Harry Wayne Parrish, Gayla White square off on issues

During a taped political forum earlier this week, candidates for Dothan City Schools’ board chairman pointed to their different backgrounds as assets to the position.

Saying she is an experienced administrator, District 3 school board member Gayla White cited the system’s successes and said she can complete the task and has the board experience to lead the system through tough economic times, with increased budget cuts expected.

“I have been on the board eight years,” she told members of the Knology cable audience at the Scenic Productions studios Tuesday night. “Three of those years we’ve had proration.”

Her opponent, Harry Wayne Parrish, stood on his reputation as a winning football coach, experience in the classroom, and service in various administrative and financial positions, saying he wants to lead the entire system to victory. As a financial planner, he says he is able to manage budgetary shortfalls.

“I have a long history of success and expertise in education. I am a winning coach with two state championships at Northview. Those same traits (that brought forth winning teams) I bring to the school board. Anything we do, I believe in success and being the best.”

Parrish said he has done his time in the trenches, working in the classroom, with special education students, as director of transportation and as an assistant principal and assistant superintendent.

“You will decide who has the most experience, training and leadership,” he told voters in the Aug. 25 runoff election. “I have passion to lead the schools. I have been in education more than 40 years. Most people know I am passionate about education.”

White counters that she has a thorough understanding of the strides the system has made, knowing full well more challenges are ahead. She said classroom experience is not that valuable to the position.

“I have been through the Alabama School Board Association training. (The chairman’s seat) is not a classroom setting. I have two terms on the board and a passionate involvement that makes me the clear choice to lead the board.”

White said she is not afraid to ask hard questions or gauge community views. “I am willing to make the decisions and continue this positive momentum. We have built community support … (that) has finally started to pay off.”

Parrish said he has no intention of being a board chairman that “micro-manages” the system. “I believe you hire good people and let them do it. We are not to micromanage.”

On making cuts, Parrish points to the fact the district did not stockpile any money for the future. White says money was spent on programs that have improved the schools. Both talked about where to cut in the future.
Parrish: It has to be analyzed. I would like to look at the budget and try to analyze it and see where it affects the least children. You know it will be personnel. We don’t want that … it’s just hard. We need to really prepare for this in the future. Some schools do a better job. Where do you start? Talk to teachers. That’s a tough question. We ought to go to the State of Alabama and do something about (the way funding is set up). We didn’t have this problem in Georgia.

White: We do know (future) cuts will be significant. We have a lot of programs that are locally funded. The city has been generous to us…. We have teachers that are locally funded, from LINK to art to music. We have spent our money on programs and did not stockpile money away. Our kids have benefited from programs we’ve brought back. It has got to be prioritized. What is most important for our students and what do parents want? It is going to be devastating. It will be a major, major issue over the next couple of years.

On the system’s problems:
White: Proration is the number one issue. No one wants to lose programs or cut staff but the way the funding is set up, our education system suffers first. Working with community groups, we’ll need to be creative to fund the services we have and want. It will be a challenge to keep the programs we have. Also a problem is the graduation rate. We have improved this year and need to continue keeping our system moving forward and challenging our students and doing what’s best for them.

Parrish: The drop-out rate. People don’t realize Dothan has over a 40 percent drop-out rate. To change this we must teach the kids about achievement. Second, students have got to get involved in school. They have got to have pride in school. And third, we need to get them to excel in things – whether it is music, art, science, math, theater … cosmetology, carpentry and sports, all that has to do with getting them to excel.
The second problem is proration. As a financial planner, I have to look at how much money is coming in and how much is going out. We have a financial problem. We are going to face some serious issues and that’s what I’ve been doing the last nine years.

On the system’s 83 percent graduation rate:
Parrish: We need to start looking at middle school, identifying high-risk kids. We need to focus on these kids early. And the ninth-grade pod, no question that is important. Ninth graders don’t need to be with 12th graders. We need to prepare the parents so they can help too. Students need special counseling. We must collaborate with churches. It takes a team effort. We have to tackle that together.

White: We did develop the pods for ninth grade. We have ninth-grade academies, one at Dothan High, one at Northview. We created a summer bridge program this year to prepare kids ahead of time. Some of the programs Wiregrass Foundation funded this year (helped). We are creating career academies. We have one on engineering where kids are doing design work for NASA. All that together will help improve the graduation rate. It is key to utilize those programs. These best practices models will close that (graduation) gap.