Division I regional track finals
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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > November
November 2007
Goff trial ends; no decision yet
Goff in court
The trial of former City Day Community School superintendent Roseda Goff is complete. Montgomery County Juvenile Court Judge Tony Capizzi said it would be seven to 14 days before he rules on her innocence or guilt.
There was one emotional moment in the afternoon when Becca Moore, a teacher at the school and wife of gym teacher Nate Moore, testified.
In the morning, Nate Moore described how a 13-year-old girl last April told him her mother had beaten her. He testified that Goff tried to discourage him from reporting the case to law enforcement, calling the girl a liar (follow the link above for more on Nate Moore’s testimony).
Becca Moore tearfully testified how she struggled with her fear that she and her husband would be fired before making the key call to Montgomery County Childrens’ Services that prompted a law enforcement investigation.
The couple, along with two other teachers, testified that Goff ruled the school as a “dictator” and that teachers, who had no employment contracts, feared they would be fired if they crossed her.
When Nate Moore originally called Childrens’ Services, he said he was told there needed to be visual evidence of injury before caseworkers could investigate. But Moore testified he did not feel a male teacher should inspect a young girl’s back for injuries.
But, he said, he did not want his wife to do the check. He said Becca Moore had prior conflict with Goff. The Moores, who had a newborn child, said they feared they could “lose everything” if they were both fired, so they hoped to keep Becca Moore out of it.
Instead, they asked two other women teachers if they would inspect the girl’s injuries. When both declined, Moore said she felt she had to be the one to do it.
“At that point I felt a conviction, and I felt it came between choosing a job and a child,” she said through her tears.
Moore said she took the girl into a copy room as her husband and two other teachers stood outside the door. She told the girl that she learned from her husband something awful had happened and that she didn’t have to tell her what it was but that if the girl said someone was hurting her she would have to report it. The girl began crying and showed her the marks.
“I took deep breath, hugged her and called Childrens Services,” Becca Moore said.
The case is an interesting one, and complicated enough that Capizzi wanted time to review it. David Turner, Goff’s attorney, argued that Goff only ever asked teachers to notify her when they reported child abuse and never actually told anyone not to report anything. In fact, he noted, she did not dissaude the Moores from reporting.
Goff did not testify, but Turner called several other school employees who said Goff never blocked anyone from reporting abuse, that she only wanted to be notified and that they did not fear retribution for reporting.
Prosecutor Julie Bruns countered that just because the Moores reported the incident that does not excuse what she said was Goff’s criminal behavior. She said Goff’s actions and the atmosphere she created at the school were designed to dissuade child abuse reports. Bruns said Goff’s witnesses were biased because they still work at the school with Goff’s administrative allies or because they are Goff’s personal friends or relatives outside of work.
We’ll likely see who Capizzi sides with in about a week.
(Image credit: Ron Alvey, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: City Day Investigation
Teachers: Goff tried to discourage abuse reports
Former City Day Community School physical education teacher Nate Moore testified Friday that the school’s ex-superintendent, Roseda Goff, tried to discourage him from reporting to law enforcement that a 13-year-old girl at the school had been beaten by her mother, calling the girl a liar who couldn’t be trusted.
Goff is on trial today for attempted obstructing of official business for allegedly interfering when school staff felt cases of child abuse and neglect needed to be reported to law officers. The charge is a third degree misdemeanor that carries with it a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Goff was one of the founders of the charter school, but was fired in June after incidents of testing irregularities on state exams.
Three teachers testified Friday that Goff told them them they must report to her first any incidents of abuse and neglect so she could decide if authorities should be called. State law requires teachers who suspect abuse to report it to police or childrens’ services. The teachers testified that Goff stepped into a training session on reporting child abuse and warned she would send angry parents to the teachers’ homes in cases where she was not informed of a child abuse report.
Moore, Andy Bergeron and Sue White, who no longer work at the school, said Goff ruled City Day like a dictator and that they feared they might be fired if she knew they reported abuse to law enforcement without talking to her. They described three separate incidents in which they said they suspected abuse but Goff attempted to dissuade them from reporting it.
The teachers, all of whom are white, said Goff, who is black, told them they did not understand that African American parents disciplined children differently.
Moore described an incident in April in which a 13-year-old girl was not doing sit ups in gym class. When he asked her why she became upset and described being beaten by her mother with an extension cord, a belt and a fist. He filled out a school incident report and on it noted he head called Montgomery County Childrens’ Services.
Moore testified he was called to Goff’s office.
“She told me that is not the way we do things here, that we don’t know if the marks are real or not,” Moore said. “She said she liked to wait four or five days and find out if she lying about what she said. I said, ‘I am calling Childrens’ Services.’ She went on to tell me the way black and white people discipline children is different and I would understand since I am not a black person.”
Under cross examination by Goff’s attoreny, David Turner, Moore said he did not actually call Childrens’ Services until after the meeting, but that he said so on the form so school leaders would know he the incident was going to be reported.
The trial continues this afternoon.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: City Day Investigation
Schools a front in construction trade war
(Demolition in preparation for a new addition at Stivers School for the Arts in 2005)
How hard it is to be a Dayton school board member? Consider one issue — construction bidding.
The board, in partnership with the state, is responsible for spending $627 million on school building construction in Dayton over 10 years through a program that is close to half-way finished now. As a result, Dayton is stuck in the middle of a raging, statewide debate between unions and non-union construction companies over wages paid for building jobs.
Unions have criticized and even picketed Dayton schools in recent years for not insisting on a “prevailing wage” for its construction jobs. Such a requirement could make it easier, unions believe, for companies with unionized workers to compete for jobs.
Dayton has, instead, picked both unionized and non-union companies for its jobs based on the lowest “responsible” bid and school leaders believe that has worked well.
In the rush of Thanksgiving last week, I forgot to point you all to this story about a construction trades group that is airing radio ads here criticizing Dayton schools about its policy regarding contract bidding.
The odd thing is the district’s current policy is just what the construction trades group wants and it has no plans right now to make a change.
And as to the bottom line question about which route is better for taxpayers, and ulitmately the kids, there is at least some evidence that it really doesn’t make much difference.
When I spoke to school board President Yvonne Isaacs about this, she said it was unfair to drag the district into this war. She said the district is happy with its policy and would not consider changing it unless the state made changes to financially favor one approach over the other. As long as there is no monetary incentive to change, Dayton will stay the course, she said.
With union-friendly Democrats now running the Ohio School Facilities Commission under Gov. Ted Strickland, there is at least a possibility that rules could change to favor prevailing wage. But Isaacs said that is not Dayton’s fight. That discussion is in Columbus.
As to the question of which is the better route for taxpayers — union workers or non-union — my colleague Tim Tresslar came across an Ohio-based study that attempted to find the answer.
In 2002, the Ohio Legislative Service Commission researched and wrote a report detailing the effects of exempting school projects from paying prevailing wages. It looked at the effects on construction wages, costs and quality.
If you look at the conclusion, (Page 52) the researchers said they found some savings. However, they also wrote that: “Evidence was not available as to the portion of the estimated savings, if any, that could be directly and conclusively attributed to the prevailing wage exemption.” There are so many cost factors on construction jobs that the researchers could not directly tie any savings to the prevailing wage exemption.
At the same time, the study found that the exemptions had little impact on work quality or wages, two common complaints of prevailing-wage proponents.
So Dayton’s school board is under fire for a decision it has not made on an issue that at least one study says doesn’t make much difference either way. Isn’t politics fun?
(Image credit: Ed Roberts, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Look through the eyes of a DPS kid
(Thurgood Marshall High School student Jose Gutierrez’s honorable mention cartoon)
Every wonder what it feels like to be a Dayton Public Schools student? You can get some interesting insights by looking at the winners in the DDN’s cartooning contest. Four of the five winners are DPS students and education is a heavy theme in their cartoons. Take a look and tell us your reaction to the students’ work.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Obama’s big education plan is out
(Obama at a New Hampshire high school.)
I suppose you could say he is shooting for the moon.
In a speech earlier this week, Barack Obama laid out an $18 billion education plan that he has been hinting about for weeks.
And delaying NASA’s return to the moon is one way he hopes to raise the money to pay for his proposals.
There is a “mend it, don’t end it” theme to the plan, which calls for keeping the required testing of No Child Left Behind but wants to find “more accurate” ways to assess students that don’t depend entirely on standardized tests.
On teacher pay, he favors expirimenting with merit pay and “hazard pay” or paying teachers extra for taking on more challenging assignments. These are ideas that the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, opposes. But NEA president Reg Weaver is quoted in a USA Today story saying Obama’s plan did not alarm him.
Obama also proposes expanded federal aid for early childhood programs and money to support longer school days for schools that want to try that approach.
To pay for the plan, Obama wants to close a tax loophole on CEO pay and delay NASA missions to the moon and to Mars. He argues that we won’t have the engineers and scientists to make those missions go some day if we don’t invest the money in education now.
If you follow the USA Today story link above, you can download Obama’s speech on education.
The post also appears on the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Buildings, levies and Ohio teachers for Hillary
Lots of local education news going on today. The Huber Heights levy passed narrowly after a recount, Beavercreeek is going back on the ballot for another bond levy try in March, Dayton’s school board held a meeting last night on the fate of Julienne High School and the Ohio Federation of Teachers announced its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President.
Let’s hit the highlights:
—Huber Heights levy passes by 23 votes. This is a big relief for the district and somewhat of a surprising win. Remember it was just a year ago Huber teachers went on strike in what became a publicly nasty spat between board members and the teachers’ union.
Huber already has a long track record of levy defeats and I thought the board-teacher divide and fresh memories of the strike would displease the community to the point where they would shoot down the next levy. It was a razor-thin victory margin, but a victory nonetheless. Maybe the healing has begun in Huber Heights.
—Beavercreek to try again on construction bonds. The school board says it has a “civic responsibility” to seek the levy again because of overcrowding. About 1,000 new students have enrolled in Beavercreek schools over the past five years with up to 2,500 more projected to be added in the next decade.
The levy lost in November by about 8 percentage points. March will be a big election because it will include a presidential primary. That may turn out more potential yes voters. But this will be a tough fight. Beavercreek has always had an anti-tax streak and people are angry about a tax deal benefitting The Greene shopping mall. (NOTE: I made an edit here after a reader pointed me to a website showing the schools are not harmed by the deal. But there is a perception by some that they are, as evidenced by the comments under the story. You can read them if you follow the link for the story.)
—Neighbors discuss Julienne’s fate. The school board held a meeting Monday to get input from neighbors about the future of the Julienne High School building, which it would like to replace with a new school but preservationists want to save. There were neighbors who spoke in favor of both replacing the school and preserving it.
This brings up a point I’ve been meaning to make. There is an argument being pushed by some of the “save old schools” crowd that goes like this:
—Stivers remained a top scoring school while housed at Julienne.
—The four new schools that opened last year — Belle Haven, Cleveland, Wogaman and Kiser elementary schools — are all in academic emergency.
—Therefore, the quality of the building does not matter. Old schools don’t prevent good learning and new schools don’t make scores rise.
There are many good arguments for preserving schools like Roosevelt and Julienne high schools. This is not one of them. It is bogus.
Yes, Stivers did continue to score well while housed at Julienne. But I encourage you to ask the Stivers folks about their experience there. I have yet to speak to one who thinks the building is appropriate for use as a school today. All I’ve spoken to have said it was a relief to get out of that building and back to a setting that is more conducive to learning. The say they succeeded despite the building situation.
And on the other four schools, it’s far too early to draw any conclusions. The students in those buildings came from low scoring old schools and no, their test results have not instantly improved. But I suspect those new schools will have a positive impact on test scores, even if it is not a dramatic gain. But they have not even been open two years yet. Give the schools five or six years and then let’s look at the data.
—OFT goes for Hillary. This news is so fresh it’s not even up yet at OFT’s website. But I got a press release from them today that said this:
The Ohio Federation of Teachers Executive Committee and Officers Nov. 16 enthusiastically and unanimously endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. “Hillary Clinton has the right strategies, the experience and the capacity to strengthen America’s public school system. She has committed to provide support for teachers, ensure our education system is able to meet the needs of the global economy, and that we have common sense laws that make that possible,” said OFT President Sue Taylor. “Further, we are convinced that Senator Clinton understands the many flaws in the current design of the No Child Left Behind law and is committed to its reform.
This is no surprise, given that OFT’s national parent union already endorsed Clinton. We are still waiting for NEA’s and OEA’s endorsements.
Permalink | Comments (37) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction, Schools and Politics
What makes adults go this far?
I’ve written before about helicopter parents, obsessive and overbearing moms and dads who meddle in every aspect of their child’s lives.
But even knowing how crazy these parents can be, I can’t shake the creeped out feeling I got when I read this story about adults in a community near St. Louis who harrassed their daughter’s former friend online until she committed suicide.
The paper that broke the story caught some flack for not naming the parents, as you can see on this journalism trade website. That didn’t stop bloggers from naming them, though.
There apparently is no law on the books to prosecute them. But their business and personal lives, I’d guess, are about to go to pieces.
Welcome to the Internet age.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: The Parent-Teacher Divide
Obama: Give kids the chance I had
(Obama and Clinton at last week’s debate)
Barack Obama last week unveiled a new campaign ad in New Hampshire focused on education in which he touts early childhood education and says he wants to recruit new teachers.
Obama recalls his own childhood and says all children deserve the chances he had to get a good education.
It’s an interesting ad in that it comes from someone who greatly benefitted from the American educational meritocracy and who is clearly bought into the idea that education can lift people from poverty to opportunity through hard work and ingenuity.
Can it work on a wide scale, not just for a select few? He seems to say it can, if we start early enough and have the right people at the front of the classroom.
(Image credit: AP)
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Board’s pick: Ronald Lee
Sorry for the sparse posting the last 48 hours. Yesterday the Dayton Board of Education picked GM retiree and city volunteer Ronald Lee to replace Gail Littlejohn on the board.
This means board members said “thanks, but no thanks” to the DDN editorial board’s suggestion that it pick David Bohardt, a former mayoral candidate. The editorial board said Bohardt had the right kind of experience and creative ideas to be a real asset to the board, even if he might not always be in step with the current majority’s thinking.
Board members said last night that Lee’s personality was a better fit for the board.
“”We’re not looking for a rubber stamp, which I don’t think Ron will be at all, but someone who will work with the board to reach consensus and support the positions of the board,” board President Yvonne Isaacs said.
What do you think of the board’s choice?
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Surprise! One more applicant emerges for city school board
Apparently there is a third applicant for Gail Littlejohn’s vacant school board seat that school officials did not discover until today.
Ken Hook, a retired Dayton teacher who works now as a tutor at the Dayton Urban League and as a computer repair technician, turned in his materials by Friday’s 4:30 p.m. deadline, but apparently they were dropped off at the wrong office through the district’s internal delivery system.
The package was discovered this morning and Hook will be given a chance to interview for the vacant seat along with Ronald Lee and David Bohardt.
Also, don’t miss today’s stories on the future of the school board.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Does the school board need to be fixed?
To answer the headline, editorial page Editor Ellen Belcher thinks so, and she has some ideas for how to do it. Meanwhile, here’s Saturday DDN story on the applicants for Gail Littlejohn’s open board seat.
Interviews will probably be held on Tuesday for David Bohardt and Ronald Lee. The board hopes to make its choice by Friday.
(Image credit: The Crazy News Blog)
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Bohardt back as school board applicant
David Bohardt
UPDATE: Bohardt and Lee were the only applicants by the school board’s 4:30 p.m. deadline today. Interviews will be held Tuesday.
UPDATE: As of 10 a.m., Bohardt and Lee are still the only applicants. The deadline to apply is 4:30 p.m. More later.
I just confirmed with the school district that former mayoral candidate and Preservation Dayton president David Bohardt has applied for Gail Littlejohn’s open seat on the school board. Bohardt was an applicant for an open board seat in 2006 but was passed over for Ronald Jackson.
The only other applicant so far is Ronald Lee, a retired GM worker and city volunteer who applied but was passed over this summer for Jeff Mims.
With the deadline to apply the end of the day on Friday, this should get interesting.
Bohardt sought a board seat in 2006 at the urging of Joe Lacey. They share an interest in preservation, which could mean changes in the school construction program if Bohardt is picked, since board members-elect Sheila Taylor and Nancy Nerny also have expressed interest in preserving more old schools.
While we are on the topic of the upcoming board appointment, I feel like I should soften some things I said previously about possible appointments to the school board.
When I asked original Kids First member Doniece Gatliff two weeks ago if she had interest in returning to the school board, she said no. But that was two weeks ago. I’ve been told she has been asked if she would reconsider and I can’t say for sure that she would not, given all the change on the board. The school board faces a totally different reality today than it did two weeks ago.
Likewise, when I said previously that a return to the board by Gallin or Massoud was unlikely, that was based on election night conversations with the two of them and it was only my impression. The fact is that neither said for certain they would not consider it.
Again, in retrospect I don’t know if that is good enough for me to say it is “unlikely” either would consider a return. It would be tricky to do so. If one of them wanted to seek appointment, she would have to resign from the board and apply by tomorrow. Some might consider it bad form for the board to follow this route and pick someone to replace Littlejohn whom voters just rejected at the polls. But that would be open to debate.
If one of them could be convinced that it was in the best interest of the school district for them to stay on the board, it might not be so far fetched that they could follow this path.
Stay tuned. We will know more tomorrow.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Grappling with election fall out
Mark Owen
In Thursday’s DDN, an editorial says the Democrats “gutted” the Dayton school board with their endorsements, which the editorial board said were the key influence on the voters’ choices. The editorial says party chairman Mark Owen is to blame for the party rewarding past support of Democrats over qualifications for the school board.
Meanwhile, there was more reaction to the impending changes on the Dayton school board.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
NY Times is back in town
(Stetson Agee, 14, center, an 8th grader at Colin Powell Leadership Academy, hears the news that the school will be closed last month.)
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Sam Dillon — the New York Times’ national education correspondent — is back with another look at charter schools in Ohio.
This time he looks at Marc Dann’s charter lawsuits and the way political change here has led to tougher times for charters. The story looks at the Dayton charters Dann has sued — New Choices Community School, Colin Powell Leadership Academy and Moraine Community School.
Dillon has kept a close eye on charters in Ohio and Dayton, since the rules here are unique and the movement is pretty strong.
In the story, Gov. Ted Strickland says he wants to take a harder line with charter schools the “next chance” he gets. Meanwhile, the Fordham Foundation’s Terry Ryan says this is nothing new, that Democrats in the state have been after charters forever. They just have power for the first time in a while.
There is worry in school choice circles, Dillon writes, that if Dann is successful with his lawsuits that the trend to could spread to other states and closing low scoring charter schools could even become a rallying point for Democrats on the campaign trail.
Take a look and tell us what you think.
(Image credit: Chris Stewart, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Who will be the new Gail Littlejohn?
Come Jan. 1, the Dayton school board will have a new balance of power. And replacing Gail Littlejohn could become a high stakes battle for control of the board. Consider what today’s school board looks like and what the board will be like come January.
Let’s take a look.
Here’s where today’s board members stand:
Yvonne Isaacs: Original Kids First member
Gail Littlejohn: Original Kids First member
Mario Gallin: Strong supporter of Kids First reform and approach
Lee Massoud: Strong supporter of Kids First reform and approach
Stacy Thompson: Strong supporter of Kids First reform and approach
Jeff Mims: Generally supportive of Kids First reform and approach
Joe Lacey: Supportive of some Kids First reforms but critical of its approach
Here are the positions right now of the new board coming in:
Yvonne Isaacs: Original Kids First member
Stacy Thompson: Strong supporter of Kids First reform and approach
Jeff Mims: Generally supportive of Kids First reform and approach
Gail Littlejohn’s seat: Vacant
Nancy Nerny: Supportive of many Kids First reforms but critical of some of its approaches
Joe Lacey: Supportive of some Kids First reforms but critical of its approach
Sheila Taylor: Supportive of some Kids First reforms but critical of its approach.
So you can see that Littlejohn’s replacement can either build a four-member coalition of board members who are generally bought into the Kids First approach or a four-member coalition that is generally critical of the Kids First approach.
Because the current board will pick Littlejohn’s replacement, it would seem likely that it would try to pick somebody who is like-minded with the current majority. In other words, it seems likely the board will pick someone supportive of the Kids First approach.
But who might it be? The board just began accepting applications for the open seat. I asked former Kids First team member Doniece Gatliff recently if she would be interested in a return. She is not.
What about naming the just-defeated Gallin or Massoud to the open seat? That seems like a long shot. As a current board member, either one would have to resign, apply and then be picked. And even if everybody wanted to do that, it might be seen as bad form for the board to go around the will of the voters by putting someone back on the board who just lost at the polls. Finally, I doubt either Gallin or Massoud would want to return to the board that way.
That means the board will have to pick someone new from the applicant pool. That is never easy, and it will be even harder this time as the current board majority will have to try to discern how supportive of their approach each candidate will be.
But whoever replaces Littlejohn is set up to be a swing vote if the potential divide of Isaacs, Thompson, Mims vs. Lacey, Taylor, Nerny develops.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
School board faces a new reality
Jeff Mims, Stacy Thompson, Nancy Nerny and Sheila Taylor
It was quite a night for the Dayton school board. The new board has only one Kids First member left (Yvonne Isaacs). Joe Lacey now has two potential allies. And don’t forget the board will be naming a replacement for Gail Littlejohn in a couple weeks.
It seems the Kids First Era is effectively over. What will emerge in its place? That we don’t yet know.
I talked to most of the candidates tonight. Here is some of what they told me:
Here are some comments from the candidates I was able to reach tonight:
Jeff Mims
On his victory:
“I am elated and I am appreciative to the community for embracing my vision of unity, student achievement, student safey and school funding.”
On the new board:
“Without unity we can’t get anything done. I look at the folks as individuals. I have not had a problem with Joe, Sheila or Nancy. My personality is one that whatever I have worked with and worked on I’ve been a team person. Once we all sit down and try to clarify that our primary purpose is making good things happen for children. Everyone who ran cares for children and cares for the district. I think we’ll be OK. I’m really optimistic.”
On the defeat of the other incumbents:
“I have some pains for them. Even as we try to reorgainze it will take some time. We all have to grieve a little bit. They cared a lot and they worked hard and for whatever reason people didnt understand them as well as they understood the other parties.”
Mario Gallin
On her reaction to her defeat:
“Clearly Nancy and Sheila had a message that resonated with the voters. Now they have an opportunity to put some of their ideas and thoughts into place and hopefully continue to move school district forward.”
On the anti-incumbent voting pattern:
“It is hard for me to wrap my mind around. When I came in eight years ago, I wanted a change. I know I have done some successful things and I am proud of everything I’ve done. At the end of the day there is a lot of people out there who suddenly woke up and said ‘Wait a minute. They are not doing that well. Maybe we need somebody new in there.’ I understand that feeling.”
On what the new board will be like:
“I hope and believe from conversations with Sheila and Nancy that they have been supportive of reform efforts. Some of the processes might look a little different. But I have not gotten a sense from them specifically of what changes they might make.”
“I’m sure Joe (Lacey) is pleased the candidates he supported were elected. He made public statements that he thought this would give him more of a voice. Whether that translates into actual change, I dont know.”
Lee Massoud
On her reaction to her defeat:
“I suppose that anytime a community chooses its board for the schools they are voting for a reason. I am not sure what that reason is but obviously they had a different avenue in mind then I thought they would. It’s disappointing that people with good experience with good skill sets weren’t the first choices. But it is what it is.”
On whether it was a mistake not to seek endorsements from political parties and unions:
“I stand by my decision that the school board election is, and should always remain, non-partisan. I’m proud I stood up for that and I still believe it.”
On what the new board will be like:
“I think that when you’re a member of a team such a as a school board board you really need to be pulling the efforts of the district forward. My concern is that the momentum of any forward progress will not be the focus given the makeup of the board.”
“We’re seeing what a political influence on a board can do. I don’t think it is healthy and don’t think it is in the best interest of the children. That’s not in best interest of community. We have too much at stake.”
Sheila Taylor
On the results of the race:
“I wasn’t suprirsed about the resutls. I thought they would go pretty much the way they did. I am happy for Jeff, Nancy and myself. Putting us together with the board that is left, we will all make a good team and do a lot of good things for schools. People are very dissatisfied with where the schools are right now. Lee and Mario got a lot of the blame.”
On her priorities for the board:
“My biggest desire right now is to connect with the community. I don’t want to walk in and try to step on toes. I’ll be taking a look at the money and seeing what can happen on disicline issues in classrooms.”
On whether she could see herself supporting a future tax levy (she voted against the May levy):
“I wouldn’t have any comment on that yet. I haven’t had a chance to look at the budget. I need to talk to more people first.”
Nancy Nerny
Nerny did not want me to call her late Tuesday night but left me this statement on my voicemail early in the evening in case she won:
“I’m so glad the people of Dayton wanted a new voice for the board.”
Stacy Thompson
On her victory:
“I’m excited and happy. I set out to win and we did that.”
On her priorities going forward:
“My focus is and remains communication, continuing the reform plan and getting region to realize we have the largest school district and what we do with the children of Dayton Public Schools will have a major impact on the community. There was some support of that vision out there.”
On the fate of the reform plan with a new school board:
“The thing that I think we have to keep in mind is the reform plan is based on process not people. It’s going to be incumbent upon the board members who have been there to help the new board members get up to speed. I was a new board member and the reform was already in place. It will be incumbent on us to get them engaged. This was never based on people.”
On the defeat of Massoud and Gallin:
“That’s painful for me. We’ve worked closely together for the 14 months I’ve been on the board. They’ve both been very helpful to me. Their knowledge is tremendous. It’s a lot of experience to lose. Certainly that concerns me. And it’s sad for me.”
On whether the levy might have led to the incumbent defeats:
“As I’ve talked to people in the community right after the levy and during the campaign, the feedback I got was what people did not appreciate was not feeling in the loop of what was happening and not having the details. It was all of a sudden we need a 15 mill levy. It allowed for a lot of speculation and perception. The ironic thing is in the campaign the four of us having to campaign answered a lot of those questions. A lot of people said “had I known that I might have voted for it.” I dont know that the levy would have passed but I heard that a lot.”
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Final results on school board, levies
The final results are in for Dayton schools and nothing changed. Voters tossed out the longest serving incumbents and went for new blood. Countywide turnout was at about 28 percent of registered voters.
Here is the final tally for Dayton school board:
Four-year term:
Jeff Mims 11,238 votes (25.0 pct)
Sheila Taylor 9,968 votes (22.2 pct)
Nancy Nerny 8,616 votes (19.2 pct)
Mario Gallin 7,609 votes (16.9 pct)
Lee Massoud 7,448 votes (16.6 pct)
Two-year term:
Stacy Thompson 11,765 votes (72.1 pct)
Shirley Crisp 4,549 votes (27.8 pct)
UPDATE: Here are the final school levy results:
Beavercreek 5 mills: DEFEATED with 51.7 pct against
Kettering: APPROVED with 59 pct in favor
Brookville 5 mills: APPROVED with 64 pct in favor
Brookville 4.9 mills: DEFEATED with 53 pct against
New Lebanon 2.8 mills: APPROVED with 59 pct in favor
New Lebanon 7 mills: APPROVED with 61 percent pct in favor
Huber Heights: APPROVED 50.02 pct in favor (Subject to automatic recount. It won by three votes!)
Jefferson Twp: DEFEATED with 56 pct against
Oakwood: APPROVED with 56 pct in favor
Vandalia: APPROVED with 67 pct in favor
Here’s where the levies stand
The current levy math looks like this — seven school levies are passing while three are losing.
Here are the latest numbers:
Beavercreek 5 mills: 51.7 pct against the levy (100 pct of Greene County precincts of reporting)
Kettering: 59 pct in favor (53 pct of precincts of reporting)
Brookville 5 mills: 64 pct in favor (27 pct of precincts reporting)
Brookville 4.9 mills: 55 pct against (27 pct of precincts reporting)
New Lebanon 2.8 mills: 52 pct in favor (36 pct of precincts reporting)
New Lebanon 7 mills: 55 pct in favor (36 pct of precincts reporting)
Huber Heights: 50.5 pct in favor (47 pct of precincts reporting)
Jefferson Twp: 55 pct against (90 pct of precincts reporting)
Oakwood: 55 pct in favor (100 pct of precincts reporting)
Vandalia: 66 pct in favor (51 pct of precincts reporting)
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Schools and Politics
It’s over: Mims, Thompson, Taylor, Nerny win
With 95 percent of precincts reporting, I don’t think the places can change. Two challengers score big upsets. Two incumbents survive. The longest serving board members took the biggest hits. Here’s where we are now:
Here are the standings now:
Four-year term:
Jeff Mims 25.3 pct
Sheila Taylor 22.3 pct
Nancy Nerny 19.1 pct
Mario Gallin 16.8 pct
Lee Massoud 16.3 pct
Two-year term:
Stacy Thompson 72.1 pct
Shirley Crisp 27.8 pct
UPDATE: Here are the current school levy results:
Beavercreek 5 mills: 54 pct against the levy (28 pct of precincts of reporting)
Kettering: 59 pct in favor (53 pct of precincts of reporting)
Brookville 5 mills: 60 pct in favor (9 pct of precincts reporting)
Brookville 4.9 mills: 62 pct against (9 pct of precincts reporting)
New Lebanon 2.8 mills: 53 pct in favor (27 pct of precincts reporting)
New Lebanon 7 mills: 55 pct in favor (27 pct of precincts reporting)
Huber Heights: 51 pct in favor (22 pct of precincts reporting)
Jefferson Twp: 55 pct against (81 pct of precincts reporting)
Oakwood: 55 pct for the levy (81pct of precincts reporting)
Vandalia: 63 pct in favor (11 pct of precincts reporting)
(NOTE: Sorry for leaving out the second levies in Brookville and New Lebanon earlier)
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Two challengers poised to win
Well things are getting clearer in the Dayton school board race, and it isn’t good for the incumbents. With 81 percent of the precincts reporting, challengers Sheila Taylor and Nancy Nerny are close to securing seats on the board along with incumbent Jeff Mims. Stacy Thompson’s race is basically over.
Here are the standings now:
Four-year term:
Jeff Mims 25.1 pct
Sheila Taylor 22.3 pct
Nancy Nerny 19.3 pct
Mario Gallin 16.8 pct
Lee Massoud 16.2 pct
Two-year term:
Stacy Thompson 71 pct
Shirley Crisp 28 pct
UPDATE: Here are the current school levy results:
Beavercreek: 52.2 pct against the levy (89.8 pct of Greene County precincts reporting)
Kettering: 54 pct in favor (still just absentee)
Brookville: 60 pct in favor (9 pct of precincts reporting)
New Lebanon: 54 pct in favor (18 pct of precincts reporting)
Huber Heights: 51 pct against 12 pct of precincts reporting)
Jefferson Twp: 51 pct against (63 pct of precincts reporting)
Oakwood: 55 pct for the levy (63 pct of precincts reporting)
Vandalia: 63 pct in favor (3 pct of precincts reporting)
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Incumbents in trouble in Dayton school board race
With about 45 percent of precincts reporting in the Dayton school board race, the trend continues — incumbents Mario Gallin and Lee Massoud trail badly while Sheila Taylor and Nancy Nerny lead along with Jeff Mims. Stacy Thompson is running away with the other race.
Here are the standings now:
Four-year term:
Jeff Mims 25 pct
Sheila Taylor 22 pct
Nancy Nerny 18 pct
Mario Gallin 16.7 pct
Lee Massoud 16.3 pct
Two-year term:
Stacy Thompson 72 pct
Shirley Crisp 27 pct
Forty-five percent is enough to take seriously. We still have a way to go, but Gallin and Massoud have reason to worry.
UPDATE: Here are the current school levy results:
Beavercreek: 54 pct against the levy (28 pct of precincts of reporting)
Kettering: 54 pct in favor (still just absentee)
Brookville: 61 pct in favor (still just absentee)
New Lebanon: 57 pct in favor (9 pct of precincts reporting)
Huber Heights: 56 pct against (still just absentee)
Jefferson Twp: 52 pct against (18 pct of precincts reporting)
Oakwood: 51 pct for the levy (18 pct of precincts reporting)
Vandalia: 63 pct in favor (3 pct of precincts reporting)
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Absentee ballots: Two challengers lead
With just absentee ballots in, here are the standings in the Dayton school board race:
Four-year term:
Shelia Taylor 24 pct
Nancy Nerny 22 pct
Jeff Mims 21 pct
Lee Massoud 16 pct
Mario Gallin 15 pct
Two-year term:
Stacy Thompson 60 pct
Shirley Crisp 40 pct
It’s interesting that the challengers have the early lead in the bigger race and that Mario Gallin, the most visible incumbent, is last. But it is VERY early. You really can’t use absentee results as a guide for the final outcome.
But at least the absentee voters were fairly anti-incumbent.
UPDATE: Here are some early school levy results:
Beavercreek: 61 pct against
Kettering: 54 percent in favor
Brookville: 61 pct in favor
New Lebanon: 57 pct in favor
Huber Heights: 56 pct against
Jefferson Twp: 59 pct against
Oakwood: 53 pct against
Vandalia: 63 pct in favor
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Dayton’s school board race — what’s your prediction?
The results of the Dayton school board race tonight should be very interesting. The possibility exists for a big change in the constitution of the board and a shift in the balance of power. The vote also could send a strong signal of support to the current board as it manages its way through troubled times.
Who is going to win? It’s always hard to say. Tell us what you think. Who will the four winners be?
Here are some of the electoral plusses and minuses of the candidates going into today’s vote.
In the race for three four-year terms:
Mario Gallin: Gallin is the only candidate in the race with proven electability, having been elected to the board twice before. She also has high name recognition after playing an active role on the board for eight years. That could be good for her, or bad, depending on the mood of the voters. Those that are angry at the board may identify Gallin more easily as an incumbent.
Jeff Mims: Mims is a first-time candidate but is very well known in the community for his work as a teacher, union president and administrator in Dayton schools. He has a wide network of friends and supporters that could make him a formidable candidate. On the other hand, he has been a politician for all of a couple months and there is no guarantee that his name recognition within the education community will translate to votes.
Lee Massoud: It will be interesting to see what happens with Massoud. She is very well known in the Dayton business community but not well known in the wider community. She declined to screen for endorsements from political parties and labor unions because she felt the race should be non-partisan, which some observers thought could be a fatal blow to her chances. But she raised a large amount of contributions, campaigned very hard and has run the most professional campaign of all the candidates. She also has been on the board longer than anyone in the race except Gallin, which may help her name recognition. As with Gallin, it could hurt her, too, if there is an anti-incumbent vibe at the ballot box.
Shelia Taylor: Taylor is a formidable challenger with strong support from the Democratic party and labor unions. But it remains to be seen if she can translate that backing into enough votes to win. She does not have wide name recognition in the community at large and, unlike Massoud, she does not have a high powered job, a huge treasury or prior experience in school management (although she did run a day care business). And it could come down to Massoud vs. Taylor for the third seat.
Nancy Nerny: Nerny has two things going for her — she is a retired teacher an she is an active volunteer in the school district who has a good sense for what is going on in the schools. She knows a lot about school issues and has generally impressed other board members when she applied for open board seats twice in the past. Of course, she did not impress them enough to actually be picked to join the board. She raised very little money and does not have wide name recognition, which could work against her.
And in the race for the two year seat:
Stacy Thompson: Thompson is a graduate of the district and works at Key Bank, so she has some name recognition and natural community support. She has been on the board for more than a year, so that also gives her a somewhat higher profile, although she is one of the newer board members. And she has worked very hard on her campaign, raising the most money after Massoud.
Shirley Crisp: Crisp is not widely known, having never run for public office before, and her campaign was bare bones. She didn’t raise any money by the first campaign finance reporting deadline. But she is connected in the preservationist community, having launched her run in party because of her desire to save Wilbur Wright Middle School from demolition. The question is whether that constituency is enough to propel her to a victory over Thompson.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Kids vs. Bricks, Round 2
A few weeks ago, I jokingly called the debate over saving Julienne High School “Kids vs. Bricks.”
Bill Pflaum is not joking when he says it.
Pflaum is an interesting voice to join those who want an entirely new school on the Julienne site to serve elementary school kids in the lower Dayton View area, as the school district had planned. Plaum grew up practically next door to Julienne and served mass there for the nuns as an altar boy.
He also heads the Seedling Foundation, a support group for Stivers School for the Arts. In that capacity, Pflaum has spent countless volunteer hours in the Julienne building over the past few years while Stivers was temporarily housed there. He professes a deep affection for the building and understands its history and its value to the neighborhood.
But in an op-ed commentary in Monday’s Dayton Daily News, Pflaum says the push to save the building really is a choice of spending the school district’s money on kids or on bricks. And he says he is certain the nuns he remembers from the early days of the school would have chosen to spend the money on the kids.
Pflaum challenges those who want to save the building to put their money where their mouth is and raise $8 million to $10 million to cover the extra cost of converting the building for use as an elementary school.
And keep in mind, Pflam is not being a wise guy when he says that. The Seedling Foundation raised $1 million in local match money for the new Stivers building, making it eligible for a $10 million interest-free federal loan. That helped convince the district to rehab, rather than tear down, the original Stivers school, along with a large new addition.
I’m sure this will stir the debate over Julienne up some. What is your reaction to Pflaum’s commentary?
(Image credit: DDN)
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Now you can see if the teachers misbehave
I should have mentioned it by now, but the Columbus Dispatch has done some great work with its series called the ABC’s of Betrayal, looking at problems with the state’s efforts to discipline teachers.
As a result of the Dispatch’s efforts, Ohio last week made available for the first time to the public its database of teacher discipline. From a Web site, you can now look up incidents by name, school district or zip code.
For Monday’s DDN, I took a look at the data for Montgomery County and found few serious incidents. Most, but not all incidents of teacher discipline were related to criminal conduct in the teachers’ personal lives.
Give the stories a read and let me know if you were surprised there were not more local cases of serious misconduct. I guess I thought the numbers would be a little higher. But overall, teachers here are pretty well behaved.
(Image credit: Think Quest)
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Obama’s a sucker for a reporter in tears
Obama and Jones
Imagine this — a presidential candidate who says no questions from the media but then relents just because one of the reporters starts to cry?
That’s what happened to Barack Obama in Durham, N.C., Thursday. Of course, the reporter was 5-year-old Hadassah Jones, who was trying to ask him questions on behalf of the Web site brandnewz.com. In the interview, Obama talked up health care and said every child should have a “nice school.” (See the resulting video news story here.)
The rest of the media coverage of Obama lately was a bit more grown up.
In New Hampshire, The Citizen newspaper reports five people with education backgrounds in the state have signed on to advise Obama.
Meanwhile, Obama is on a civil rights kick on the campaign trail.
On Friday, his choice of speaking venue harkened to the early days of the school integration fight. Here’s what he said on the court house steps in South Carolina:
“Imagine a President who was raised like I was by a single mom who had to work and go to school and raise her kids and accept food stamps for a while. Imagine a President who could go into Holly Courts Apartments here in Manning or Scott’s Branch High School in Summerton,(S.C.) and give the young men and women there someone to look up to. Imagine a President who fought each day to narrow the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.”
He stuck with the civil rights theme throughout the day, and the New York Times reports some of his family tree humor along with a few light touches on education.
This post also appears on the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
(Image credit: Boston Globe)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Nice to see local blogs getting in the education game
Earlier this week I pointed you to an interview with Joe Lacey at the DaytonOS blog. Now Dayton OS is back with a commentary about Lacey and, separately, another post asks what makes a good school?
When I was preparing to launch Get on the Bus in 2005, I first went looking to see what was out there in local blogs. There was practically nothing and what was there was not focused on serious commentary about our city and its issues. So it is great to go to DaytonOS and find these sorts of posts now, along with links to a bunch of new local blogs. Check it out.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Latest front in the voucher war: Utah
Conservative columnist George Will this week wrote an interesting column about the battle over vouchers in Utah.
The Utah voucher story has been surprising all the way along. A bill to launch a statewide voucher program passed with huge legislative support earlier this year. But then opponents mobilized and forced the bill to a referendum vote.
Will details a host of reasons why the voucher program makes sense for Utah, most notably financial reasons. But interestingly, the measure looks likely to lose.
The question is why?
Will’s answer — because teachers’ unions have zealously targeted the measure, raising millions from across the country and pouring so much advertising cash into the state to fight vouchers that they could have more than paid for the entire voucher program.
Will points out that the way Utah set the program up, it actually brings MORE money into public education, since the vouchers are funded with general state funds — NOT money from its education budget. So every voucher student there forces MORE spending on education.
And every parent who chooses to use a voucher SAVES the local school district money because the $7,500 or so set aside to educate that child can now be used for other kids. Will even says it will save on school construction if the program works.
This takes away one of the big reasons people argue against vouchers — that they take badly needed money away from local school districts.
So why are teachers fighting it? As Will writes, they certainly have their self-interest in mind. Fewer students in traditional public schools means fewer union jobs and less members. But there’s a wider sentiment, too — even if the voucher program is cost neutral, public school teachers view the movement as an effort to undermine public school generally. To some, it’s a slippery slope — whittle away at public schools little by little and before long you may not be able to support or justify the kind of qualty program you want.
And here’s the interesting thing. American voters, in general, view it the same way. That’s why vouchers have usually lost when put to a vote.
Will even notes that Utah is a strongly pro-public school state, with a huge percentage of students attending their local school systems. While Will and voucher supporters say “what’s the harm” then if a few kids use vouchers, voters and teachers think just the opposite — they say “don’t mess with something we’re happy about.”
This is evident in the polling numbers in Utah, where respondents support a host of reforms within the public school system, but strongly oppose vouchers.
Assuming the Utah program is defeated at the polls, Ohio will remain the biggest statewide voucher program in America. And yet, every year thousands of Ohio vouchers go unused. Perhaps support for public schooling in general is part of the reason why?
Utah’s program would have been interesting to watch. While Ohio limits vouchers just to kids in very low performing schools, Utah would have given them to anyone, with the poorer families getting more money. And here’s Utah, as Will says, a solidly Republican state and vouchers are a favorite school reform for many conservatives.
There hasn’t been much enthusiasm here for extending the voucher option to kids who attend better scoring public schools. And there has never been a statewide vote on the idea here.
And some believe Ohio — a traditional Democratic-leaning state that went solidly Republican in statewide elections over most of the past 15 years — is tilting back to the blue column. If there was a referendum on vouchers here today, do you think Ohioans would keep or toss the program?
(Image credit: Legends of America)
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, My Favorite Posts
GOTB readers make me look good
I got some unexpected good news today. Apparently, Get on the Bus was named Best Blog in Ohio by the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
I didn’t even know I was a contender for this award. When I got an invite to the awards program, I thought it was just because I had won SPJ awards in the past. But today a colleague who attended the awards gave me a winner’s certificate.
The is the second big award for Get on the Bus since it launched in August, 2005. By coincidence, a friend also pointed me today to this blog which cites Get on the Bus as an example of a blog with a “vibrant comment community.” Uh, that would be you folks.
It’s always nice to be recognized like this, but no good blog is a one-person show. GOTB owes its success to regular readers with a deep interest in education who keep a (mostly) cordial exchange of ideas running here.
So thanks for reading, for participating and for making the “bus” go!
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Journalism
Did charters drive up graduation rate?
Before this gets too far away, I was wondering what readers here thought about Sunday’s commentary by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation’s Vice President Terry Ryan on the DDN editorial page.
Ryan argues that it is the impact of new, dropout-focused charter schools that are largely responsible for raising Dayton Public Schools’ graduation rate by nearly 30 points over the past five years.
What do you think? Is this evidence of positive impact of charter schools or is Ryan reaching by giving charters credit for the district’s hard-earned improvements? Take a look and let us know what you think.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Dayton Public Schools
