Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > May > 12 > Entry
The superintendent shuffle
On Friday I spoke with Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack about his experience interviewing last week in Columbia, S.C. The bottom line was that Mack didn’t see anything during his visit to discourage him and he is still in the running.
Mack said he had an enjoyable trip. He said he was impressed by the district, by the seriousness of the school board and especially by the the thoughtful questions and good attitude of the regular folks who came to a meet-and-greet with the three finalists. And he continued to find much in common between Dayton and Columbia schools.
Handicapping Mack’s chances is a tricky game, as we learned last year when he appeared to be the top candidate in Mobile, Ala., but then was not among the final two choices. The Columbia school board has a big budget hearing Tuesday, after which they are expected to get serious about choosing among the three superintendent candidates. We may hear something by the end of the week.
In Sunday’s DDN, the editorial board weighed in on the recent consultant’s report on Dayton schools and noted how Mack’s flirtation with Columbia might affect the chances of an expected fall levy campaign.
The editorial notes that the timing of a levy in November — even if it is a smaller one this time around — is not ideal for the district. The economy is probably going to be even worse this time than last year, for instance.
And if Mack departs, the district will have to make its case to voters without its most visible and most trusted voice. Who might be leading the charge for the levy? Well, the good money is on Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite to quickly replace Mack if he departs. But Brathwaite is not sitting still. She has been interviewing for superintendent jobs for more than a year and an eagle-eyed GOTB reader noticed that Brathwaite interviewed last week for superintendent of Princeton schools near Cincinnati. (Note: Princeton has an interesting list of seven finalists that includes Douglas Lantz of Franklin and Valerie Browning from Greenview.) We also know Treasurer Stan Lucas — another key figure when it comes to winning public trust — applied a few months back at Lakota.
But for now, let’s suppose Mack and Brathwaite were to leave this summer. Who would be the face of the district come levy time? An interim superintendent? (There is not an obvious internal candidate after Brathwaite.) Or would the board conduct a superintendent search while launching a levy campaign at the same time?
Those are not great options.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Comments
By lou
May 16, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this
James, about the same percentages of Americans vote in the general election. What does that say?By James
May 15, 2008 1:33 PM | Link to this
The Teachers Union, DEA, re-elected the same President with less than a third of the teachers voting for her! This is truly amazing. Pat Lynch won re-election over challenger Juanita Colleen with a scant 400 votes! Is that a strong signal of internal non-support or what?? Is it even a majority? The organizaion really has problems in the horizion if that is all ot the support that they can muster for their leader. The DEArepresents more that 1,200 teachers. Somethhing is seriously wrong when only 400 teachers voted for their president. I question their election process. Did the teachers even know that elections were being conducted?By Terri
May 13, 2008 9:24 PM | Link to this
If you pay a super. according to student scores you would never be able to get anyone to take a job in most of the urban districtsin the country. I would agree with paying bonuses based on test scores and other positives.By Old Teach
May 13, 2008 6:17 PM | Link to this
Charterschoolhater, No, to the best of my knowledge,Jane Rafal was a teacher (dynamite)then was principal at E.J. Brown school back in its heyday.By charterschoolhater
May 13, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this
What a novel idea. Pay the superintendent based upon performance. By the way why is the school board not doing this? I have a question for old teach. Is Jane Rafel the former principal at Loos? If she is I will have a later comment.By Laura
May 13, 2008 11:20 AM | Link to this
Schoolwatch has it all wrong. The people who need to be responsible for student graduation rates are the parents. No one else has the control over these students. It takes a parent to sign permission to allow a student to drop out of school. It is also the responsible person to make sure their child actually attends school. If my high school son were to start skipping school I would take a leave of absence from my job or whatever I had to do to make sure he was at school when he was supposed to be. A large number of parents of DPS students do not work so why can’t they make sure their child is at school? Place the blame where it belongs, and quit blaming the school district, superintendent, teachers or union for things over which they have no control.By School watch
May 12, 2008 8:10 PM | Link to this
Dayton needs to pay any superintendent based on the number of graduates. This is the only way to get an out of control union to focus on the education of our children, not the personal wealth generating machine that Dayton has become.By Calvin
May 12, 2008 12:21 PM | Link to this
Gee. Do you think maybe DPS should have gone back in November for the levy instead of letting Sinclair slide their bloated request through? I would say goodbye to the next levy. Maybe they should join up with the Human Services levy people.By Old Teach
May 12, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this
I would like to see Dr. Jane McGee-Rafal become the interim (or permanent) superintendent. She was the superintendent in Warren Ohio until she retired. She is currently working as the director of elementary schools in DPS. She is committed to Dayton.