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Brenda Kimble remains school board president
YOUNGSTOWN
Brenda Kimble will remain Youngstown’s Board of Education president for a fifth year.
A 4-2 vote Wednesday night retains the incumbent board leader; members Dario Hunter and Jackie Adair voted against Kimble.
Board member Corrine Sanderson was absent from the meeting.
Kimble said she has in recent years been fighting House Bill 70 and would like to continue to “help our children and finish this endeavor.”
HB 70, also referred to as the Youngstown Plan, was signed into law by Gov. John Kasich in July 2015. It enabled a state-appointed academic distress commission to hire CEO Krish Mohip to lead the district. The bill gives Mohip complete operational, managerial and instructional control.
Mohip refers to the elected board of education as merely an advisory panel.
“I am happy to be president again,” she said after the vote. “I’ve really been working to bring parties together across the state to fight HB 70 and save all the children in public school systems because it affects not just Youngstown, but all public school districts in the state of Ohio.”
Kimble said with a new CEO on the horizon she hopes he or she will be willing to work with the board — unlike Mohip.
“Mohip pulled away from the board so now it is up to whoever takes his place as to whether or not we work together,” she said.
Hunter was the opposing nominee for president.
“This board needs something different,” he said. “We deserve a change and a change in leadership approach. The board is not doing right by this district.”
Board member Michael Murphy was also voted in as vice president, in the same 4-2 vote with the same dissenters.
Hunter and Adair also shared their discontent with the use of a parliamentarian to advise acting treasurer A.J. Ginetti in the process of the reorganizational meeting. Hunter said it was out of order to appoint a parliamentarian without board input and a board vote.
Adair agreed and the vote to acknowledge the parliamentarian resulted in a 4-2 passage with Hunter and Adair dissenting.
At one point over a 2-4 vote about designating the treasurer certain duties, Adair whispered into the microphone that the other members were “dumbasses.”