Esrati

What Dayton Public Schools don’t want you to know

The buildings are in turmoil.
Libby Lolli’s last minute deck chair re-arrangement experiment is failing. Bad.
Shuffling most of the building leadership has caused schools that were previously running moderately well- are now in chaos. Most significantly is Thurgood Marshall High School, where Sharon Goins used to run a pretty tight ship. Teachers assaulted, arrested, students OD’ind, guns in the building are just the start.
Goins got promoted to some downtown desk job- kids suffer. Even Stivers is seeing staff leave- voluntarily. After years of success under Erin Dooley, Lolli thought she’d “promote” Dooley- to run all the high schools. Problem is, Dooley only knows how to run a school of privilege- where you can toss loser students at will. When things fall apart in a school of last resort, not much she knows how to do.

At Dunbar- once the pinnacle of sports in the state for both Football and Basketball, Lolli has managed to screw it up so bad, the school has a football team that hasn’t won a game. Which might be a good thing, since they’d have to forfeit all three games they’ve already played, where an ineligible player was on the team and playing (straight F’s). Let’s not forget the head butting incident where a Dunbar player decided to give a ref a concussion…. are you missing the Powell’s yet? Or Coach/AD Pullen? Nothing but disasters since they took the fall for LaMark Baker.

Speaking of which, he’s no longer working as a truancy officer. Mark Baker, with no administrators license, and no classroom experience, just got a promotion- to become the assistant principal to the rookie principal at Ponitz, which is also in turmoil.

But, wait, there’s more…

No, you’re not going to get it here. I’m busy running for the Dayton City Commission and fighting lawsuits against abuses of power by our local government and don’t have time to do the job of the Dayton Day-old News in uncovering the plot to destroy Dayton Public Schools so Tom Lasley and his friends at the Fordham foundation can take over the public schools assets and stock them full of less qualified “teachers” to run charter schools and siphon off public dollars into private pockets. That’s the only thing that could possibly make sense in allowing Lolli to keep her job.

Claiming victory as not being the worst district in the state (there are three that “scored” below) is a joke- and that they would have escaped “takeover” once again- thanks to the work of a few administrators who actually do their job (not naming names because Lolli would probably fire them or move them).

What a real investigator would look at is the incredible amounts of money going to Frost Todd Brown to defend the crazy number of HR related lawsuits due to Lolli’s incompetence in HR and the hiring of friends of Dr. Sheila Burton and Treasurer Hiwot Abraha to provide “HR consulting services.”

And, if you’re wondering who to vote for come November for the DPS board- you have 3 seats open (McManus, Taylor and Walker are not willing to stay on this crazy board under the idiot Harris) and four candidates – meaning only one will not be elected. Voters should vote for Dion Sampson, Will Smith and Gabriella Pickett and not vote to return Joe Lacey to the board. Joe should be under investigation for why he refused to remove Adil Baguirov from the Board when this blog identified that Baguirov didn’t live in the district, and committed voter fraud by claiming a residence that wasn’t his to vote. Nevermind the insane deals Baguirov managed on his own to sell prime real estate to CareSource for half the market value while one of his businesses was a CareSource vendor- and the bus deal where we bought 10 year warranties for 7 year buses- from vendors Baguirov did business with in his trucking firm. Also- throw in the fact that Joe is rude as hell to everyone. I won’t link to my video about him…. yet…. but, there you have it.

Waiting to see who the DEA endorses. I sat through their endorsement meeting on Monday. They are interviewing school board candidates next Monday. Last time they endorsed in a city commission race they only endorsed Jeff Mims and didn’t endorse Joey Williams who had served on the board of Ed and is a DPS grad.
Here are my answers to their questions in case you’re interested:

• Why do you feel you are the most qualified candidate?

Because I actually have a mind of my own- and a platform that addresses the number one reason our community is struggling: poverty. We can’t keep subsidizing rich corporations on the backs of the working poor in the name of “economic development.”
Giving tax breaks to companies like GE and Emerson, selling off the Fairgrounds to Premier and UD where it will never generate tax revenue for our schools (instead of to a rich suitor who would have paid taxes) and doing deals where we buy buildings with no public use- for half a million bucks- to sell for $10 and throw in Garden Station for free.
I believe the renaissance I’ve been a part of in South Park is an indication of my understanding of bottom up value adding and building a sustainable community as a model for the whole city.

• In time of shrinking revenues and budget cutbacks, decision must be made regarding budgetary priorities. Please outline your budgetary priorities as specifically as possible.

We need to restructure the property tax mechanism to stop penalizing people for what their neighbors do, and for improving their properties in the City of Dayton which is grossly undervalued due to systemic racism and poor management for decades. With the new “Opportunity Zone” tax breaks – we need to attract real investment in our community to create affordable housing and create new pathways to escaping poverty. Instead of giving away tax dollars to private companies, I believe in investing in empowering our poorest residents by switching RTA to being free (less than 15% of their revenue comes from fares- and by the time you subtract admin and accounting costs it probably breaks down to less than 8% – which could be made back by selling advertising). The buses are already running- why not have them full?

The reason for shrinking revenues is because we no longer offer a community worth investing in. We have to turn that around. Incentivize affordable housing options including co-housing and tiny houses and SRO (single room occupancy). Return the police to full strength by requiring permits for private police equal to the salary of one full time officer, and start working collaboratively with neighborhoods to create reinvestment opportunities.

• If elected what are your top five objectives?

A safe jail. We can’t send people to a jail where a minor misdemeanor gets a death penalty before court.

Stop subsidizing competition to established local businesses with tax dollars (Troll Pub- prime example).
Eliminate private police forces.
Eliminate tax penalties for improving your home- and stop allowing neighbors values to determine your home’s value.

Work toward regionalization of government. We have too many elected officials, too many commissions, boards, police chiefs and “economic development” officials rearranging deck chairs on the titanic.

• When you are making a controversial decision, how will you be influenced?

Of course, I’ll just ask the Mayor how to vote and follow her, just like Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw. The “Culture of Corruption” doesn’t exist and Dayton’s working just fine.

I believe in actual open meeting presentations and public analysis. I’ll rely on the city manager and the staff to make compelling presentations that are grounded in solid methodology and research to guide us. I’m being elected to be a director to a board, not to run the city. Running the city is the city manager’s job. I think we need to start seeing how smart a team we have getting paid to run this city- and to have public hearings where the public can weigh in, for as long as it takes to come to the right decision.

• What do you see as the role and responsibility of someone on City Commission on effective administration of City Government? What do you think the relationship should be between the COMMISSION, Mayor, other city employees and the administration of Dayton Public Schools?

See answer to 4 for my role on the commission. As to the relationship with DPS- according to state law, I’ve got zero influence on DPS other than the ability to grant bullshit tax abatements to the rich to the detriment of our school funding.

I believe in working to make sure we have equal access to the internet for all in our community- and will work hard to make sure that all DPS students aren’t denied that resource due to poverty. I’ll also work hard to bring back supervised youth sports and afterschool activities that don’t have financial barriers to entry.

• What are your views on collective bargaining?

I’m a strong supporter of unions, however, I’m not a big fan of having 9 bargaining units in a single organization. At some point, people have to work together. I believe that both the DPS board and the Dayton City Commission should have a labor representative sitting as a member.

• What would you recommend as the best avenue to ensure the involvement of all stakeholders in decision-making?

First and foremost, all agendas being fully available with support documentation online in an ADA compatible format, along with public commenting ability.
Second- strict adherence to Ohio’s open meetings laws. No more round-robins, endless subcommittees, and “work-sessions.” Public bodies must meet in public- at the assigned times- to do the public business- and it must be recorded on video and posted along with the documentation.
Public speakers must be treated with respect, and the three-minute time limits be tossed out the window if the citizen has valid and documented issues.

Also- any citizen who does speak, must be guaranteed a response in writing by the time of the next meeting of the body- even if it’s to tell them it will take longer.

And lastly, we need to reduce and refine the number of public bodies in Montgomery County. Too many Chiefs, too few Indians.

• What is the single biggest challenge to the City of Dayton and the Dayton Public Schools?
  
  Poverty, and lack of mobility caused by institutionalized racism.
• Please list any organization with which you are affiliated to or belong, those who sponsor or endorse you and those from which you have requested and/or received endorsements or recommendations.

Member: DAV, Historic South Park Inc., AAF Cincinnati, Elected precinct captain Montgomery County Democratic Party.

I have not asked for any endorsements or recommendations, I have screened for AFSCME, just as I’ve screened for DEA. No other invites.

Categories: Local Politics