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Board votes 4-3 to back Kimble’s appeal; Hunter blasts resolution
YOUNGSTOWN
The sharply divided Youngstown Board of Education voted 4-3 Friday to support an appeal of a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge’s decision that ordered board President Brenda Kimble to appoint an active classroom teacher to the academic distress commission.
Kimble’s appeal of Judge Lou A. D’Apolito’s order is before the 7th District Court of Appeals.
Judge D’Apolito voided Kimble’s appointment of Carol Staten, a school principal who is a distant cousin of Kimble’s, to the commission.
Board members voting in favor of the resolution of support were Kimble; her son, Ronald Shadd; Jerome Williams and Michael Murphy.
Voting no were Jackie Adair, Dario Hunter and Corrine Sanderson.
After about a half-hour in executive session, the board spent only two minutes in public session, during which it voted on the resolution.
The only board member to articulate an opinion concerning the resolution during the board’s public session was Hunter, who delivered a scathing attack against it.
“This resolution is after the fact. I mean action has already been taken, and without consulting the board,” Hunter said, referring to the notice of appeal having already been filed before the board meeting.
Putting the resolution before the board after action has been taken “is ridiculous,” he added. The notice of appeal was filed Thursday with the appeals court.
“This action itself – I find it to be personally motivated. I find that it’s ridiculous that we’re spending so much in legal fees to appoint madam president’s cousin to the academic distress commission,” Hunter added.
“Everyone involved ought to think about the best interests of the children; and this action, which will mire the district in litigation for months to come, is not going to be in the best interests of the children,” Hunter said.
After the meeting, Kimble said her appeal is necessary “because I’m being sued.”
She added: “I’m not holding up the distress commission. I made my appointment in a timely manner and according to the law, so if the YEA is going to sue me, I have to be defended.”
The Youngstown Education Association is part of the Ohio Education Association, which is the teachers union.
The board resolution authorizes the law firm of Roth, Blair, Roberts, Strasfeld & Lodge “to defend to conclusion, including any appeals, this litigation, which challenges Defendant Kimble’s appointment to the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission.”
Atty. Ted Roberts, who met with the board in executive session Friday, charges the board $170 per hour.
“Our education is on an upswing and our district is moving forward,” Kimble said in response to Hunter’s claim that the appeal is not in the best interests of the district’s students.
“For anyone to say that this is stopping the children’s education – that’s absolutely not true,” she added.
The district has risen from academic emergency to academic watch in the state rankings of student performance in recent years.
“Our third-grade literacy scores are close to a B now,” Kimble said.
The academic distress commission was created by the Youngstown Plan, a state law enacted last summer.
The five-member commission consists of three members appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction; one by the mayor; and one, a teacher, by the city school board president.
The new commission will appoint a state-paid chief executive officer to run the city schools.
Besides voiding the appointment of Staten, Judge D’Apolito’s decision bars the distress commission from meeting until Kimble appoints a teacher to it.
His Wednesday decision arises out of a lawsuit against Kimble and Staten by the OEA, which argued that Kimble’s appointee should be an active classroom teacher.
Kimble points to a section of state law that defines a teacher as anyone licensed by the state and employed by the district as a superintendent, principal, supervisor or instructor.
Kimble said she thoroughly researched her appointment of Staten, who she said is especially qualified because of her broad experience and knowledge of all aspects of the school district’s operations.
“She’s dealt with all of our testing. She’s dealt with all of the curriculum, new programs and old programs,” Kimble said of Staten, who has been a district secretary, teacher and administrator.
On Friday, at Kimble’s request, Judge D’Apolito stayed the portion of his decision that required Kimble to appoint a classroom teacher within 48 hours of his Wednesday ruling, pending the appeal, but he declined to stay his orders barring Kimble from appointing Staten and barring the distress commission from meeting.