Contract outlines salary for Dayton Public Schools superintendent

Current superintendent agreed to stay on for one more year due to board wanting more time to find her replacement.
Members of the Dayton School Board and staff sign the last beam to go up on the new press box at Welcome Stadium Thursday, April 6, 2023. from left, Victoria Jones, Hiwot Abraha, Will Smith, Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli, and Chrisondra Goodwine. MARSHALL GORBY\STAFF

Members of the Dayton School Board and staff sign the last beam to go up on the new press box at Welcome Stadium Thursday, April 6, 2023. from left, Victoria Jones, Hiwot Abraha, Will Smith, Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli, and Chrisondra Goodwine. MARSHALL GORBY\STAFF

Dayton Public Schools has agreed to pay superintendent Elizabeth Lolli $215,250 as a base salary through the contract the board approved last week, which will be in effect from Aug. 1 to July 31, 2024.

Lolli, who announced she was leaving the district earlier this year, agreed to stay on for an additional year after members of the school board found they would need more time to find her replacement, according to the school board members. Lolli planned on leaving the district after Aug. 1.

The contract was not immediately available last week because it was still being finalized.

Lolli cannot work at a different school in DPS’s boundaries for the next two years after her contract ends, according to her new contract.

Lolli’s extension was approved in a four to three vote during the meeting on April 18.

The board put out a request for proposals for search firms in February but re-issued another request on April 5. The deadline for that request is May 8.

Board president Chrisondra Goodwine said the board only got a handful of proposals the first time, most of which were not from search firms that worked with urban districts, and the board is hopeful to get a more competitive field this time around.

In the 2021-2022 school year, Lolli’s base salary was $205,000,according to her contract. At its Jan. 10 meeting, the DPS school board voted five to one in favor of granting Lolli a retroactive 5% increase to Aug. 1, 2022. Member Joe Lacey was the sole no vote at that meeting and board member Gabriella Pickett was not present.

During Lolli’s tenure at DPS, she has been publicly criticized for her decision making and others have praised her for the drastic changes under her leadership.

Lolli began hiring two teachers for grades one through three, where one teacher could teach math while the other taught reading, in 2021 using pandemic dollars. That lead to huge gains in reading and math in the 2021-2022 school year, according to internal district results, at the same time most students in the state were still struggling to read.

But parents and teachers have also criticized her, saying Dayton Public Schools is still significantly behind other districts in the state, and disagreeing with the decision to conduct DPS classes virtually until March of 2021.

Lolli was named superintendent in March 2018 and was named 2023 Ohio superintendent of the year. Lolli has been in education for 45 years, with 15 years as a superintendent in various districts.

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