The two men spoke with Dayton Daily News about their greatest accomplishments during their decades on the school board.
Roer, who retired from his career as a pediatrician three months ago, said it was “just a good time” for him to step away from the board and to let others who have an interest in serving on it be elected.
He said he considers among his top accomplishments helping ban smoking, soda and junk food in schools to create a healthier environment. Also among his top accomplishments, Roer said, are overseeing school expansions and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was an accomplishment because there were a lot of difficult times and difficult residents, a lot of people that didn’t have full faith in the massing situation and the health of the community, and (I was) trying to be both a school board member and a pediatrician in the healthcare area, trying to keep as many people as safe as possible, as well as happy as possible,” Roer said.
Doll, who was first elected to the board in 1991, opted to not run in 2013 to give others the chance to serve and became the athletic boosters president.
He rejoined the board in May 2017 when the board appointed him to serve out the remaining term of a member who resign.
Doll said his greatest accomplishments in those decades of school board service include ensuring the district had the financing to not only operate the schools, “but also to pass levies or bonds so we could build and improve the buildings.”
“Our buildings are really old, but we’ve done a really great job of keeping them up, getting the technology ... because that’s really important to the community and to the district,” Doll said. “Our school buildings are used during the school year from six o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock at night. Community members use it all the time, sports (groups) and clubs, so they get a great amount of use. It’s important that we keep them up.”
He said another accomplishment was ensuring the community realized that school board members are a liaison with the community, but not the one’s running a school district.
“The community will talk with us or send us emails and then we take that information to the superintendent and report it ... and it’s (the superintendent’s) job to run the school district and do what they think is necessary,” Doll said. “A lot of school boards fail because some of the members try to run the school district.”
Doll also said helping the school district achieve excellence was a major accomplishment of his tenure on the board.
“Our community demanded excellence and we had to make sure whatever we were doing, we try to meet the goals and demands of our community,” he said.
Both men said the district has changed greatly since they first joined the school board. Roer said think the biggest change he’s seen is financial.
“I think there’s been a general feeling, especially in the last year or so, that public education isn’t very high on the local or national agenda, and trying to keep public schools in the forefront when the vast majority of the people in this country, in this district, go to public schools,” he said. “The funding issue with vouchers and obviously trying to deal with the property tax issues and levies, that’s going to change, and it’s going to become more and more difficult to continue to fund public education at the level it’s been funded at.”
Doll said “the way the legislature wants to take over school districts is really different” from when he first was elected.
“I’m really afraid and concerned that they (legislators) want to get rid of the property tax,” he said. “If they get rid of property taxes, and we have to depend on the state for all financing, there will not be any local control of school district, it will all be controlled by Columbus.“
Doll said he will try to continue to be involved “with community events and supporting the district as much as they’ll let me.”
Roer said he plans to keep busy by being chair of the Special Wish Foundation and Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine Academy of Medicine. He also serves on the Wright State University Foundation Board of Trustees.
“My focus has always been in terms of education, in terms of children, and those focuses ... I hope to continue that, but probably at a little bit slower pace.”
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