UPDATE: Final Dayton school board seat decided

Wick is a school board incumbent who ran as a write-in candidate because of problems with the petitions she prepared to run for office. Wick was listed Wednesday with 2,184 votes, ahead of Ken Hayes (855), Ronnee’ Tingle (775) and Eugene Jackson (531).

Elections officials spent hours early Wednesday going over thousands of write-in votes, after tabulating the normal ballots Tuesday night.

ORIGINAL STORY

Three of the four available seats on Dayton’s school board have been decided in Tuesday’s election, but the last one will not be clear until overnight.

Chrisondra Goodwine, Joe Lacey and Jocelyn Rhynard — the three candidates who were named on the ballot — all were elected, according to unofficial final results from the Montgomery County Board of Elections. Goodwine was listed with 9,223 votes, Lacey 9,207 and Rhynard 8,750.

The fourth seat will go to one of the four write-in candidates — Karen Wick, Ken Hayes, Eugene Jackson and Ronnee’ Tingle. There were a combined 4,839 votes cast for those four, but as of 11 p.m., the Montgomery County Board of Elections had not broken those votes down.

County elections officials planned to start reviewing those hand-written names late Tuesday night, and said they expected to have results sometime overnight.

The school board has seven members, and they serve four-year terms. Board members Mohamed Al-Hamdani and William Harris chose not to run for re-election this term and will step down in January. Board members Will Smith, Gabriela Pickett and Dion Sampson are halfway through their terms and will be up for re-election in 2023.

Dayton Public Schools has a windfall of over $130 million in federal COVID funds and is deciding how to use them to move the school district forward.

Goodwine, an attorney, cited employee satisfaction and investment in extracurricular activities as her two biggest issues. The former DPS substitute teacher and coach said sports, music, after-school clubs and other activities keep kids involved and also give them incentive to work hard in school.

Lacey, a government finance professional and DPS parent who previously served 12 years on Dayton’s school board, pointed to district finances as his top issue. He worried about whether the district can sustain teacher staffing levels, because many new hires are paid with one-time federal money.

Rhynard, a current school board member and parent of four DPS students, said the district “lost a lot of ground” because of COVID disruptions, so academic recovery is the most important issue today.