43
Lawyer plans to challenge ruling against Kimble’s pick
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown school board president’s lawyer plans to object to a magistrate’s decision that bars the board president from appointing anyone other than a city schools teacher to the academic distress commission.
Ted Roberts, lawyer for board President Brenda Kimble, said he will file an objection to the ruling by Magistrate Daniel Dascenzo of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court within the allotted time period.
He said he hopes the objection will be filed by the middle of next week, but added he still is exploring the legal grounds for the objection.
In his Wednesday afternoon order, the magistrate said Kimble must appoint a city schools teacher to the panel; but a notice that objections may be filed within 14 days was attached to the order.
The objection will be considered by Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of common pleas court.
If Judge D’Apolito upholds Dascenzo’s decision, Kimble then will have 48 hours to appoint a teacher to the panel.
Roberts declined to comment on whether he’ll appeal to the 7th District Court of Appeals if Judge D’Apolito upholds Magistrate Dascenzo’s order.
“I will answer that after that event occurs, and after I consult with my client,” Roberts said.
Kimble had appointed Carol Staten, a substitute administrator in the district, to the commission, but the magistrate’s order bars the appointment of Staten, or anyone else who isn’t a city school district teacher, to the five-member commission.
Kimble did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The commission will appoint a chief executive officer to manage the school district.
The magistrate’s order arose from a lawsuit against Kimble and Staten by the Youngstown Education Association, the teachers’ union, after Kimble appointed Staten.
State legislation known as the Youngstown Plan calls for three commission members to be appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction; one by the mayor; and one, who must be a teacher, by the school board president.
Kimble has contended that Staten is a teacher.
In a Monday court hearing, Roberts referred to a section of Ohio law that defines a teacher as someone employed by an Ohio public school district who is licensed to teach, including a principal, supervisor or superintendent.
Charles Oldfield and Ira Mirkin, the lawyers who represent the YEA, said Kimble’s appointee should be a full-time, active classroom teacher in the district.
Although the commission has been unable to meet formally because of the court dispute, its four sitting members have toured schools and met with administrators and teachers, in pairs, to avoid running afoul of state open-meeting laws.
“Although the board of education and other plaintiffs are challenging the validity of the overall law in Franklin County court, because there’s no injunctive holdup on the main law, House Bill 70, Brenda Kimble followed her duty under the law and made an appointment to the commission so that the commission could begin its work,” Roberts said.
Then, Judge D’Apolito issued a temporary restraining order against Kimble’s appointment of Staten, Roberts said.
“Brenda Kimble is not holding this up. She appointed someone who she believes and we believe, under the law, is validly in place,” Roberts said.
“These are valid issues under the law to be challenged. One way or the other, we have honest differences of opinion as to the definition of teacher under the statute,” Roberts said of Kimble and the teachers union.
“In the meantime, we have a lot of good teachers and a lot of good people working hard for the education of students in Youngstown,” he said.