The remaining three board members - Will Smith, Eric Walker and William Bailey - will be up for reelection in 2027.
Mario Gallin
Gallin was previously a member of the Dayton Board of Education for eight years but has not been on the board for more than a decade. She was first elected in 1999.
She is the president of the Dayton League of Women Voters and a member of the Walnut Hills Neighborhood Association.
She is currently a substitute teacher on a long-term assignment at West Carrollton Elementary.
Gallin said she chose to run to give Dayton voters a choice. But she has also criticized the board for a “culture of meanness” on the current board.
Her top three priorities are strengthening early education, transparency and accountability for the board, and engaging the community.
Gallin said she was disappointed in how the district handled the recent high school busing issue. She said the district’s leadership knew that busing high school students on the RTA could be an issue, and nothing was done until the last minute.
“I think we also need to bring parents and charter school high school administrators to the table,” she said.
Gallin said the district is moving academically in the right direction, but more needs to be done and the board should rely on experts to figure out how to improve.
Credit: Contributed/ UpDayton
Credit: Contributed/ UpDayton
Jamica Garrison
Garrison is a graduate of Dunbar High School and a co-founder of Neighborhoods Over Politics, a nonprofit focused on helping the city. She works for the Department of Defense as a deputy security assistance program manager.
Garrison said she was motivated to run for school board in part because she did not find a place for her kids in DPS. One of her sons, who is disabled, attends Alter High School because DPS’s support system seemed fractured, and the other attends DECA, which she felt was safer.
Her top three priorities are improving academics, promoting safe and inclusive schools, and supporting teachers and staff by providing them with additional resources.
Garrison said while the school district has improved, more is needed.
“I think that the needle can be moved more intentionally and needs to be moved more intentionally to be competitive,” she said.
Garrison said as for busing high school students, the district can lobby the statehouse and talk about the issues. She said the district should talk to charter and private schools, who were able to transoport their own after students were briefly banned from transferring downtown using a DPS-issued bus pass. DPS is able to give out bus passes now because of a court order.
Chrisondra Goodwine
Goodwine is the current president of the school board and a township administrator for Jefferson Twp. She graduated from Dayton Public Schools.
Goodwine touted the current board’s record on bringing more extracurriculars to the district, supporting competitive pay for staff and creating the district’s Alternative School.
Goodwine said she initially didn’t plan on running for more than one term but has since changed her mind.
“I feel like it’s my duty to stay on for one additional turn to continue that momentum,” she said.
If elected again, Goodwine said her top three priorities are growing the district’s own teachers, defending public education and enriching learning, especially in in K-8. She said she wants the community to provide more student opportunities and the district to decrease staff shortages and turnover.
Goodwine echoed other candidates by saying the district has improved academically but could see more improvement.
“I would like us to get there faster, but I do also understand all the other challenges that we have,” Goodwine said.
As for busing, Goodwine, an attorney, noted the board has filed a lawsuit against the state for implementing a law that students couldn’t transfer downtown with a district-purchased bus pass.
“We got to fight at this point,” she said.
Virgil Goodwine II
Virgil Goodwine, Chrisondra Goodwine’s brother, is the dean of humanities, digital media and performing arts at Wilberforce University. He is running on a joint ticket with his sister and current board member Joe Lacey.
Goodwine said he chose to run because of his son, who is a freshman at Ponitz High School.
His top three priorities are student success, growing extracurricular activities, supporting teachers and engaging the community.
He said as a former K-12 teacher, he can relate to buying classroom supplies from his own pocket or not being able to use the professional development being offered.
“I can relate to many of the issues that those who are teaching the field are currently having,” Goodwine said.
Goodwine also helps with various band programs around the district.
One of his strengths is bringing everyone to the table, he said, from students to administrators.
He said the district could continue to improve academics by bringing in wraparound services for students, including mental health, better transportation and equitable programing.
He said he felt it was “unfortunate” that the state mandated students couldn’t transfer through the downtown bus hub. Ways to fix it included proposing new legislation and thinking outside of the box, Goodwine said.
Ken Hayes
Hayes was previously a candidate for school board in 2023, but lost. He is an associate professor of English, the writing program coordinator and the Faculty Senate chair at Central State University.
Hayes said he chose to run again because of ongoing communication issues he found as a parent to two DPS students.
“As long as those weaknesses persist, I think that there’s room for me to continue running,” Hayes said.
His top priority is improving communication. Hayes added he wants to improve mental health resources for both students and staff and stop relying so heavily on standardized testing results.
Hayes said the district’s report cards have improved, but more can be done.
“You can have the best policy proposal, the best program proposal, but if you don’t have the people in place to communicate it and work through it together, it’s not going to work well,” Hayes said.
Hayes said the board could have communicated better during a dispute this summer when teachers found they would be paid later than initially thought.
Hayes said the state law has tied the board’s hands and the district should work to overturn the law. In the meantime, he said busing needs to be safe and consistent.
Joe Lacey
Lacey was first elected to the board in 2005. He was defeated in 2017 but won election again in 2021. He has 16 years of board experience.
He is a DPS parent and the head of cash management with the Montgomery County Treasurer’s Office. Lacey is running on a joint ticket with Virgil and Chrisondra Goodwine.
“Over the past 16 years, this is one of the best boards I’ve worked with, I believe,” Lacey said.
Lacey highlighted the board’s work to add extracurriculars and said these have helped kids to attend school, and the addition of an internal auditor and business manager.
The district’s enrollment has been increasing in the last two years, Lacey noted, something that hasn’t happened in decades, and the district needs to consider where to put them all.
Lacey said while the district has moved the needle on academic performance, more should be done to improve.
Lacey said he thinks the RTA system for busing high school students is good as students can use the pass to get to work. But he said the city needs to work on safety around the bus hubs.
“That’s the heart of the city of Dayton and it needs to be addressed by the city of Dayton,” Lacey said.
Jocelyn Rhynard
Rhynard was first elected to the board in 2017. She is a consultant, volunteer and the parent of four children who have attended Dayton Public Schools.
Rhynard follows legislation and advocates for DPS at both the state and federal level.
“I just felt that I still needed to continue my service to Dayton by staying in that role,” Rhynard said. “So I decided to run for one more term.”
Rhynard said the district has seen improvements in test scores since when she was first elected in 2017. She credited teachers, staff and adopting the science of reading early.
Rhynard said the district needs to invest in staff to see more academic improvement.
Rhynard said the busing issue stems from an unfunded mandate from the state that DPS has to transport private and charter school student, something she said she would continue to advocate at the state level.
She said she wants a plan for next year if the law that says students can’t transfer through downtown on a DPS-issued bus pass remains.
Rhynard will be recognized as a Master Board Member in spring 2026 by the Ohio School Boards Association, one of the highest honors of school board members in the state.
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