The Dayton Daily News was the only local media outlet to track Kettering schools’ repeated closed-door meetings, and secured school e-mails and memos showing that the district has been under state investigation for months.
A months-long investigation by the Ohio auditor’s office preceded Tuesday’s action by the Kettering school board to place Superintendent Jim Schoenlein and Treasurer Steve Clark on paid administrative leave, the Dayton Daily News has learned.
“The board hired two attorneys to conduct an internal review of testing and levy issues that were brought to the Board’s attention as the result of an investigation initiated by the State Auditor’s Office,” district officials said in a news release Tuesday.
But records the district turned over to the newspaper Tuesday — just minutes after the board moved to discipline Schoenlein and Clark — show the auditor’s investigation was launched months ago.
Board President George Bayless said the internal review done by the district revealed problems with the district’s November levy campaign.
Bayless said the auditor’s investigation does not involve student testing, which has been a focus of investigations in other districts across the state, nor did the district’s internal investigation turn up testing problems. Kettering’s student growth scores have been in the top 10 in the state each of the past two years.
“Nothing showed up in our own investigation anywhere close to any kind of problem with testing,” Bayless said. “The scores are phenomenal, and it was just a lot of hard work and good programming.”
School board officials would not state the precise actions that led the board to relieve Schoenlein and Clark of their duties by unanimous vote, saying “further review is necessary.”
But Bayless admitted that during last fall’s levy campaign, “some things happened that probably shouldn’t have, like people spending time on the levy on school time, but nothing of a criminal manner.”
Ohio law says “no board of education shall use public funds to support or oppose the passage of a school levy … or to compensate any school district employee for time spent on any activity intended to influence the outcome of a school levy.”
Ohio Department of Education spokesman John Charlton said ODE very rarely sees that type of case.
Janet Cooper, attorney for the school board, said placing the pair on paid administrative leave is the first step in a discipline process that could include hearings and board decisions, up to termination. She said Tuesday afternoon that Schoenlein and Clark had not yet been presented the official reason for their discipline.
Neither the state auditor’s office nor the Ohio Department of Education will confirm or deny ongoing investigations, and the subpoenas that were served on the district are not subject to public records law, so the Dayton Daily News could not confirm details of the state’s investigation.
But that investigation was referenced in the records the district turned over to the newspaper on Tuesday. The Daily News filed a public records request with the district April 24 that sought “e-mails, memos and correspondence” involving any state investigations or audits. The request came after the school board had held a number of executive sessions during public meetings.
Among the records released to the paper is a Feb. 12 memo from school board President George Bayless to Schoenlein and Clark that acknowledges “the testing and levy issues that appear to be part of a review contemplated by the state auditor’s office.” The memo also and references “subpoenas and other requests for information” that the district had already received.
Both Bayless and Cooper, the board’s attorney, said those subpoenas focused strictly on the levy issues.
In a March 5 e-mail to a member of a northern Ohio accounting firm, Clark said Kettering City Schools may need the help of a forensic accountant. “The state auditor’s office is looking into whether the district spent public funds promoting our recent levy, and our attorney asked if I could estimate the amount the district spent doing so,” Clark’s e-mail reads.
Schoenlein, who was present for the board’s vote Tuesday, declined comment. He has been superintendent of Kettering City Schools since June 2009, and served as principal of the district’s high school, Fairmont, for two stints totaling eight years between 1997 and 2009.
Clark said Tuesday’s board vote was a surprise. “I’ve been treasurer and chief financial officer for Kettering City Schools for 14 and a half years, and our office has won numerous awards,” he said, referencing a half dozen awards with distinction from the state auditor’s office. “This is the first I heard about this (disciplinary) decision. I knew nothing about the board’s concern with me.”
The school board Tuesday appointed recently retired Vandalia-Butler schools Superintendent Christy Donnelly as acting superintendent. They also named Daniel Schall acting treasurer on a contract basis with the Montgomery County Educational Service Center.
“The Kettering Education Association is saddened by the news,” said teachers union president Rebecca Templeton-Owens. “We feel that Dr. Schoenlein has led Kettering City Schools in a positive direction over his many years of service to the district….At the same time, we respect the board’s right to make tough decisions regarding personnel.”
Bayless said Tuesday’s moves were not the result of pressure from the state auditor. Cooper said the school district has not heard back from the auditor’s office since the subpoena process months ago. The district said it will keep the public advised as the investigation progresses. The next school board meeting is scheduled at 6 p.m. May 13 at Fairmont High School.
“This was a serious problem that the board has been working on for quite a while,” Bayless said. “We tried to solve it, but it wasn’t being solved. So this board did what it’s supposed to do. We think we did it for the kids, for the schools, for the public, for the taxpayer.”
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