DPS don’t need no stinkin task force

The new school board hasn’t even been seated, and Mayor Nan Whaley has a new task force on “rightsizing” the schools.

And of course, we name 16 people to this that are part of the status-quo, starting with Commissioner Jeff Mims who quit the DPS board to be a state board of ed member- which he quit to become a city commissioner.

His Co-chair- is Mohamed Al-Hamdani- who refers to Mims as his mentor, yet Mims can’t even pronounce his name.

I warned people of Al-Hamdani’s ego being an issu ^[1]e and already we see him jumping off as a co-chair of an unsanctioned organization, representing a board that hasn’t been officially sworn in.

If we want to be real for a minute, let’s talk about the tenuous relationship between the board and the city commission, who stopped having joint meetings last year as the district fell into the abyss caused by Superintendent Rhonda Corr and the levels of distrust caused by the manipulations of Dr. Adil Baguirov. For them to be all kissy faced already smacks of the fear many had of the slate- that Nan was pulling the strings. This was suggested to me by Board Member and patronage puppy, Sheila Taylor who told me she was told to nominate Harris as an African American to the board presidency by some unknown power. My guess: Nan who is joined at the hip with Mark Owens, the party chief and Sheila’s boss.

Not that Nan isn’t already flexing her megalomania by running for Governor- while being Mayor. Remember, her Issue 9 funnels tax dollars to a private, unregulated school board- “Learn to earn” that pays its board members a lot more to just deal with pre-school- and also funnels money to private businesses. Nan’s also backed tax abatement for everything from GE to Emerson to 80% of the buildings downtown. This hurts DPS.

When I called everyone and their mother to investigate Baguirov for his residency violations- she sat on her thumbs, as did all her minions.

Before we look at the “best opportunities for kids” as Mr. Mims promises, let’s point out, we wouldn’t be closing schools if DPS was every parents first choice. Fix the schools, fix the “enrollment problem.” First and foremost- kids need to be safe in school- we’ve shown you videos of what has happened at Ponitz. Was there an outcry? An investigation? Nope.

As always, this is about money- and Nan wants her fingers in the half a billion budget that DPS controls. Lots of opportunities to add more patronage people to her command is the way she sees it.

The list of people on this new task force almost makes me vomit.

• Mims and Al-Hamdani- co-chairs.
• Brian Bucklew- runs Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association- an illegal organization that helps the health care powers that be collude and raise prices. Considering they don’t pay property taxes to the schools- this is an affront to the citizens of Dayton. For the record- I like Brian, I just don’t like his organization.
• Ron Budzik- Dayton Business Committee
• Bing Davis-same old tired faces. I like Bing. But, do we have to keep turning to our antiques? Where are the young voices?
• Shelly Dickstein- Dayton City Manager. Really?
• Debra Feldman- Children’s Medical CEO. Pay property taxes, then talk.
• Bill Harris- on school board now. Did anyone appoint him to this from his elected body?
• Tim Kambitsch- CEO of Dayton Metro Library. This is the guy who won’t spend money on implementing the Dolly Parton Imagination Learning Library program- a program that’s proven to help improve reading scores.
• Tom Kelley- from JFDS.
• Dr. Tom Lasley- head of Learn to Earn- and a proponent of charter and privatization of education.
• Brandon Policicchio: Dayton RTA Chief Customer and Business Development Officer. These are the people who don’t like transporting DPS students.
• David Romick – DEA head
• Richard Stock from UD. This is the guy who helped decimate downtown business real-estate by justifying Austin Landing with their no income taxes for white collar workers policy.
• Reverend Walker- again, of the school board, without a vote. Also, should resign as I posted last night.

We just elected a new school board. We’ve not even finished firing Rhonda Corr. It’s time to let the new board do their job.