“The program has struggled for the past four years,” Lolli said. “We haven’t quite met the metrics and goals, and we haven’t really met the needs of our young men.”
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Males of Color coordinator John Rogers could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His resignation from the coordinator position, effective June 30, was also approved by the school board Tuesday night.
Some goals the Males of Color office had cited in recent years included reducing absenteeism and expulsions, improving daily school conditions for students, and increasing their graduation rates and the number of students taking advanced classes.
The DPS Males of Color office, under Rogers, has worked with the city of Dayton’s separate-but-related Men of Color program, led by Commissioner Jeff Mims and others. Some DPS student leaders spoke to the Dayton Daily News in August about how the two programs have helped them.
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Lolli said a “restructuring team” has formed a general framework for how DPS wants to provide support for black male students, but she said there’s another meeting next week, “to put more meat on the bones of that framework.”
The school board approved the abolishment of Rogers’ coordinator position and the six Males of Color facilitator positions by a 5-0 vote Tuesday with Dion Sampson and Will Smith abstaining.
Before the board took action, Sampson suggested pulling the Males of Color items out for a separate vote, asking what would happen if the board rejected abolishing those positions.
Lolli responded that the board had to decide between restructuring the program around existing personnel or restructuring it around district need.
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School board vice president Jocelyn Rhynard said she was grateful the district was not getting rid of the effort in general, adding that many people had reached out to the board in support of the program.
Lolli said current Males of Color employees’ positions will end June 30. She said those staffers “have the right to reapply for the newly structured positions” or for other DPS openings. But she said, without going into detail, that some won’t fit the new structure of the program or qualify for other positions.
“In all honesty, some of them won’t be back,” she said.
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