But the Senate budget bill completely ignored the school takeover issue, dropping previous plans to include a tweaked version of the takeover process requiring a consultant and a transformation board to work with local school leaders.
JUNE STORY: Senate weighs new school takeover proposal
This week, a conference committee made up of House and Senate members must reconcile the differences between their budget bills and send a single document to Gov. Mike DeWine.
Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said the conference committee isn’t limited to repeal or status quo options, and could still end up with a wide range of possibilities on the school takeover front. She said it’s also not impossible that the legislature could delay its decision and come back during its July-August recess to pass a separate bill on the takeover issue.
“We feel there’s a lot to work out,” Lehner said. “Basically what we’re making sure is that there’s space to work that out.”
In the meantime, Dayton Public Schools leaders keep plowing forward — rebuilding teaching staffs at struggling schools, voting on several new principals and special education staff at Tuesday’s school board meeting, and launching an attendance campaign for the start of school.
“We are strategically acting to improve our schools,” school board President William Harris said in recent comments to the Senate Education Committee. “We know what has to be done, and as the policy-making body for the Dayton schools, the school board is acting to implement the right programs and interventions for our students.”
MARCH: Variety of state leaders criticize school takeover law
State takeover has been one of many topics of social media discussion among district parents. Cameron Walker, mother of a Dayton high school student, said parents have been concerned about their own children’s issues, but the possibility of state takeover is becoming more center-stage.
“People want to know what is the nature of state takeover,” she said. “Is it a good thing or a bad thing?”
Walker works with Racial Justice Now, an advocacy group involved in education. She said while some residents are frustrated that the people chosen to lead Dayton schools haven’t made more progress, there’s no guarantee a state takeover would be better.
“There has been no proof or data showing that state takeover is beneficial for school districts,” Walker said. “What it does ultimately is disenfranchise the community voice and the parent voice … We lose any opportunity to help change the dynamics that could support our children in the classroom.”
Three northeast Ohio school districts have been taken over by Academic Distress Commissions in the past few years. East Cleveland is new to the process, but Youngstown and Lorain schools have not made sufficient progress over multiple years to get out of takeover status.
2018: Dayton schools misunderstood takeover timeline
There was widespread agreement this spring — from teachers, the state superintendent and legislators of both parties — that the existing format didn’t work well.
But Krish Mohip, the outgoing CEO of Youngstown schools’ takeover leadership, told the Senate last month that his district has made progress the past three years in raising test scores, reducing suspensions, and closing achievement gaps based on race, disability and other demographics.
Currently a school district that meets the criteria for three straight overall F’s on the state report card is taken over by an Academic Distress Commission. The state superintendent picks the majority of that group, and those members then choose a CEO who is given broad powers to reshape the district.
Based on back-to-back bad report cards, Dayton Public Schools would face takeover under that model if its upcoming overall state report card grade in September is an F.
Harris told the Senate that he thought a takeover would be disastrous for Dayton schools.
“Bringing about high achievement requires a painstaking commitment to excellence and a deep understanding of local conditions,” he said. “Expecting outsiders to understand the reasons why some of our schools are failing is an impossible and unrealistic task and has the potential for compromising so much of the good that is real or emergent in the school district.”
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About the Path Forward
Our team of investigative reporters digs into what you identified as pressing issues facing our community. That led us to form the Path Forward project in June 2018. Our team of investigative reporters seeks solutions to these problems by investigating how to improve Dayton Public Schools. For more of our coverage, go to DaytonDailyNews.com/pathforward or join one of our groups on Facebook.
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