Jo’el Jones,

51, is a former long-term substitute teacher and transition coordinator (helping students adjust from middle school to high school) at Dayton Public Schools. She’s currently a program director at the Community Action Partnership and has a son at Stivers.

She said keys to academic success are empowering teachers to make more decisions and meeting the state’s standards with a curriculum that is “culturally relevant” to each group of students. She said teachers “sorely deserve” salary increases, and called on the district to work with community partners on incentives to attract and retain the best teachers.

Jones said rather than needing board members to be experts in given areas, it’s more important for them to be open to learning, and be able to manage relationships, so they can effectively find answers that they don’t immediately know. She was somewhat critical of the four-person slate of candidates for not attending board meetings.

Jones wants a more active department of family and community engagement. She said while the district has to be sensitive to poverty and family challenges, she believes DPS should push hard for more commitment from students and families.

“Student achievement, teacher security, teacher retention and attraction — those things are the foundation of making the district much better,” she said.