Dayton Schools want to graduate more students ready for work, military or college

Other districts that have implemented the framework include Akron Public Schools, Louisville Public Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools. Ford NGL has been around since 2003 and 27 districts in the U.S. are partnered with Ford NGL, plus one district in Scotland.

David Lawrence, the Dayton Public schools superintendent, said after seeing Akron’s implementation of the project, he thought about what the district would look like after him.

“What I thought about was they have systems in place that move on no matter who’s the superintendent,” Lawrence said.

He noted incoming superintendents often have a new vision for the district.

“It’s always two steps forward, three steps back,” he said. “I said, what can we put in place that outlasts people?”

Lisa Minor, Dayton Public’s associate superintendent, said she was impressed when officials at Akron’s public school district told her they had gone through four superintendents in five years but still had a focus and vision.

The district held several meetings with Ford NGL the week of Oct. 7, including meeting with students, district leaders, teachers and more, representatives from Ford NGL said.

On Thursday, the district had a meeting with around 70 representatives from the business, nonprofit, faith and education communities in the area, where the district asked for some guidance on what they could do better in working with the community and what some of the positive and negative views of students coming out of the district were.

Participants said they were worried about the students’ academic progress in the district and felt some of the students didn’t understand the basics of workplace etiquette, but many had positive experiences in hiring Dayton Public graduates or former students.

Minor said the district has committed to Phase I and Phase II of the Ford NGL process. Phase I will cost $54,000 and Phase II is $98,000. There are five phases in all, but the district and Ford NGL have to complete the first two phases to see if the ideas will work in Dayton.