DAYTON-The Dayton School Board affirmed Zac Fabian, heard survey results, and discussed the current 90-day plan during the work session December 1. The meeting was held by ZOOM access with all but one board member (Fred White) represented at the meeting.

Fabian took his oath of office affirming his appointment to the vacancy left by Justin Jaech and will serve the remainder of the term until 2023.

On the first topic of the Strategic Plan Superintendent Guy Strot told the Board, “I have nothing on that tonight other than it is still ongoing, and I wanted to wait until January until the next work session when we have the three new board members.” Besides Fabian, those new members are Aneesha Deiu who is filling White’s position and Korinda Wallace who is replacing David Bailey.

The results of the survey provided through the Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE) from families who have “choiced out” of the district either to send their kids to other districts or to homeschool were reviewed during the meeting. One survey was requested for each student withdrawn. Of the 90 students that were pulled, 40 surveys were received and four were from homeschooling families. One portion not publicly shared at this time were the comments.

According to Strot, many staff were named in the comments. Board Director Jeff McCowen suggested they redact the names and Bailey suggested they summarize the content to make the info available to the public which Strot said he will check into with the school attorney.

McCowen also shared an assessment about the contrasting and opposing contents of the comments. “You have some folks saying that the curriculum or the school stuff was a little bit too rough and others saying ‘I need to be challenged more.’ Some people say there is a lack of discipline. Somebody else says they discipline too much. Some people clearly are not in favor of the mask situation while others say the masks aren’t stringent enough.”

The survey results were reviewed and showed 53% of students were not likely at all and 30% were somewhat unlikely to return to the Dayton schools if their concerns are addressed. Of those, 42% were in high school, 25% were in middle school and 33% were in elementary school.

The survey allowed parents to choose yes or no for various reasons for pulling their kids from the schools. The highest reason was because of administration at 85%, followed by leaving because of an unspecified reason marked as “other” at 70%, then teachers at 68%, safety concerns at 65%, academics at 62% and bullying at 60%. Notable low as a reason for opting out was athletics at an 85% no response.

Also, of note was leaving over discipline which was divided at 53% for yes and 47% for no. Discipline issues have been cited as one of the major issues within the district over the last year.

Strot told the Board that he will provide in his report at the next meeting the information gained from Education Coach Dr. Molly’s Kreyssler’s meeting with students in grades 5-12 about their perceptions of their education environment in the district.

Strot broadly discussed the current 90 Day Plan for December through February. McCowen commented, “A lot of these topics were covered at the community forum last night which was a decent showing and some good conversation. More specifically, I would definitely encourage anyone that has an interest beyond board meetings to attend those.”

Lastly, the Board approved the recommendation of Jeremy Trump as a Community Representative to the Combine Committee, to also be approved by them. McCowen said, “Jeremy is a very involved parent, a lifelong Dayton resident, kids in the school, kids in the district-good things.” Bailey added, “He’s been very involved with talks on the combine committee about the combine and the kids that are in involved. So, I think he is a good choice also.”