DAYTON — Parents interviewed candidates who want to lead our area’s biggest school Monday night.
As reported on News Center 7 at 11, Dayton Public Schools invited parents to sit down face-to-face with the three superintendent candidates.
Dr. David Lawrence has served as interim superintendent since last summer.
The interviews happened Monday night inside the Dayton Public Schools building downtown.
The district said it has about 12,000 students — and parents, as well as student, feedback is important when choosing its next leader.
The three candidates include Lawrence, Chief of School for Cincinnati Public Schools Dr. Alesia Smith, and H. Allen Smith II an educator from Mansfield, Texas.
Parents asked questions such as “share some examples of how you would become invested in the school district and the community for the long-term” and “explain three key initiatives you would implement.”
From improving the graduation rate to dealing with district busing problems, parents prepped the candidates with their concerns.
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“I want somebody who thinks about the kids first and that would be the main thing as a parent,” one parent told the candidates.
Alesia was the first to be interviewed, one thing she wants to look at is how effective the DPS curriculum is.
“I need to make sure that what we are using is what we need to be using for all of our students,” Alesia said.
Lawrence said he wants to work on keeping teachers and staff.
“I want to retain plumbers, I want to retain carpenters, I want to retain bus drivers. We got about 130 of them. I don’t want to have to keep recruiting bus drivers,” he said.
H. Allen told parents he wants to spend time looking at the district’s culture before making changes.
“If we get the culture right, everything else falls in line pretty quickly,” he said.
Last year DPS’ graduation rate was 74 percent.
The panel interviews of the candidates will continue Tuesday.
DPS and its search firm hope to choose the next superintendent before this school year ends.
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