Superintendent in Ohio in crosshairs at state board meeting
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s top public schools official rebuffed criticism Tuesday from some members of the board that hired him over his handling of a charter-school data scandal and an effort to take over the Youngstown schools.
During hours of tense questioning by the Ohio Board of Education, Superintendent Richard Ross pushed back against an effort to launch an outside investigation into data manipulation by a since-ousted charter-schools director and explained that he kept secret his work on the Youngstown schools plan because he never saw it as a Department of Education initiative.
School Choice Director David Hansen resigned in July after he acknowledged at the board’s July meeting that he omitted certain failing grades of online and dropout-recovery schools from evaluations of charter school sponsors. The reviews affect how the sponsors’ performance is reported to the public and plays a role in determining their state aid. Hansen said he didn’t want to “mask” successes elsewhere.
Ross said Hansen is gone, the reviews were rescinded and two separate panels are working to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
But some board members contended their panel, not Ross, should control who is selected to investigate the matter.
Board member A.J. Wagner offered a resolution calling for an outside, nonpolitical organization to investigate the Hansen matter. Board president Tom Gunlock called a vote to table the matter until either the auditor’s or inspector general’s findings could be completed. The board approved the delay 11-7.
Hansen’s wife was chief of staff to Republican Gov. John Kasich before leaving the role recently to manage Kasich’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Ross said thousands of recently released emails, calendars, text messages and other documents on Hansen’s work have been turned over to Inspector General Randall Meyer and Ohio Auditor Dave Yost.
“They both are charged with that responsibility and I’m sure they’re going to fulfill that responsibility as they go through 100,000 pages of documents,” he said. “I think that’s where I would leave that right now and trust in their judiciousness and aggressiveness in making sure they get to the bottom of it.”
Ross said Meyer’s office proactively asked for the records, so an investigation seems likely. He said it would be “presumptuous” to formally request an investigation.
Board member Stephanie Dodd said even if the inspector general does investigate, his report could take years. She recalled that the Coingate investment scandal report took nine years to be released, saying the board doesn’t have that long to wait to restore confidence in the Education Department.
Ross said other internal steps are also being taken, including putting in place a whistleblower policy, to address concerns that staff below Hansen may have known what he was doing and feared reporting it to supervisors.
Board members also peppered Ross with pointed questions about his role in helping local leaders craft a takeover plan for the troubled Youngstown City Schools and keeping the effort from the board.
The proposal, which emerged and cleared both chambers of the state Legislature in a single day, turns over control of the academically distressed district to an appointed chief executive officer with sweeping management, operational and educational powers.
“To be honest with you, superintendent, I don’t think you’ve told the whole story,” said board member Mary Rose Oakar, who led a group of board members on the tour of the district even as the so-called Youngstown Plan was secretly in the works.
Ross said he doesn’t apologize for assisting the group of education, business and religious leaders behind the plan.
“I have huge regard for them, I support what they’ve done,” he said. “It’s time after nine years and a generation of students that we stop the status quo and start thinking about the kids. And so I don’t know about the law, I don’t know about anything else, but that’s just how I feel about the kids.”
Board member Ann Jacobs commended Ross’ personal passion but said it shouldn’t supersede the legal role of the state school board.
“In my last seven years on the board, it seems like the power of the board has diminished, been eroded,” she said. “And, right or wrong, whatever the issue, are we just going to forget the policy or procedure manual?”
Ross said he didn’t divulge the effort to the board because he didn’t consider it a part of his official superintendent duties.
“In my mind, I never saw this as a Department of Ed initiative,” he said. “This was a group of people in Youngstown that asked us to help. I always saw this as an assistance of us to the people in Youngstown.”