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Trumbull prosecutor says Southington school board member must resign one of two school positions
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office is giving Albert J. Haberstroh Jr. of Southington two weeks to resign either his position on the Southington Board of Education or on the Trumbull County Educational Service Center governing board.
Haberstroh has been a member of the educational service center board since 2008. He was elected to the Southington Board of Education in November but also served on it 14 years before 2008.
Haberstroh did not return a phone call Wednesday to comment.
When he decided to run for the Southington position in 2013, the Trumbull County Board of Elections and the educational service center’s attorney asked the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office whether it was legal for him to hold both positions — since the educational service center, previously known as the county school board, provides services to local schools.
Watkins requested an opinion from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine last summer, and DeWine provided that opinion March 17, saying the two positions are “incompatible,” because being on both boards would present multiple conflicts of interest.
One such conflict involves the power of an educational service center to transfer part or all of a local school district to an adjoining school district and abolish a local school district, the opinion says.
Another such responsibility would be deciding whether to allow a local school district to be exempt from supervision by the educational service center and create an exempted-village school district.
“A person holding both positions may be tempted, because of his position on the board of education of the local school district, to preserve the territory of the local school district or to keep the local school district within the territory of the current educational service center,” the attorney general said.
Because there are contracts and payments involving services provided by the educational service center to local school boards, a person holding positions on both boards would be “exposed to conflicting loyalties and the possible temptation to act in a manner not in the best interest of the public,” the opinion says.
Haberstroh’s term on the educational service center expires at the end of 2015. His position on the Southington Board of Education expires at the end of 2017.