Dayton school board race down to 11 votes

Incumbents Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw retained their Dayton City Commission seats Tuesday, beating out Shenise Turner-Sloss and David Esrati.

Joseph is the longest serving member of the commission and Tuesday’s vote secured his fifth term with a little under 31 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial tally. Shaw was elected to his second term with 30 percent of the vote.

Turner-Sloss was the closest challenger, taking about 26 percent of the vote. Turner-Sloss is a logistics management specialist and neighborhood organizer who co-founded the grassroots group Neighborhoods Over Politics.

Esrati, an outspoken activist and small-business owner, had 13 percent of the vote.

Joseph, a logistician with Sierra Nevada Corp., said at a celebration with Shaw and other city officials that they are honored and will continue to work to improve the city.

“We’re getting better slowly day by day, and this is the team that’s done it. I’m really proud — actually, frankly I’m humbled — that you all and all of our fellow citizens have chosen me and Chris again to keep going on this work for another four years,” Joseph said.

Shaw, the owner of Shaw Cleaners, said he was “very excited about the work that we’ve been able to do and the trust that you the citizens of Dayton have put in us.”

“We’re going to continue to work on your behalf and bring this city to a better place. We are Dayton strong and we’re going to get stronger as we go,” Shaw said.

Dayton Public Schools board

Will Smith and Gabriela Pickett have won two of the three open seats on the Dayton School Board, according to the unofficial election results.

The tally left it too close to call the third seat. Joe Lacey was 11 votes ahead of Dion Sampson Sr., with 6,383 and 6,372 votes, respectively.

Smith took the most votes with 9,104 followed Pickett with 8,509 votes.

“I think it’s the result of the campaign we ran. We just want to get DPS back to being accountable, being transparent and doing anything we can do involve the entire Dayton community,” Smith said.

Pickett said she was “honored that the people of Dayton trusted me with the task of working for the improvement of the quality of education for our children.”

Lacey said he is happy to be in third with the votes and will have to see what the official results are.

“I’d rather be 11 votes ahead than 11 votes behind … we’ll see what happens,” Lacey said.

Sampson said “congratulations to the three that won.”

Jamie Rippey’s name was on the ballot because she withdrew from the race too late to have her name removed. Any votes cast for her will not be counted.

Issue 15

City of Dayton voters overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment that allowed city officers and employees to serve as volunteer firefighters. The change makes the city eligible to apply for more federal grants.

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