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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 > 2008 > January > 29
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Breaking News: Lucas a candidate in Lakota
Stan Lucas
Dayton Treasurer Stan Lucas is one of eight candidates who will interview for the vacant treasurer job with Lakota schools in Butler County.
Lucas confirmed Tuesday he applied after being approached by a recruiter working for the school district. He said he still loves his job in Dayton but would like to be closer to his native Cincinnati and family members who live there.
“I have told the board many times that I love what I do and I am doing what I love,” he said. “But when you’re dealing with family issues, sometimes there truly is a need to be close to home.”
Lucas’ interest in moving south comes just months after Superintendent Percy Mack interviewed in September in Mobile, Ala., for the top school job there. The Mobile board picked a different finalist.
But Lucas said there were no factors in Dayton that pushed him to consider other jobs.
“I love working with the board and I love being in Dayton,” said Lucas, who moved into the city shortly after he was hired in 2002. “I am very proud of our accomplishments in the last five and a half or six years. This is not me running away or the board wanting me gone.”
Lucas spent nearly all he working career in Cincinnati in the county auditor’s office and in private industry before working as budget director for Cincinnati schools just prior to his move to Dayton.
He said he was interested in Lakota because it is slightly larger than Dayton, located close to family members’ homes and has challenging issues.
“They have their challenges,” he said. “They have built a lot of buildings and they will build more. It’s a good opportunity. It’s a little bigger in terms of students and the district has a different make up, but they are challenged with growth and levies and those sorts of things.”
Former Lakota Treasurer Alan Hutchinson, who left in December to take a job in Columbus with the Frankin County Educational Service Center, was paid $113,000 annually. This year, Lucas’ salary in Dayton is $117,832.
In Dayton, Lucas has been credited by board members with professionalizing the financial operation of the district and was a key player in Dayton’s 2002 bond levy campaign that raised $245 million in local match for the $627 million districtwide, 28-school building project in partnership with the state.
He also coordinated the financing of the district’s controversial $15.5 million purchase of the former Reynolds & Reynolds headquarters for an administrator and negotiating a deal with the Internal Revenue Service that allowed Dayton to issue bonds early to take advantage of low interest rates in 2003.
From my colleague Lindsey Hilty at the Pulse-Journal in Butler County, here are the other candidates for the Lakota job:
—Robert A. Hancock, Hamilton City Schools treasurer
—Alana G. Cropper, treasurer of West Clermont Local Schools in Cincinnati
—Craig A. Jones, assistant treasurer of the Lakota Local School District
—Ari Jason Khan, treasury cash manager of the Catholic Healthcare Partners
—Stan Lucas, chief financial officer and treasurer of the Dayton Public Schools
—Robert A Morales, former chief financial officers of the Cobb County School District
—Paul J. Scheuermann, former chief executive and president of the Community National Bank in Franklin, Ohio
—Thomas E. Sheeran, assistant superintendent for Finance and Operations from the Richmond City Public Schools in Richmond, Virginia
Interesting notes: Craig Jones is a former assistant treasurer in Dayton who left before Lucas arrived here. Also, I just got the list of all 22 applicants and Dayton’s school district budget director Robyn Essman also applied. David Robinson, treasurer of Jefferson Twp. schools, applied, too.
(Image credit: Dayton Public Schools)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What do you think about the “bodies” exhibit?
In today’s paper we have a story about how the local Catholic archdiocese is discouraging parents from allowing their children to see an exhibit at a Cincinnati museum that displays dissected human bodies.
The show’s promoters say they are unclaimed bodies from a China morgue and that they are displayed respectfully. The museum is promoting the exhibit as a rare opportunity to get a first-hand look at how the complicated human body works.
But the church is concerned that these bodies should have been laid to rest out of respect for the dead.
I see boths points of view here. I have a daughter who is extremely interested in science and medicine. When I read about this show, I thought it did sound like a great opportunity for a kid like her to have a unique learning experience (although my own daughter is still probalby a little too young for the exhibit).
On the other hand, I see the archbishop’s point. I am not offended by the concept of the exhibit (although I am Catholic), but it did make me wonder if I would want my own body or that of a close relative traveling the world on display in this way. Just because the bodies were unclaimed does not mean the deaceased do not deserve the same consideration as those that are claimed.
Medical schools, of course, use cadavers so that their students can learn about the body. Commonly, though, those bodies were explicitly donated for study by the decased in their wills before they died. If the people whose bodies are in the museum exhibit had expressed a wish to be part of the display, I don’t think I’d have any problem with it.
Still, the exhibit is a rare learning opportunity for young students.
I’d like to hear what you think. If you had a child who was, say, in high school and interested in going into medicine, would you encourage or discourage them from going to see this exhibit?
(Image credit: humanillnesses.com
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Nothing “preliminary” about it
(Matthew Pillion, county spelling bee winner, with his mom, Deanna)
At the Montgomery County Spelling Bee in New Lebanon last night, Dixie Middle School student Matthew Pillion came away the winner after he spelled “preliminary” correctly.
As I’ve written here before, I enjoy covering spelling bees. It’s always nice to write about an academic-based competition and to get kids’ names in the paper for doing something smart. Plus, the spelling bee is an easy sell to editors because of the competition’s long-running noteriety. We can’t cover every student competition, but this is one that people know and are interested in. (Fulll disclosure: the DDN sponsors the regional bee held next month.)
I’ll be at the city spelling bee Thursday at Meadowdale High School at 6 p.m. Dayton Public Schools will be seeking a three-peat, having won the last two city spelling bees after several years of losing to private schools.
(Image credit: Teesha McClam, DDN)
Permalink | | Categories: Teaching and Learning
