Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > April > 05 > Entry
PACE leaders built bridges
Bonnie Smith and Daria Dillard Stone
I remember when Bonnie Smith became the first city school district principal to take a job at a charter school back in 1999. To be frank, people thought she was nuts.
Why would anyone throw away a good career with a public school district to take a chance with some fly-by-night charter school outfit? That’s what her former friends said to each other. This was a time when charter schools, by their mere existence and because of who was backing them, were seen as an assault on public schools and the people that believed in them. Some of Smith’s former colleagues stopped speaking to her.
In Saturday’s paper I wrote about PACE, a group Smith helps run that led Dayton into the school choice era. And the city has come a long way from those early days of extreme distrust.
Why did Smith leave the relative comfort of Dayton Public for the chaos of the early charter school movement? For a couple reasons. Growing up in Dayton, Smith said, the limits of the school system always bothered her. You went to school where they told you to go. No questions asked. Working within the system, Smith found the bureacracy similarly limiting professionally.
At the Dayton Academy, Smith ran one of Dayton’s biggest schools with more than 1,000 students in grades K-8 at the time. But running a charter had its peaks and valleys, too, she found.
Then in 2000, she came to PACE, a job that perfectly matched to her experience, knowledge and passion. The goal was to rebuild trust and build bridges between public schools and choice schools. The war between the two, the PACE folks felt, was only making it harder for parents trying to sort through their options.
At PACE, Smith paired up with Daria Dillard Stone. There is no other way to describe Stone than simply an evangelist for PACE and its goals. Stone disarms people with hugs and prayers and a deep personal belief that informed parents will match kids with the right schools and make for a better educated city.
But what they needed first was credibility. Remember how hostile public and choice schools were toward each other at first? Smith and Stone responded by refusing to play favorites even while promoting choice. They knew the public schools as well as the private and charter sectors and when kids were better served in the school district that’s what Smith and Stone told their parents.
Today, you see public schools showing up with booths at PACE’s annual school expo. At PACE’s downtown office, you’ll find Smith tapping her district contacts to solve problems for city schools parents. At times Smith and Stone have even taken big problems directly to the top. And Superintendent Percy Mack answers their calls.
Besides the Expo and private school scholarships, PACE today hosts Parents Network events and training sessions, links families with social services and distributes school chooser information.
Smith and Stone, along with finance chief George Loney, are perhaps more responsible than anyone for bringing Dayton’s now wide-ranging education marketplace together.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
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By cal
April 11, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this
In the burbs there is school choice for most folks. Of course its their income level that gives them the benefit of that choice. Most folks can afford to send their kid to a private school or will move to an area that has good schools.By School Supporter (Classic)
April 10, 2008 11:56 PM | Link to this
James writes, “Dayton schools and charter schools are both underfunded…” (OEA-approved) Attorney General Marc Dann disagrees; why don’t you set the AG straight with some facts that will stand up in court?By James
April 9, 2008 2:45 AM | Link to this
Ms. Smith and Ms. Stone are two very niceand confused ladies who have been used in the destruction of the Dayton Community. They were directed and not allowed to take their “choice” concept to the suburbs. Why not, if choice and charter schools were great ideas for urban schools why would they not be great for for the rich and afluent students? Dayton schools and charter schools are both underfunded because they are both victims of the State’s funding system. Let us be real. Their organization supports poor parents making a choice between one underfunded system verses another underfunded. This is a diversion designed to divide and distroy the urban community. And even though it was not their intent, they played a role in fragmenting the quality of education in Dayton. Ms. Smith was a below average principal in Dayton Public Schools at best. She and Ms. Stone were simply “used”.By Dr. Alberta C. Wilson
April 8, 2008 7:52 PM | Link to this
Hats off to Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Stone for a job well done! A special thanks is in order for those that fund this much need organization. I have been positively affected by Mrs. Stone and her passion. My prayer is that when I grow up…I will be just like her! Great Job! Just enjoying life…abundantly, Alberta