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School board split could crack further
Related: What is the school board's future? | Scott Elliott blogs about education
Monday, November 12, 2007
DAYTON — After the election of the Kids First team in 2001, the following four years were a period of extraordinary harmony for the Dayton school board.
And even as the original Kids First members began to leave, their fundamental plans, and an accompanying unified vision, rolled along.
Extras
Kids First, the Gail Littlejohn-led alliance that included Doniece Gatliff, Tracy Rusch and Yvonne Isaacs, reached out effectively to the holdover board members after winning four board seats in 2001. Before long, the rest of the group — Clayton Luckie,
Tony Hill and Mario Gallin — had largely signed on to the Kids First reform plan and disagreements were hammered out in private, sometimes in one-on-one conversations.
When it came time to vote, for four years there was rarely less than a 7-to-0 result.
But what began as a small crack in the dam — Joe Lacey's defeat of Gatliff in the 2005 election — now is on the verge of pouring through the bricks with the defeat Tuesday of two Kids First loyalists.
Even so, Superintendent Percy Mack said last week the transition does not have to be contentious. All seven board members have not always agreed, even during the most harmonious times of the past six years, he said.
And the board, he said, benefitted when hard questions were raised.
"You have to have different points of view to cover all the bases," he said. "That was why we were successful over the years. Everyone's voice was heard and then you sit down and start making rational decisions."
Lacey and the newcomers to the board — Nancy Nerny and Sheila Taylor — share the board's view on many of the elements of the academic reform plan that has focused heavily on consistency of instruction, placed a priority on reading and math instruction and beefed up teacher training.
But on other issues, the three see things differently. Lacey and Nerny supported the May school levy but have questioned the district's budget process and some of its spending. Taylor voted against the levy and said last week she need more information before deciding if she would back a levy in 2008.
But Isaacs said the board is moving toward a new levy, and could seek one as early as May. An outside committee, led by business executives, could have the money raised to hire an outside consultant as early as next week to evaluate the district's business and spending practices.
The consultant's work would coincide with levy planning over the next four to six months, Isaacs said. Savings identified by the outside study would be used to reduce the levy's size.
Another question is the future of the $627 million school construction program, which just hired a new construction management team and has more than 10 schools in the works to open in the next two years.
Lacey, Nerny and Taylor have all expressed support for neighborhood groups that have questioned the plan to demolish some old schools, especially Wilbur Wright Middle School and the former Roosevelt and Julienne high schools.
David Bohardt, one of the two applicants to fill Gail Littlejohn's open board seat, is the president of Preservation Dayton and has engaged the district in talks about saving old schools in the past.
But last week, he said that while he personally believes preservation is important, the needs of the kids should be the primary concern in school construction.
"The question that is going to be important to me is how does it achieve a higher level of instruction and help our students achieve a higher level of academic performance and results," he said. "The preservation of existing buildings or new construction ought to be measured exclusively along those criteria."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2485 or selliott@DaytonDailyNews.com.
