Youngstown BOE re-hires formerly rejected principal, rejects Hathorn's picks

YOUNGSTOWN

School board members rescinded the nonrenewal of the former principal at Chaney and rejected the person Superintendent Connie Hathorn recommended as the new principal at Taft Elementary School.

Board members Jackie Adair, President Richard Atkinson, Marcia Haire-Ellis, Brenda Kimble, Ronald Shadd and Jerome Williams voted to rescind the nonrenewal of Sharon McDonald-Butler who served as Chaney principal this past school year. Michael Murphy abstained.

Hathorn had recommended the nonrenewal, citing performance, and board members at a May 13 meeting approved it. The action also was approved by the state-appointed Youngstown School District Academic Distress Commission that same month.

But McDonald-Butler appealed the decision, and the board listened to her argument in two closed-door sessions.

After Tuesday’s meeting, which lasted nearly 31⁄2 hours, Adair said there were some “procedural difficulties in [McDonald-Butler’s] renewal.”

McDonald-Butler worked as an assistant principal in the district for a year before being named principal this past school year. She previously worked in the Cleveland schools where in 2009, when she was deputy chief of special projects, she was suspended for two weeks for asking employees to run her personal errands outside of work hours, according to The Plain Dealer.

That personal business included asking employees to pick up her son, the newspaper reported.

The board also rejected Hathorn’s recommendation to hire John T. McMahan III of Rock Creek, Ohio, former superintendent of Southington School District to be the new principal of Taft Elementary School.

Read more on the board's actions in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.