State Auditor David Yost says the Columbus City Schools may have to conduct another search for a superintendent.
Jim Letizia reports.
Yost tells the school board in a letter sent Tuesday it may have violated Ohio’s Open Meetings Act, which requires all official decisions to be made during public meetings. The district conducted a seven-month search and reviewed applications behind closed doors. After Akron schools chief David James dropped out and former deputy superintendent Keith Bell was removed from consideration by the board without comment, that left interim superintendent John Stanford as the last candidate. Yost says the decision leading up to that are void from the beginning. Yost says his office has launched a preliminary investigation of the process. There is no public record of how the board decided to cut the list of 19 candidates to the three semifinalists announced in early February, before it held a public vote on the trio. A spokesperson says the board has yet to review the letter.
