Transportation issue causes a stir

By Denise Dick

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

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The topic of school transportation continues to be a hot one, this time producing a dust-up between school board members.

Andrea Mahone, board member, took issue during the caucus before Tuesday’s city school board meeting with Anthony Catale, board president.

Mahone was upset that she wasn’t permitted to attend a meeting in Columbus last week with representatives of the district, the fiscal-oversight commission and state officials regarding school transportation.

Mahone said she had asked to go to the meeting, but instead Catale attended with board members Michael Murphy and Lock Beachum Sr. The remainder of the board learned about the meeting after it happened, she said.

“I think I deserve an apology and the rest of the board deserves an apology for not being treated like we’re as important as the rest of you,” Mahone said.

She also questioned whether Catale has an issue with women, as both board members who went to Columbus with him are men.

Catale said the meeting was to get an update on the status of an Ohio Department of Education audit of school transportation. If more than three board members had attended, it would have been a public meeting under Ohio’s Open Meetings Law, he said.

Murphy and Beachum went as chairmen of the business and finance committees, respectively, Catale said.

Catale said he doesn’t have a problem with women and pointed to the appointment of two female board members to the search committee for a new school superintendent.