SCHOOL DISTRICT Judge ousts 3 on board

The school board members' attorney will appeal.
LONDON, Ohio (AP) -- In a rare move, a judge removed three school board members Monday for repeatedly holding illegal secret meetings and hiring teachers not properly certified, including one charged with inappropriate physical contact with students.
The ruling comes after about 700 people filed a petition with the Madison County Common Pleas Court, asking that four of the five board members of the Madison-Plains school district be removed from office.
Scott Ebright, spokesman for the Ohio School Boards Association, said he knew of only one other case where a board member was removed. That happened when a school board member in the Rock Hill School District in Lawrence County voted to create a new position and then hired his spouse to fill it.
Who was removed
In a 130-page ruling, Judge Robert Nichols ousted Robert Kuehnle, Blenda James and Angela Isaacs from the Madison-Plains board of education. He found the fourth board member -- Kuehnle's mother, Sherry Kuehnle -- acted in bad faith, but her actions did not rise to the level of the other three.
"The education and well-being of Madison-Plains students has been compromised and jeopardized for nearly two years" while the board members protected and kept two unqualified teachers in the classroom, Nichols said.
Messages seeking comment were left with all four.
Their attorney, Lauren Ross, has asked the 12th Ohio District Court of Appeals in Middletown for permission to appeal Nichols' decision. She also asked Nichols to grant a stay so that the members can remain on the board.
In cases where the majority of the board is lost, state law requires the local probate judge to appoint new members within 30 days.
Downplays conduct
Ross admits that board members made mistakes, but she said the misconduct was not enough to justify removing them.
She said the open meetings violations were technical in nature. She said the board handled the cases of the two uncertified teachers when both ultimately resigned.
One attorney for those who filed the complaint, Eric Schooley, said Nichols' decision "is good for the district. It's good for the kids."
He said the community needs better leadership.
"There's just too much of a close relationship down there," he said. "It's just time for an overhaul."
Besides the mother-son team on the board, the board voted to hire James' daughter, Andrea James, as a Spanish teacher though she was not qualified.
Andrea James' father, Jim James, is the principal where his daughter worked as a Spanish teacher. She resigned after she failed to obtain certification, but was later rehired as a substitute teacher and returned to the same Spanish class.
The former football coach, Kenny Hinton, was hired as a special education teacher, though he was qualified to teach gym. He quit and now is facing three misdemeanors after being accused of inappropriate conduct with female students.
The district also made news when a student beat another student on a school bus. The beating was caught on video by a bus security camera.