Bullies on the Dayton Board of Education

In yesterday’s installment, we asked which board member was better suited to run board meetings, Dr. Adil Baguirov or John McManus. From comments on Facebook where the video has over 700 views and 17 shares in 24 hours, it’s pretty clear the public would like Dr. Baguirov to relinquish the center seat.

Today, we feature bad behavior by Joe Lacey and Hazel Rountree. Lacey makes it personal, since he used to coach the parent’s child. The child was there as he unloads on her mother.

Both Lacey and Rountree ran unopposed last time- along with Dr. Baguirov and Ron Lee. To replace them on the school board, you need 350 valid signatures of voters in the SCHOOL DISTRICT (note, the district doesn’t align with Dayton, with parts of Harrison Township included, and doesn’t include Forest Ridge for example). Petitions are due around August- 90 days or so before the November election.

However, after this bad behavior, resignations would be happily accepted. When board members resign, their replacements are picked from a pool of applicants who submit their candidacy, by the remaining board members. Sometimes this backfires- it’s how William Schooler ended up on the board over 8 other possibilities.

There is no need to repost the entire conversation from Facebook, but Mr. Lacey is still in denial that the reason Horace Mann is full in every grade except the 4th- is due to a screw up by Associate Superintendent, Student Services Sheila Burton Ph.D. Instead of 80 or so kids, they had 18. This loss of 62 potential students at one of the district’s best schools- cost, using Dr. Baguirov math, half a million in revenue.

Dr. Burton still has her $120K a year job, while the district that can’t get enough bus drivers- fired three bus driving supervisors to save a few bucks.

There has been no feedback on the missed opportunity to sell the Patterson Kennedy site for $900K where there may be 4 bidders waiting. While Dr. Baguirov has said we may need that land for expected growth of downtown students- reliable sources tell me that discussions in the sixth floor offices have been had about closing several schools- Horace Mann, the Boys Academy being 2 of the 5 or 6 in the mix.

Dr. Baguirov also has stated that the price CareSource paid for the Patterson Coop site was great. However, the parking lot behind Masque recently sold for $2M. The Patterson site was not only bigger- but shovel ready. Who knows what’s under that parking lot.

Back to our bullying video. The problem with Mr. Lacey’s comments that they invite public input at the “Business meeting” – this was a review session- and yet, they were conducting business. Firing 20 people. The purpose of these review sessions, and executive sessions, are so you can properly inform the public of actions, without having to waive the 48 hour rule- and conduct business in an open and transparent fashion- as the Ohio Sunshine laws dictate.

Instead- we’ve got some dictators on the board. Time for them to go.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

There is a meeting being organized for parents and interested parties to prepare for the upcoming Dec. 6th School board meeting. More info to follow. It will be at Corinthian Baptist Church.

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