, for the record, the color of his skin had nothing to do with his qualification or first place finish.

I’ll have it cut and up as a stand alone video tomorrow.

That speech gave me hope that despite the incompetence of the exiting board, there are still teachers making a difference in this district and we will have future leaders in Dayton who can deliver inspiration in three minutes or less.