DAYTON, Ohio — Jeffrey Mims, Jr., has spent the past four decades working to improve the education system in Dayton. Now, as mayor of Dayton, Mims is taking on a new role to help address issues in academia at the national level.
The National League of Cities (NLC) selected Mims to serve as the chair of the organization’s Mayors’ Education Task Force for the next two years. In the Task Force, mayors from across the country discuss and respond to critical education issues.
“As a lifelong educator, I look forward to bringing my experience and passion for education to this national leadership role,” Mims said. “Along with mayors from around the country, we will uplift the critical work of improving educational opportunities for youth in our cities.”
What You Need To Know
- Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims, Jr. is the new chair of the National League of Cities’ Mayors’ Education Task Force
- A former teacher, Mims spent 35 years working in Dayton Public Schools
- The group meets twice a year to discuss and address critical issues in education
- Local education officials view Mims’ appointment as a way to give a ‘national voice’ to issues in Dayton and other urban districts
Formed in 2012, the Mayors’ Education Task Force meets bi-annually at NLC events — in March at the Congressional City Conference and in November at the City Summit. The next City Summit is Thursday, Nov. 17 through Saturday, Nov. 19 in Kansas City.
These meetings offer a “small, intimate setting” where honest and constructive conversations occur, according to the NLC website.
At their most recent meeting in March, the group of more than 40 mayors shared innovations for supporting youth and students, improving the education system, and recruiting and keeping teachers.
Those conversations, led by former chair Lily Mei of Fremont, Calif, covered an array of subjects. Topics ranged from how to make use of under-used school building space to working with nonprofits to address housing and basic resource issues.
They also looked at ways of investing in after-school and summer learning programs to support pandemic recovery.
Across the country, math scores saw their largest decreases ever during the pandemic. Reading scores dropped to 1992 levels, the Associated Press reported, and nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts.
During his first meeting, Mims plans to do a lot of listening. He noted a desire to hear from leaders in other successful cities to find out how to duplicate those efforts in Dayton.
“When you look at high-performing schools across the nation, they’re all doing something that’s pretty similar,” Mims added. “High-performing schools, in most cases, are coming from high performing communities; communities that are affluent, and where the benefit of high quality education is not in doubt. So, we want to look at ways to follow those approaches to success both inside and outside the classroom.”
Providing ‘equitable education opportunities’ for young people
Clarence Anthony, the CEO and executive director of NLC, said the organization invited Mims to serve as chair because of his history in education leadership. He described Mims as having a “passion for providing equitable education opportunities for youth.”
Mims, who has a master’s degree in education from Wright State, worked in Dayton Public Schools for more than 35 years. He taught art to students in grades K-8 to start his education career, and he spent his last seven years in the classroom at Belmont High School.
Beyond his work as a teacher and coach, Mims served as president of the Dayton Education Association for six consecutive terms from 1983 to ‘88.
Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims. Jr. (Photo courtesy of City of Dayton)
He later served as president of the Dayton Board of Education from 2008 to 2011. He represented the Third District for the Ohio School Board for three years before being elected to Dayton City Commission.
“Ensuring our youth have access to educational opportunities that set them on a path toward economic success is an important priority for so many city leaders,” Anthony said. “With his decades of service as an educator, we look forward to (Mims’) leadership in guiding these conversations.”
Since first joining the Dayton City Commission in 2014, Mims has voiced a commitment to working to strengthen the relationship between the City Hall and Dayton Public Schools (DPS). He views it as key to improving the quality of life for residents.
Mims called improving education an issue that resonates from his “head to his heart.” Beyond being an educator, he’s also a parent and grandparent.
His son Cory and daughter LaDawn both attended schools in the DPS system. Cory graduated in 1988 and LaDawn did so in 1996. Both went on to graduate from college and attend graduate programs, Mims said.
In its most recent state report card, DPS received no more than two stars in any of the five categories ranked by the Ohio Board of Education. It earned one star each in Achievement, Graduation and Early Literacy.
Mims isn’t so much focused on report cards and test scores, as the fact only 74.2% of students in the district graduated in four years.
“Our system created greater opportunities when my kids were in school than they do now,” he said. “The diversity of the programming they were blessed to have is what I’ve been pushing for my whole life as far as education is concerned. We need to get back to that.”
‘It’s about working together’
Will Smith, president of the Dayton Board of Education, said he’s most excited about the potential partnerships that may stem from Mims’ role in the Task Force.
Not just those between the city and the schools, but several other types of organizations — teacher unions, community and faith-based agencies, and businesses — to create local solutions for improving student success, Smith said.
“It’s about working together to understand the challenges and then working together to address them,” he added. “The more we can work together on those issues, the better we’ll be as a city.”
Mims wants to further improve collaborations between City Hall and Dayton Public Schools. (Casey Weldon/Spectrum News 1)
One key area Mims wants to focus on is improving teacher recruitment and retention. More rigorous requirements for teachers and pay rates that aren’t following pay trends in other sectors makes it harder to attract and keep highest quality candidates, he said.
Ohio’s current minimum salary for first-year teachers is $25,950, which federal data suggests is 14.4% less than non-teachers with similar levels of education and experience earn in Ohio.
As a result, there are nearly 17,000 fewer people working in public education in Ohio now compared to before the pandemic, according to data from the Ohio Education Association.
For DPS, the beginning teacher salary for this school year is $47,391, per district data. The average teacher salary district-wide is $57,737.
The district continues to work toward increasing student achievement, said Dr. Elizabeth Lolli, DPS’ superintendent. That includes closing educational gaps and providing for the general needs of students. She feels Mims can be a key advocate for Dayton and its students and teachers on those fronts.
“Having a national voice who understands the challenges facing urban districts may benefit Dayton and other urban districts facing similar issues,” she added.
Through his involvement with the Task Force, Mims wants to help explore ways to create a holistic approach to education. The goal should not only be to get kids to graduation, he said, but to help those students find success in life once they do.
The district’s more than 12,300 students are a long-term investment in Dayton, Mims said. Better graduation rates will not only positively affect the school district, but they’ll also help raise the median income in the community.
In 2020, the median weekly earnings for full-time workers with a high school degree but no college was $781, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. That was $162 higher than the median weekly earnings for full-time workers without a high school degree.
“As an educator, it’s your job to help your students feel as though they have value and something to offer to society,” he said. “Once they graduate, those kids go on to college or the military, but then they come back to live in Dayton and continue to contribute to society, to the economy.”
