The three finalists for the DPS superintendent position are: Alesia Smith, chief of schools for Cincinnati Public Schools; H. Allen Smith II, school system leader from Mansfield, Texas (outside Dallas); and current DPS interim superintendent David Lawrence.
Students had interviewed the three candidates earlier Monday. The candidates were also able to visit schools in the Dayton Public district the same day.
Alesia Smith said she wanted to be in the buildings to listen to people. She said she wanted to increase student achievement, including strengthening the academic program, and she said that increasing student achievement will bring children back into the district.
“It’s always about going, looking at each school based on what they need,” she said.
Lawrence pointed to the academic plan the district has made under his leadership, which included assembling a team at the district level and working to improve items like literacy and math. The district also implemented learning communities this year, which are groups of teachers working together to improve their teaching.
“I don’t set foot in places and we go backward,” he said. “We always go forward.”
He said he wanted to see more academic improvement and more employee retention.
Allen Smith said he wanted to have consistent models, make sure students are challenged, improve relationships between the staff and the students and create a place of belonging.
“We have to create places of belonging, regardless of if you’re a long-term sub or if you’re a certified teacher, because these kids cannot continue to see a revolving door,” he said.
All three cited working with teachers on professional development, along with the culture of the schools as items the district needed to work on.
“Culture tops everything else,” Allen Smith said.
The candidates were asked what they would do to become invested in the school district and community for the long term.
Alesia Smith said like the many other jobs she’d had where she had to move, she would start by living in the community. Going to school events, meeting nonprofits who work with the schools and being in the neighborhood where students are all help, she said.
“Since I’m not from Dayton, I have to learn Dayton, and the only way to learn Dayton is to be in Dayton,” she said.
Lawrence pointed to his long history in the Dayton Public system, including graduating from Dunbar High School, teaching in the district and holding several positions, including as principal. Lawrence’s previous job before returning to Dayton Public was as a principal at a Northmont elementary school, a position he said he didn’t need to leave.
“I didn’t have to come back to Dayton Public Schools, certainly not at my age and given my experience,” he said. “But I saw this as unfinished business. And I wanted to come back and assemble the team that I knew could move us back in the direction of where we used to be.”
Allen Smith noted he had worked in Dayton Public before as an elementary teacher and said he has been reaching out to people in Dayton since he started going through the process.
He said he knew nothing about San Antonio, Texas, another community in which he worked, and was able to embed himself in the community.
Parents who attended said their top priority in a new superintendent included someone who could improve the academics of the district, but who also engaged with the students and community.
Allen Smith asked the parents what the district could do to improve equity for all the students. Parents said creating a culture of learning and success would help, as would engaging with the business community.
He also asked the parents if they thought the community was ready for a multi-pronged approach that changed the culture.
Some parents said yes.
“I will say the community is ready for that because they’ve done that before,” said Kamaria Dickerson, Thurgood Marshall High School parent and a cheerleading coach.
She noted that when she attended Dayton Public, her school allowed her to work part of the day and then attend school for the rest.
Others disagreed.
Chad Sloss, the parent of kids at several different schools including Horace Mann Elementary, pointed to years of disenfranchisement, and said Dayton “has been a city of corruption for quite some time.”
“If you’re able to continue getting money from a failed system, there’s no incentive to improve,” he said.
The public can give feedback about the superintendent finalists at the Dayton Public Schools website or via a questionnaire.
The Dayton school board has not publicly set a date to name the next superintendent.
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