Dayton School Board race to look like Republican Presidential Primary

Roundtree would be getting a “round house” from me every meeting. Most of these incumbents are slugs who not only have no ideas but they’re milquetoast who are bullied by those (like Roundtree) who’s real objective is not to serve the school system but have their eyes on other political positions.

I could think of no greater torture than serving on this dysfunctional group. It’s much better being controlled by the state. DPS needs completly dismantled and Nanny Whale’s grubby hand slapped for trying to insert her own lackies.

Seems likely the State of Ohio will take over DPS in a couple of years.

Sounds like a step in the right direction.

It’s going to be a great summer. The people of Dayton School District will have plenty of choices.

I have a special phone line that I invite anyone to contact me on day or night. The number is 937-260-1740.

I also have an Instagram for the campaign @votemcmanus

Best wishes to everyone in the race,

John

And as you can see- one candidate has his act together- the rest- posers.

There is unfair criticism of the school board and DPS in general.

1) Would anyone care to explain how are these major factors, which are impacting DPS severely, the fault of DPS or its board:

a) 926 students officially classified as homeless (out of 14,000 students): ^[14]

That’s more than any other school district in the greater region.

b) 20% of all students have some kind of disability – the highest of any school district in Ohio.

c) 99% (!) are on free or reduced lunch – an official measure of poverty in schools. That makes Dayton the poorest school district in Ohio.

d) general crime in Dayton, including near some school buildings, which scares parents and even teachers. I heard you acknowledge this problem before, although you said you were not as afraid and even approached anyone. Well, many parents and teachers are afraid, and refuse to come close. What can possibly DPS do about this? It has all the proper lighting, and has security, and cameras – but that protects the perimeter around the school. What about two blocks away?

e) proliferation of low-quality charter schools – there are more charter schools in Dayton than there are public schools. Yet, as we know from several authoritative studies, charters in Ohio are, on average, worse academically, than public schools. This is certainly true in Dayton. And this is before we adjust their performance for the massive violations found by the State Auditor (there are too many news stories to link, but all know about it and can easily find). So while not all charters are bad, and there are some that are very strong academically, but in Dayton there are quite a few weak and outright bad one’s, and they’ve been in the news a lot in the recent year or so.

f) variety of unfunded mandates being placed on public schools – not to mention the fact that public schools have 150 more Ohio laws to comply with than charter schools do. I hope everyone understands what does it mean to have to comply with 150 additional laws, how much (additional) time and money that requires.

2) DPS has shown lackluster overall performance for at least a decade. Here’s an authoritative report’s findings: “The result of these developments, in combination, was largely responsible, in our minds, for the slowdown in student achievement between 2006 and 2008…. By 2008, test scores fell substantially and resulted in the district’s schools being rated as one of the lowest performing in the state.” ^[15]

That means problems at DPS didn’t start in the past couple of years – they’ve reached their peak already by around 2006-2008. The Board since then has been trying to improve – all while ODE and the General Assembly are moving the goalposts, constantly changing all the rules, tests, and to quote you, issue “yet another report with all the obvious issues stated and no real revelations.” In fact the “distress” report is a case study on how reports should not be written – especially by academics for academics in an academic environment.

3) Despite all problems, actually, DPS schools are BETTER than charter schools and perhaps even a few private schools (since private schools don’t have many of the tests to compare to it’s not easy to do). If you review data from ODE or even Fordham for the past several years, you will see that actually, all Top 5 schools in Dayton are indeed Dayton public schools – four public and one DPS-sponsored charter school. So this completely disproves any claim that the Board and Administration are “totally ineffective”. How can they be “totally ineffective” if their schools are Top 5 schools in Dayton? If they win awards and accolades – be it recognition from U.S News and World Report, or top spots in robotics competition, or TV/media competition. So the problem with DPS is much more nuanced, and there are serious limitations to what the Board and the Administration can achieve.

4) regarding the “totally ineffective and visionless for the district. Not an original idea for transformation from any of them, and never a serious questioning of the Teflon-coated superintendent” claim – the comprehensive measures that have been implemented just this year alone:

a) DPS became the first school district in all of southwest Ohio to join the Ohio Online Checkbook – a great new transparency initiative by the state Treasurer. Is that “visionless”?

b) established the office of independent Internal Auditor – which is keeping up with best practices in other successful school districts, to even further strengthen the already very strong fiscal and accountability climate. If that’s not “vision”, then I don’t know what is.

c) working on an exciting new technology initiative – more on this in the coming months. That’s definitely vision.

d) Drafted and adopted a fact-rich “Resolution Calling on the Ohio General Assembly to Change State Law to Ensure Greater Accountability and Transparency for Ohio Charter Schools”
^[16]

Please read that resolution.

These are some CONCRETE examples from the past few months. However, there is massive work being done by the Superintendent and the Administration to turn around the district. And by the fact, the Superintendent and the Administration are CONSTANTLY seriously questioned. At the same time, “questioning” shouldn’t mean to be all emotional, angry, and impolite.

If there are ANY concrete, evidence-based/fact-based strategies, tactics and just tips on how to improve an URBAN school district – please send them to the DPS Board of Education members. If they haven’t been implemented yet, they WILL BE. In the meantime, serious improvements are underway.

Welcome Dr. Baguirov, or Adil for those not making the connection to the one solid choice currently on the BOE.

I’ve written my plan already: ^[17]
And, I know better than to get into an argument with a PhD who is going to look for the numbers to support his arguments.
I agree with you completely that the Charter schools are a major disruption- and should be held to the exact same standards. No argument.
As to the poverty- where is your residential school for kids who are stuck in unfit homes? Should have happened years ago. The USMC reserve training center would have been an excellent location – before the city and the feds let it get scrapped.
I sat on your technology review committee- and frankly- you don’t have anyone there who is even remotely up to speed. Your entire organization has avoided open source solutions to almost every issue- even buying a proprietary CMS for the districts site which is a mess (still).
As to your top school- Stivers, let’s be real. It’s by audition, probably 35% or more of the students are not residents, and it’s the only school with a long term principal that hasn’t been screwed with. It runs unto itself.
The loss of David White over $20K a year was a critical mistake. How much is a building worth that is performing- vs not performing. Someone doesn’t understand priorities- maybe the Superintendent should have cut her salary from $200K to $180K a year to keep him- she’d still be making more than any other non-collegiate public employee in the county.
Don’t get me started on the PR and marketing skills of the district- other than to say, you get a solid F- and have for decades. You want to attract new teachers- you want to get people feeling good about the district- learn to tell the good side of things a LOT better.
I’ve got a lot more to say- but, comparing DPS to Charter schools is like comparing abacuses while everyone else is using super computers.
For years we heard that the new buildings would make things better. Hasn’t happened. Technology was going to make things better- hasn’t happened. Better principals were and leadership was going to make things better- hasn’t happened.
Time to throw away all the rule books and incremental change ideas- and rewrite the books. Start with a 220 day school year- with 8.5 hour school days, year round. It stays that way until we’re performing at B level or better, district wide. Not that the educational day is lengthened- but- other activities are factored in- art, music, sports, 4H, Home Economics, Shop- all the things we’ve lost.
Go read my post- those are answers.
Yours- is full of excuses and more shallow attempts to make minor improvements- we need an overhaul.

David, when I mentioned Top 5 schools in Dayton, that doesn’t just include Stivers. There are also Charity Adams Earley Girls Academy, Horace Mann PreK-8, and Valerie PreK-8, as well as DECA. And if we expand the list to Top 10, we can include Ponitz. So please don’t forget about all the great schools we have in Dayton and at DPS.

Meanwhile, if we go outside of Dayton, and compare to other schools in Miami Valley, DPS is still holding on – according to the U.S. News and World report’s 2015 ranking, Stivers, for example, is better than Brookville High School, Bethel High School (Tipp City),
Centerville High School, Tippecanoe High School (Tipp City), and
Springboro High School. This is despite worst poverty level in the state, highest number of students with disability in the state, just recently stabilized population size that was continuously declining for 40 years, ageing population with less young families, onslaught of weak charter schools who spend a lot on ads to lure students/parents, 150 more state laws to comply with, and many other factors that you for some reason unfairly dismiss as “excuses”. This all would have been “excuses” had it not been proven by peer-reviewed academic studies – or had DPS not had several good schools, had not been ranked by U.S. News and World Report, had not won robotics competitions, had not won TV/media competitions, etc.

I’ve already showed that a Board and Administration cannot, by definition, be ineffective or visionless, when they have multiple good schools in the district. It shows that the problem is not with a District per se, but far more nuanced – and that the very external factors that you try to dismiss as “excuses” have an outsize effect over which DPS has no control whatsoever.

I agree 100% that new buildings didn’t make anything better. Whose fault is that? The massive debt that was placed upon DPS over a decade ago is hardly the responsibility or fault of the current Board, or the current Superintendent, Treasurer, or other senior administrators. So why point fingers and accuse those who are not guilty of any wrongdoing, and who are improving the state of affairs that was passed on to them?

Regarding the DPS website – have you seen the new website? ^[18]

What don’t you like about it? Please don’t tell me it’s not a nice website. Meanwhile, if in your opinion DPS had to opt for a WordPress or Drupal or other open-source CMS – that’s certainly a comment that deserves another discussion to see the merits for going with an open-source CMS. From my multi-year experience with several CMS’, chiefly WordPress, I can say that constant patching and updates that are required, daily (!!!) hacking attacks (to the point that major hosting providers, like InMotion, send warning that you exceed CPU usage and resources and might get shutdown), and inevitable MySQL database errors or other problems due to some updated mainstream plugin “misbehaving” are really taxing and tiring. This is why most security-minded companies and organizations go with more customized solutions. So I don’t automatically agree that just because DPS is not using an open-source CMS that’s a mistake. Since security is extremely important, especially in light of federal regulations, it outweights convenience.

Otherwise, I wish the world and DPS was using Linux OS and open-source software. But please don’t hold it against the District if it does not – it is not an omission or some evil plan.

Agree wholeheartedly about PR and marketing of the District. It has done a terrible job in the past, all while even the weakest charter schools in the city encroach, advertise everywhere, and cherry pick DPS’ students. This criticism has been noted, and I for one have been saying – and everyone seems to agree – for the past two years that DPS must do a far better job at PR and marketing. So whether it’s a new website, or a hashtag on Twitter #WeAreDPS, or greater number of press releases and media outreach, as well as more public speaking at Ohio and national conferences to raise DPS’ profile, more town hall meetings in Dayton, better brochures and marketing materials, etc., all of that have been some very positive steps taken in the past two years. But still a lot needs to be done, you are right.

Technology Steering Committee consists of citizens just like you. If you don’t come to the meetings, but others do – what do you blame anyone for? Meanwhile, for example, Mr. Jabar made a very interesting presentation about an open-source visual programming language that could be useful in schools.

However, all is actually well on technology front – as I’ve mentioned, we are working on a big initiative, which we should be able to talk about soon. I should just say that while many other districts had all kinds of technology metdowns and issues during PARCC testing, DPS did not have any problems. So technology is not doing so bad – and there is definitely a much greater focus on it in the past years, something I am very proud of.

Regarding better teachers – DPS has done a lot to improve quality. But you forget about two major constraints: 1) funding – DPS is already spending 80% of its budget on salaries and benefits, yet that amounts to only an average teacher salary in the greater Dayton region. It is fiscally nearly impossible to raise the salaries to the level of Oakwood, Butler, Centerville, Beavercreek, etc.

2) By law, a teacher who was rated as “ineffective” (the lower rating), has two more years to improve him/herself, before they could be asked to leave. Much of public doesn’t know this, that it takes 3 whole years for a teacher to be rated “ineffective”. Otherwise it will cost the district $100,000 or more in legal fees to defend itself in an inevitable lawsuit (Districts are CONSTANTLY sued) – and to have Mr. Esrati criticize a District for wasting taxpayers’ money on avoidable legal fees. ;-)

The residential school is a good idea – I understand it would cost a lot, but it is important to discuss it. If you have any additional data on it – such as precedents of other school districts doing it and complying with all laws – please send it to me.

The rest of your proposals have actually been studied. In fact the longer school days has been studied at length – I’ve even attended a special conference on this subject last year (on my own dime, by the way), with top leaders in the nation sharing concrete data on what, how, and when they did it, and then I shared all the research materials with the Superintendent, who studied them thoroughly (and these ideas have been floating around before). The short answer – it takes more money, the type of money that DPS doesn’t yet have. Same for all your other proposals – even more art, music, sports, 4H, Home Economics, cost a lot of extra funds. How do we pay for it? Do you really think that ANYONE at DPS has not thought about it, or is opposed to it?! Do you really believe that no one has mentioned it? That the Board would not approve it, or that the Superintendent would be against something like this? Of course not – everyone is all for it. Now how do we pay for it?

Anyhow, you do have a plan and have studied the issues. It would be more interesting to find out from the candidates running for the 3 BoE positions of their plans – especially any concrete and fact-based (preferably proven and tested) solutions, not some demagoguery, or, to borrow from one presidential candidate, to replace anything in a school district with “something terrific”. Let’s not have any “terrific” ideas or “solutions”, but only workable and proven, yet still innovative solutions.

Dr. Baguirov,
The problems you talk about with WordPress and Drupal are easily dealt with by professionals- which you don’t have on staff. The reality is- if a CMS isn’t easy to use, update, and manage- it doesn’t get updated as often. A proprietary CMS also requires a learning curve- considering WP is now powering about 25% of the web- I’d say it’s good to go for DPS.
Where do we get the money for programs? And how do we pay staff to work year round? Well, if you don’t want to be fired or taken over- for failures caused by problems outside your control- you try to take control of as much as you can.
Teachers start to work a schedule like the rest of us- who are pretty happy making $50K a year- working a 40 hour work week- most of us working 50+ weeks a year. The teaching load gets stretched out over a longer year- you don’t have summer slide- and you can share your interests and other lifeskills in the additional time- which is largely structured by the staff of the school. Want to save money- well every school had to be built on 5 acres- farm some of it- integrating biology, chemistry, geology, and food sciences as well as learning about marketing, sales, profit margins. Look at the MetroParks CityBeets program- expand that to every Pre-K-8 school.
We can have a long discussion here- but, to tell me Horace Mann is a top performing school- I’m going to tell you no, it’s not. When I had kids there, that had been at Southdale in Kettering- I watched them fall from 90+ percentile to 50% in 2 years. Any school that can’t send books home, isn’t really a school.
Honestly, the reason I don’t sit on the tech committee anymore- is because after sitting through badly structured meetings, with absolutely worthless data, presented by someone who wouldn’t have a job in the private sector for more than a hot second, I sort of got dis-invited.
As to PR- my firm did some award winning work for your district. Back in 2011. Every other attempt to do more- ran into a wall. I place it squarely on the Superintendents shoulders and her loyalty to people who aren’t qualified and can’t do work.
You and I should sit down and talk some time.
I believe that the only thing stopping DPS from solving it’s own problems is a lack of imagination, leadership- and the ability to raise funds either through grants, federal money, or local matches.
But, then again, you have a board that fell for giving GE a 30 year tax break- so don’t cry me a river about the district being broke.
As to firing ineffective teachers- Liz Whipps can show you how to get them out of her building- it’s called making them want to quit, if they can’t adapt. No lawsuit needed.
Good Principals know how to work the system. Bad ones blame it.
People don’t go into teaching to fail- somewhere along the line, no one properly taught them how to be effective. Again- you’re making excuses.

Local control of DPS hasn’t worked, and shows no signs of starting to work any time soon.

Let the State Board of Ed take over.

Think of it as cntrl+alt+del for an entire school system.

How much worse could things get?

and the State Board of Education, of course, has some impressive track record of “turning around” school districts – or even just one school? They, I presume, have a bunch of “proven” education “leaders” who have top-notch degrees from prestigious institutions of higher learning (it is not too much to expect that in the field of education, I hope), and who have proven their theories in practice, or perhaps at least in some simulation. But in reality, of course, there is none of that. No record of “turning around” a single district or school, no top-notch acclaimed experts, no proven track record, just some theories. And if one reads what their commission report’s findings present, there is no new action plan, no innovative solutions, no out of the box thinking, nothing that can be taken and implemented. In many ways, it is no different than the report presented by the Council of Great City Schools in 2008 that I’ve cited above. And they (great experts from Columbus, that is) definitely looked, very hard, hoping to find some obvious and glaring problems at DPS that could be pointed out.

After all, when state government is changing education laws (not just student testing, but so many other aspects) every year (!), which suggests that they probably don’t seem to know what they are doing (sure, very surprising). You can’t have an unpredictable environment, where fundamentals change every year, and yet expect great results (even the federal tax code is not changed as drastically every year). All while reducing state funding and increasing state mandates – among many other things.

If only state officials (or at least ODE and SBE bureaucrats) were rated and ranked the same way that students, principals, and teachers are rated and ranked! Now that would have been fair, not to mention fun and eye-opening.

Dr. Baguirov,
I read the Youngstown and Elyria “plans” and thought- oh, yeah, sure- we’ll go to aisle 9 of “Teachers Mart” and buy 25 more “reading intervention specialists” and solve our problem right now. The idea of the State taking things over is a joke- their answer will be to privatize the district- because, well, you know, charter schools work so well. (That’s what a gerrymandered/selected Republican government does.).
I fully agree with you that there needs to be a system to rate and rank politicians- as well as test them before they even run (I’m in the process of writing a book about that).
The state can barely properly track students from district to district now- nevermind when you throw in the charters. The “graduation rates” are about as worthless as a guide written by Lance Armstrong on cycling conditioning without steroids.

And here is a Harvard Study on Public Boarding Schools- which seem to be very controversial: ^[19]
Cincinnati tried to start one in 2012- but got derailed.
Also note that Cincinnati has 5 people in their PR department.

And, Adil- btw- the site still has serious shortcomings- not due to CMS- but due to lack of understanding how sites are used, why they are used- and how to build a proper navigation system.

Thank you for the Harvard plan – will read. And noted about Cincinnati – I applaud them for doing it, even though academic purists probably detest the fact that spending rose for initiatives that are outside classrooms. They also had an independent Internal Auditor before Dayton did. But they were second to Dayton in joining the Ohio Online Checkbook Initiative. :)

and not to preach to the choir, but here’s a letter signed yesterday by several members of the Ohio State Board of Education (SBE) about the conflict of interest and other problems with the SBE. ^[20]

And, maybe DPS wants to join this group:
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@Adil- and, try to have this conversation on the DPS site?
Not happening. There is a community to engage- that wants to see change, that wants to help- but the tools aren’t there.

DPS has been a disaster for decades. Time for drastic measures.

State control. The sooner, the better.

Enough of the ongoing C.F.

Maybe, after a few years, return control to a local board.

When one hand does not know what the other hand is doing you have chaos when implementing rules, following protocols, procedures, making confusion to all involved. Who suffers the most? you guessed it the students. Who gets the blame the teachers who dedicate themselves with their time on and off their jobs and get full blame for someone else in charge of an administration with supervisors and higher ups and middle man.

Teachers need to be allowed to do their job in the first place without threats. This works in any organization or the government, however there is the teacher that can get blamed easily covering up the neglect of administration in these settings. It all boils down to societal breakdown that is happening across the country because if things are bad at home it will not get better elsewhere having one be a babysitter.

This is why there can be no accountability because basic understanding with an emphasis on good old fashion-back to basics and a commonsense approach has been thrown under the bus.

Fat cats getting big paychecks and bonuses for doing very little or nothing at all except a title to the position they sit.

How about we let teachers sit and be in charge of these positions; we would save a lot of time, money, effort, and total dedication would ensue with great schools, problems would be solved immediately, budgets would be totally balanced and in the black and fairness would be the order of the day as teachers could then do the dedicated service to their districts and community!

Mario didn’t make the cut. 6 candidates, 3 seats.