Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said the district was sad to see Sullivan go but understood his desire to “return home” to Indiana, where his family remains.
LAST YEAR: Dayton schools hire new associate superintendent
In his brief time, Sullivan oversaw DPS’ career tech education, athletics, public outreach, and diversity and inclusion, among other departments. At a school board meeting three weeks ago, he presented plans for a restructured Males of Color office serving Black students.
Sullivan could not be reached for comment. He worked for more than a decade in Indianapolis Public Schools and ran an alternative education program in Muncie schools immediately before coming to DPS.
Lolli said Sullivan’s duties will be divided up among herself, associate superintendent Shelia Burton, and the district’s five “chiefs” of its various departments, who sit just below the associate superintendents in the organizational chart.
Recent DPS changes
** Latricia Milhouse, who was the district’s chief of human resources, resigned in April after just four months on the job to return to Wright State University’s HR department.
Lolli said Tuesday that Burton is overseeing DPS’ human resources department right now, and the district is in the process of posting a new associate superintendent of human resources position. That would appear to overlap the former roles of Sullivan and Milhouse and might lead to some administrative restructuring.
2018 STORY: Davie leads improvement plans at five schools
** Lynsa Davie, the district’s chief of special projects, has resigned after two years with DPS. Davie oversaw an effort to turn around five lower-performing schools, in partnership with a University of Virginia group. But DPS canceled the remainder of that UVA contract in April, citing low return on investment.
** Thomas Gray resigned as Dayton schools’ executive director of transportation in March, just eight months after he was hired. His second in command, Torronce Jackson, has been interim director since, as the district works on another revamp of its busing system with RTA.
** On Tuesday, the school board hired former Sinclair women’s basketball coach Victoria Jones as DPS’ new athletic director. Jones spent the past two years as AD in the Euclid school district near Cleveland.
Shawna Welch had taken over as Dayton’s athletic director two years ago after the district faced OHSAA punishments for Dunbar game-rigging and eligibility scandals. Welch, a longtime school principal, will return to that role in the fall, this time at E.J. Brown Middle School.
2018 STORY: Welch leads revamped athletic department
** Also Tuesday, the board hired Laura Collier, former director of student services for Centerville Schools, as executive director of policy and procedures for DPS’ Office of Exceptional Children. Lolli said the district is expecting a significant state report on DPS’ special education programs in the coming months that may require changes, and Collier will lead planning, training and implementation related to the state report.
** As with most years, DPS will have some shuffling of school principals. The school board this month hired Lloyd Knight as principal and Sheila Calko as assistant principal of Thurgood Marshall High School. Knight has been a principal at Chicago and Indianapolis charter schools, and Calko just finished her first year as assistant principal at Youngstown Mooney, a Catholic high school.
Bert Seard will move from Meadowdale principal to Thurgood Marshall assistant principal. Ryan Rismiller, currently principal of Graham High School in Urbana, has been hired as the new Meadowdale principal.
Eastmont assistant principal Kristal Etter will take over as principal of Kemp Elementary, replacing the outgoing Stacy Maney, and Channey Goode will move from E.J. Brown to become Louise Troy principal, replacing Akisha Shehee.
2019 STORY: Change in principals a near-constant at DPS
It appears the only three DPS schools that have kept the same principal from spring 2018 to fall 2020 are Horace Mann (Sheri Moss), Fairview (Caitlin Smith) and Belle Haven (Joy Stokes).
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