Jay Brewer isn’t really retiring.
The outgoing Dayton schools superintendent says he is just taking a break before the second half of his life.
And while that means leaving behind the school system he has led for 12 years, he’s excited for the future.
“I’m going to be coming out at halftime after having a great first half with wonderful people who have done some great things,” Brewer said. “And I’m ready to see what the second half has to bring. I feel like I’m coming out of the locker room all fired up and ready to see what is next.”
Brewer announced earlier this year that he would be retiring from Dayton schools at the end of the school year. His replacement, Rick Wolf, was announced last week.
Brewer, whose time at Dayton tops off a 32-year career in education, grew up in Ludlow. Upon graduating from the University of Kentucky, the principal of his old elementary school, Dan Jones, asked him to come and teach there. When Jones retired, Brewer was tagged to replace him. Jones continues to be a friend and mentor to this day, Brewer said.
After 12 years in Ludlow, he took a position as principal of Ruth Moyer Elementary in Fort Thomas, where he and his family were living at the time. It was an opportunity to grow and a new challenge, he said. He was there eight years before moving into the superintendent position in Dayton in 2012.
Brewer leaves at a promising moment in the district’s history. In June, it will graduate its first class to include students who have earned associate degrees as well as diplomas. The district also stands at the beginning of an ambitious project to create an all-encompassing district campus with a new sports complex.
This year the district received the Prichard Parent Partnership Grant for 1.5 million dollars over five years to support the work being done to build partnerships between the schools and the community.
There is no doubt the district has had sharp improvement and many successes over his tenure, yet Brewer is quick to say it has always been a group effort involving the entire district and the broader community.
“We pulled together, and we made this happen,” he said.
Turning things around
The Dayton school district, he said, was in shambles when Brewer came into the position in 2012. Academically, it was ranked 171st in a field of 173 school districts across the state. It had been designated “in need of assistance” by the state, and there was an education recovery team in place to help support the struggling district.
The district had also been rocked by a fraud scandal, one that ended in his predecessor behind bars.
“Within the first two months, I was working with the Kentucky state auditor and the FBI,” Brewer said. “Basically, it was half a million dollars worth of fraud determined in the district. We recovered all the money, and he spent two years in federal prison…We were in dire straits financially and had to cut some staff in the early years. So, it was some pretty tough years there.”
The support of the community, Brewer said, made all the difference.
“They said, ‘Let’s get this right for our kids,’” Brewer said. “Our board of education has never hesitated to do the right thing. Together, and I really mean together, we put some great things in place.”
By 2016, the district was ranked 70 out of the 173 schools, and was the only river city district to earn the state’s Distinguished School District title. The banner is still on display. Since then, the state no longer ranks school districts in that way. The district has had its ups and downs (in part due to the pandemic), but it has continued on a trajectory of improvement and growth, Brewer said.
Praise from city and school leaders
Brewer is adamant that the turnaround was a community-wide effort, and people in the schools and community agree, yet they also said his leadership played and continues to play a key role.
“I’ve worked closely with Jay as the city administrator in Dayton, and he has been an amazing leader for that school system,” said Dayton City Administrator Jay Fossett. “He took over the school system when it was in disarray. He really turned it around, and now it’s one of the higher performing school districts in the river cities… large part of it is the leadership of Jay Brewer and the team he’s built there at the school system.”
Council member Christina Kelly echoed Fossett’s thoughts.
“I’d simply say that Jay Brewer and Dayton Independent Schools have been a great partner to the city,” Kelly said. “I moved here in 2005 and the changes I’ve seen in our community’s test scores, graduation rates and school pride are a result of the dedication and hard work of Jay and his team.”
One key to the success has been Brewer’s approachable leadership and his ability to build confidence and support within the school community on all levels, said Scott Meyers, principal of Dayton High School.
“I was here before Mr. Brewer arrived, and since his arrival, the growth that has taken place under his leadership, the people he’s impacted from students to staff is just hard to really give it justice,” Meyers said. “He’s been an amazing leader for Dayton schools, one of those people you can’t replace.”
The person who replaces him will have big shoes to fill, Meyers said.
“He’s a person that does not want credit,” he said. “He’s as genuine and authentic a person as I’ve ever met. It doesn’t matter who you are, from student to parent to staff member, whatever, he gives everybody his time and respect, and truly cares for everybody.”
Brewer’s leadership leaves the district in good stead going forward, said council member Joe Neary.
“Superintendent Jay Brewer has raised the bar of expectations for our school district, and his energetic leadership has inspired our students and staff to raise and achieve their own goals,” Neary said. “Dayton is an even better community thanks to his decade plus of engagement, and I wish him a rewarding retirement.”
Growth and achievement
Brewer said he is proud of a number of accomplishments and programs now in place in the district. Again, he said, all of it is the result of a group effort from school community and the city as a whole.
The Dayton school system has 800 students in preschool through high school. The school provides two years of preschool, including a Head Start program. On the other end of the spectrum, a new program offers students the opportunity to earn as many as 60 hours of college credit (an associate’s degree) at Northern Kentucky University while still in high school.
For the younger students, the district provides two programs to start young children in the reading habit as early as possible.
“Putting books in kids’ hands has been kind of a big focus of mine,” Brewer said “We won the Kentucky School Board Award for a program called Book a Week, in which all our preschool kids receive their own personal copy of a book. They all get the same book, once a week, a theme book that the teachers select that have activities for the families to do at home.”
Dayton also helped to get other local districts on board to support the national Dolly Parton Imagination Library program with the Campbell County Library. The nonprofit provides a free book every month to children from birth to age five. The school districts partner with the library to provide necessary financial support.
“So if you’re a child growing up in Dayton, if you attend two years of preschool and you sign up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, you’re going to have a whole library of 120 books by the time you enter kindergarten,” Brewer said. “That’s 120 different books on the bookshelf, for no cost. We’ve been really trying to get that early literacy component for our families and kids. I’m very, very proud of the work we’ve done.”
Expanding college opportunities
Brewer said he is especially proud of programs in place over the last couple of years that offer students opportunities beyond high school. The NKU Young Scholars Program is a partnership between six or seven Northern Kentucky school districts and NKU. Through the program, juniors and seniors can take college-level classes on the NKU campus and earn up to 60 hours of college credit over two years.
This year, he said, there are 20 Dayton students who are full-time students on the NKU campus. They still participate in Dayton school sports and any other extra-curricular activities but spend their class time at NKU. This year’s graduating class will include the first cohort of students who will earn an associate degree through the program as well as a high school diploma.
Brewer said the high school has also been partnering with Gateway Community College, and several students are earning credits there as well.
“Back in the early days, we tried to figure out how much dual credit our kids were earning,” Brewer said. “We estimated it was about 12 hours per year. So that’s one or two kids taking one or two classes. Last year, we estimated they were earning 736 hours…And I have a hunch that we’re going to hit 1,000 hours this year.”
Of Dayton’s 120 or so juniors and seniors, 85 are off campus at least half the day at Gateway, NKU, the Skills Trade in Newport, or at the Area Technical Center in Campbell County.
“One of our goals is to get our kids in their junior and senior year off campus at least half a day,” Brewer said. “That’s a big thing for us, because we believe exposure and opportunity is the key to success. Put our kids in those places, and they will show you what they can do. They’ve done amazing things.”
Challenges to overcome
College credit at no cost is a boon to all students and families everywhere, but it is especially important in a district where the needs are great. Of the students enrolled in Dayton schools, 90 percent are eligible for free lunch.
While the district has come a very long way since Brewer first came on board, it had a long way to go and is still facing challenges.
The most recent data from the Kentucky Department of Education covers the 2022-23 school year. The state’s new rating system ranks districts by color coding, starting with blue as the highest rating, followed by green, yellow, orange and red.
Dayton High School and Lincoln Elementary each rated in the middle at the yellow level and Dayton Middle School was rated orange.
Lessons from the pandemic
Not long after the Dayton schools had found their footing, the pandemic hit. As it did for all school districts, it took its toll.
“Of course, we’re recovering from the good ol’ pandemic,” Brewer said. “It hits different populations differently. We were all in the same storm, but we certainly weren’t all in the same boat. [Recovery] looks a bit different for each community, and it certainly looks a little bit different for us. But we feel like we’re on the road that we need to be.”
Brewer acknowledges the work is far from over, but said the experiences of the prior years has helped bolster the community’s confidence in its resiliency.
“I think we’ve created this spirit of ‘we can do this” and that ‘we say yes,’ two of the things that I am really proud of here,” Brewer said. “We look for solutions, and that was highlighted as a strength for us in the pandemic. I was just amazed at how our staff continued to come up with ideas from food service to technology to supporting families.”
With new reading and college readiness programs in place, the district is poised for improvement. The next superintendent will have the task of building upon the promise of the last decade.
Project One
The district was able to renovate two school buildings during Brewer’s tenure, adding a new glass front, art space and classrooms to the high school.
Now, the district is in the process of creating what he and the school board call “Project One,” named for the creation of a unified campus space. They have acquired land around the school and hope to build a sports complex, with a possible field house, outdoor classroom and other amenities.
The project went out for bid in January and bids are expected to come back in March. Brewer said he hopes they can build something special for the students but also for the city as a whole. They are working in collaboration with the city, which has plans for the nearby park and surrounding area.
The second half
Throughout his career, Brewer said he has always tried to create a good balance between school life and his home life and other interests. He cautions new school leaders and others in the importance of that balance.
His wife is also an educator and plans to retire in the next year. They have three children. One has graduated from NKU with a degree in business, one is still in school studying theater and the other is now in medical school.
“When you take on a job like this, it’s one of the things I try to stress to our staff and teams is that you have got to find balance and boundaries for yourself,” Brewer said. “I try to focus on wellness. So during my 32 years of school leadership, I’ve completed 40 marathons. I’ve done all 25 of the Flying Pig marathons.”
During the pandemic, he decided to challenge himself and began running even longer distances. He’s run four 50-mile races and completed a 100-mile race in Florida. With his running group, he’s done marathons in Cuba and Rome, and has even run the original marathon in Greece.
It’s not clear what’s exactly in store for his “second half,” but Brewer said he will forever be grateful for his time in Dayton.
“The community of Dayton has been good to me and good for me,” Brewer said. “And I’ve learned a lot about life and a lot about myself. And the 12 years, I hope I’m leaving it better than I found it. But I also believe I’m leaving better than when I came here as a person.”