Dayton Public Schools seems to have a double standard

It’s been a long time since the Dayton Public Schools had a school board that’s collective IQ was over 75. I’ve seen presentations made to them- with slides with “Lorem ipsum” text still on the slide ^[1]– that they actually allowed to continue. I’ve watched a board member actually argue that the only reason to make a guy their president was the color of his skin ^[2], and sued them for having illegal secret meetings ^[3], and the list goes on and on.

There isn’t a single person on that school board who adds anything to the performance of this district. All of them, awarded Dr. Lolli a retroactive raise, and continued to renew her contracts, despite the fact that her performance was so below par you’d hardly realize she was even playing golf. Finally, and only because Lolli decided to screw their allegiance to her over with a huge one finger salute- backing out of a “one more year” contract because the board had no clue on how to even hire a search firm (please note, if you need to hire a search firm to find a leader in your organization- it’s clear you don’t have any currently running your organization. Good leaders prepare their replacements.).

Dion Sampson and Dr. Gabriella Pickett have now officially quit as of Jan 1, but, in reality, why wait? Jocelyn Rhynard is on the verge of a breakdown, even though she still has 2 years to go. Chrisondra Goodwine, should be up for disciplinary hearings from the Ohio Bar for her insistence that she be called “Doctor” because she has a “Juris Doctorate.” However, there are multiple articles about why this is not only wrong, but intentionally misleading in her professional setting:

• Why Those With Juris Doctor Degrees Are Not Called “Doctor”? ^[4]
• The curious case of why lawyers are not called ‘doctor’ ^[5]
• Any Lawyer Who Calls Himself ‘Doctor’ Like a Ph.D. Should Get Punched in the Mouth ^[6]

The last one’s title is my favorite. It’s bad enough we’ve had our share of idiots on the board who think that their divinity degree is applicable and readily confused with an actual doctorate in education, or mastery in an applicable topic. See Dr. Harris and Dr. Walker.

Dr. Elizabeth Lolli had a real doctorate, but what she also had was a board of fools who fell for whatever snake oil she gave them. Her “Consent agendas” were of questionable legality, her many forays into HR consulting contracts were all failures, the turnover in the district was epic, the staff universally feared and loathed her, and performance was atrocious. She was hired by a woman, Rhonda Corr, whom they fired. They never did adequate background checks on either- or, reviews of past performance. Lolli has a trail of failures bouncing from one district catastrophe to the next. Only a board as dysfunctional as Lakota could possibly see value in bringing her on, even as an interim.

But, Lolli isn’t our problem anymore, it’s her disastrous decimation of the district that was handed over to Dr. (real PhD) Lawrence at the last moment before school starts. Because Lawrence should have been the natural heir apparent when that dysfunctional board hired Corr, he already knows where almost all the skeletons are in this district, seeing as he’s worked in it for over 20 years.

As he’s tried to hit the ground running, calling in favors, cajoling folks back to the district, and implementing “the science of teaching” over snake oil semantics favored by Lolli, he’s brought a new hope to the competent folks who are still with the district. Again, there’s still a whole bunch of people in Dayton Public Schools who’ve never been held accountable for their malpractice of education. You can still expect people to leave the district, but they won’t be the ones who can actually do the work that’s necessary.

At this point, the only question the board should be asking is what are the metrics for evaluating the performance of Dr. Lawrence, so we can remove the insulting “interim” from his title and stop threatening to waste money, time and effort on a search firm. We’ve never actually had a rubric for district performance- which may be why the district is a perennial bottom dweller in the rankings of the insane 608 school districts in Ohio. It’s pretty clear that Lawrence could raise scores from a “K” grade (they are so far below “F” it’s insulting to call it that) to a genuine “C” and it would still not be enough for this clown show who can’t tell the difference between a charlatan and a champion.

I could have made this video much more embarrassing for the board (in fact the first edit was WAY worse), but this should tell you all you need to know. Notice how Karen Wick and Will Smith have their heads buried in their hands as Rhynard and Pickett can’t understand that Lawrence isn’t changing the student/teacher ratio in grades 1-3, but moving to a scientifically proven methodology. Also note, that I steered clear of the feud going on between the bully, Goodwine, and the victim, Rhynard, over the inclusion of the board under the new district sexual harassment policy. Goodwine is acting just like the Supreme Court- in saying do as we say, not as we do (like Justice Thomas’s gifted motorhome ^[7]). I completely agree with Rhynard that the policies adopted by the board over sexual harassment, fraternization etc- should apply to the board.

Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023 will be the first time the public gets to speak to the board about their horrendous behavior and possible double standards. The question is, are these 7 people smart enough to even understand what we’d be telling them?

Watch the video: