ADVERTISEMENT

    Columbus City Schools Fills Board Vacancy With Interim Appointment

    Delivering an outcome that was reported as a possibility yesterday, Columbus City Schools announced last night after its regularly scheduled business meeting that an interim appointment had been made to fill its vacant Board of Education seat.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Bryan O. Steward, who served as an elected BOE member from 2011 to 2015 and is also a former Columbus School Board Member and Vice President, was selected by a unanimous Board vote. He’ll serve in the post temporarily until the collective has an opportunity to “thoroughly evaluate the impressive list of candidates” that responded to CCS’ public call for interest. The seat was vacated by Dominic Paretti, who resigned amid accusations of sexual harassment on September 21. Steward had previously accepted a similar appointment to fill an unexpired BOE term in 2009.

    “We are fortunate that Mr. Steward has stepped up once again in service to this District, our students and families, and our community,” CCS Board President Gary L. Baker II said in last night’s press release. “He recognizes the importance of this role and has committed to fill the seat for the short term, allowing us to take the proper time we need to find the best candidate to serve on our Board of Education.”

    Steward’s term of service is expected to extend until the end of November, at the latest, and he will not seek a permanent appointment to the Board, even though he was one of the 55 candidates who had submitted interest to the division.

    CCS’ quick decision to pause their Board candidate search and make an immediate move to remedy their vacancy came with some legal pressure. Ohio Revised Code (ORC 3313.11) requires that elected school boards fill empty seats at their next public meeting no sooner than 10 days following a vacancy or resignation.

    “The deadlines set by the Ohio Revised Code to fill vacancies on boards of education are simply too restrictive for large districts such as ours, where we have a large community filled with committed individuals ready to serve,” Baker stated in the release. “The stakeholders of our District deserve to have a process that provides the greatest opportunity to find the best candidate, and we want to take the time to review every person who has submitted their interest in joining our Board.”

    A firm date by which CCS anticipates they will announce their choice has not been made public, although Baker is “hopeful he and his colleagues hope to identify a permanent candidate in the next several weeks.”

    The next CCS Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 16. Unless otherwise noted, meetings are held at 5:30 p.m. at the Columbus Education Center, 270 E. State St., and are open to the public, according to their website.

    For more information, visit ccsoh.us.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Subscribe

    More to Explore:

    The Confluence Cast: Columbus’ Youngest Elected Official, Brandon Simmons

    Big cities have big city problems. Columbus’s newest school board member argues that the inequity of our schools shows that we certainly are a big city.

    Ohio Schoolchildren Continue to Go Hungry as Lawmakers Tinker With Budgets

    BY: SUSAN TEBBENThe most recent state budget made changes to...

    Ohio Board of Education is Running Out of Money

    Pointing directly to changes made in the Ohio legislature’s most recent budget, Ohio’s new superintendent of public instruction said the State Board of Education is facing real funding issues.

    Ohio School Reform Fight Heads to the Courts

    A Franklin County judge has issued a temporary restraining order to block lawmakers’ attempts to overhaul Ohio’s K-12 education system.

    Columbus Youth Foundation Honors 88 Students From Columbus City Schools

    On Tuesday evening at Huntington Park, 88 students from...
    Grant Walters
    Grant Waltershttps://columbusunderground.com
    Grant is a freelance writer for Columbus Underground who primarily focuses on music and comedy. He's a Canadian transplant, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and schooled in Vancouver, British Columbia. Grant is also the co-author of two internationally acclaimed books: "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1960s" and "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1970s." He has also penned numerous articles and artist interviews for the nationally recognized site, Albumism.
    ADVERTISEMENT