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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > August > 09 > Entry
Eight years of upheaval
(Jackson School demolition in 2003)
I think often about kids like Aire’Anna Stevens — kids who were in kindergarten on the day I started covering Dayton schools in the Spring of 1999.
Aire’Anna was featured in my story Tuesday on the first day of school in Dayton. In eight years of education, she’s attended six different schools and every one of them closed after she left.
How did that happen? Aire’Anna and her classmates have rode along while the district has traveled a bumpy route over the course of their academic careers.
The day I started work, the school board was swirling in controversy. Just days before a state audit report unveiled a previously undisclosed, multi-million dollar deficit and the board was already moving toward what would be an unpleasant ousting of then-Superintendent James Williams.
Also that year, the first charter school opened, and in short order Dayton became one of the nation’s hottest charter school markets.
Those combined trends — a leadership vacuum at the top and intense financial pressure from enrollment losses to charters — created quite a bit of turmoil for those first five years I was writing about Dayton. As interesting as the debates and trends were to cover, down in the trenches the kids lived through a lot of uncertainty.
More than 15 schools have since closed — some because of enrollment declines, some to make way for new schools that will be built through the district’s massive construction program.
Kids in Dayton tend to be mobile anyway. It’s never been unusual to find a kid who’s been to lots of different schools. And the tend to roll with the punches. It was interesting to me, for instance, that it was the adults, not the kids, who seemed most affected by the closing of Roth Middle School last year.
Even so, that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. School board member Mario Gallin told me recently she hoped the district’s move toward neighborhood schools would have a calming effect on kids’ lives over the next several years. Perhaps it will mean more kids spend more of their growing up attending schools near their homes that are, she hopes, more connected to their communities. That will be something to watch for as we move ahead.
Meanwhile, there will always be Aire’Anna and her classmates, the kids who’ve been bounced from school to school and for whom these Titanic changes in Dayton were very much up close and personal. Anytime you wonder how much what’s happening at the top politically in a school district really affects the kids at their desks, think of them.
(Photo credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, My Favorite Posts
Comments
By JRingo
August 13, 2006 10:09 AM | Link to this
KISS! For anyone who does not understand this, keep it simple stupid. Schools have gone from basic teaching, to glorified babysitting, or organizations attempting to best the other with drafting talented sports individuals. Let’s get back to teaching the children the basics, and OH, maybe some right from wrong.By Scott Elliott
August 10, 2006 6:22 PM | Link to this
The district’s high schools will remain open choice. Any kid can choose any high school, and the district has moved to expand its portfolio of HS options for kids to choose from with DECA, Col. White Academic Magnet, DTDHS, the new career tech HS coming soon, etc. The city will be completely zoned for neighbhorhood elementary schools. Yet, some specialty elementary schools will remain. For instance, there will be one Montessori school, located downtown, for parents interested in that option. Same with the boys and girls schools. These are options created by parents who want something other than the typical neighborhood school. They fill up first come, first served. One specialty I am unsure about is arts. For instance, Lincoln, an elementary school with an arts theme, will become Cleveland Elementary School this fall, serving a neighborhood. I think they are keeping the arts theme. But I wonder if parents who live outside the neighborhood and want the arts programs will see their opportunity diminished if they can only get leftover seats not claimed by kids who live near the school. I’ll have to ask about that.By Terri
August 10, 2006 4:40 PM | Link to this
I’m curious about those neighborhood schools mentioned by Mario. How can a district espouse neighborhood schools and then open “specialty” schools such the two single-gender schools, the Tech school, Arts magnet schools, DECA, the academic magnets, etc?By Mary
August 10, 2006 4:20 PM | Link to this
Craig, remember to include the teachers’ unions and school district leadership as part of the political football kickers along with elected politicians. As Joe Williams pointed out in his book “Cheating our kids - How politics and greed ruin education”, school districts carry a lot of clout and work very hard in getting many politicians elected and also use children as a political football. All school levies are packaged as “for the children”, then see where the money goes - usually into the pockets of adults.By craig fourman
August 10, 2006 9:22 AM | Link to this
The problem deswcribed in this post is not unique to urban areas, suburbs like Fairborn and small cities like SPringfield face similar challenges for similar reasons. Consistency in elementary education is a vital piece of the micro puzzle, and to be honest the only piece that has the majority influence of local control. The testing mania forced by federal and state politcians, the intractability of politicians in solving the funding issues, the weakening of families by social and economic decisions and forces beyond the control of any school board and the public uncertainty of the future direction of education in this country, which is also an affectation of our desires to use educating children as a political football in Columbus and Washington are macro issues that can only be resolved through elections. We need to vote the bums out, regardless of party, and start from scratch. Alas, it is much easier to tear down educational institutions, like school buildings, than political institutions like congress (state and federal). Perhaps we are trying to educate the wrong generation first.By Oldprof
August 9, 2006 9:05 PM | Link to this
I’d hope that all of the teachers who resist uniform curriculum—the ones who insist that teaching is “an art” and they must have absolute free reign in the schoolroom—are paying close attention to Aire’Anna’s story. Dr. Mack is absolutely right when he cites this situation as the reason for coordinating curricula in the early grades throughout the district. Most of the faculty is on board with this idea and is working hard (and seeing results!) but there are those few holdouts who haven’t bought in to the value of consistency.By Mary
August 9, 2006 1:03 PM | Link to this
Some educational stability would be nice for children, including Aire’Anna, but other thoughts give a strange perspective. Are we hoping educational stability solves family and job instabilities - probably won’t. I also compare Aire’Anna’s woes to those of children in other countries, such as starvation in Africa and war, death and destruction in Iraq and Lebanon. Does that make Aire’Anna’s problems superficial - no. A quality education might be the key to solving a lot of problems.