'We ask that you give our administration a chance to do the job for which they were hired,' the board wrote.
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — The Rocky River Board of Education on Monday formally addressed recent controversies in the school district in a letter to the community, throwing its support behind Superintendent Dr. Michael Shoaf and other administrators.
The statement obtained by 3News, signed by Board President Jessica Wilson and all four of her colleagues, comes less than a week after the district accepted the resignation of Kensington Intermediate School President Dr. Heath Horton. Horton faces accusations of inappropriate relationships with a number of Rocky River High School students during his time as an assistant principal at that building.
The investigation against Horton as well as the removal of High School Resource Officer Michael Bernhardt for separate allegations of inappropriate behavior caused outrage among parents in the city. A group of them eventually began circulating a petition demanding the board fire Shoaf, Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Anderson, Executive Director of Human Resources Samuel Gifford, and Executive Director of Pupil Services Jennifer Norman. Shoaf, for his part, has dismissed the effort and vowed to remain in his post.
On Monday, the board acknowledged it is taking the petition "seriously" but asserted it would not be taking action to remove the four, partly citing "employment contracts which cannot be terminated in the absence of good and just cause and a lengthy, expensive legal process." In addition, members said firing the aforementioned administrators would be "far from the careful, efficient succession planning that this district needs to ensure long-term success."
"We intend to work with Dr. Shoaf and his team to effect change," the board declared. "We ask that you give our administration a chance to do the job for which they were hired."
As for what comes next, the board vowed to come up with a three-year "strategic plan" based on community surveys and input and also to "deepen our commitment to providing regular, timely communication and sharing information with you regarding school business." You can read the full text of the letter below:
"We would like to take this opportunity to speak directly to the Rocky River community about recent events, organizational changes, planned improvements, and other responses in the wake of recent events.
"We wholeheartedly accept our obligation not only to remediate problems but to go to great lengths to prevent problems from occurring at all. We are committed to learning from recent events and instituting change carefully aimed at preventing any recurrence. We hope that our students, staff, parents, and everyone who is a part of the Rocky River Schools’ community will join us in this effort.
"Our process starts with asking ourselves the difficult questions: Why have these events occurred in our district? What could we have done to prevent these events from occurring in the first place? What steps must be taken to prevent any recurrence? While we have collected a great deal of information, we do not have all of the answers at this point. We will see this process to completion and keep you updated along the way. If you have questions, we hope that you will come to a Board meeting or reach out to us by email at [email protected].
"Complaints & Concerns. One of our focus areas is what process can we use and/or revise that will allow our students, staff, parents, and other members of the Rocky River Schools’ community to register their complaint in a way that is more effective and efficient. We currently have Board Policy 9130, which provides a detailed complaint process. We believe that Policy 9130 provides a valuable approach for teachers, building principals, central office administrators, and the Board to receive and address complaints. In the coming weeks, we will be discussing this Board Policy at Board meetings. We will also be discussing additional options for ways that we might receive and address complaints and concerns.
"Communication. Another area of our focus will be providing information. We will deepen our commitment to providing regular, timely communication and sharing information with you regarding school business. We are planning more presentations at our Board meetings regarding the current policies, protocols, and practices in place related to student well-being. We will also be discussing how to improve information sharing at upcoming Board meetings.
"Culture. We are working in partnership with our administrators and staff to engage outside expertise to support an organizational review and other efforts to examine policies, protocols, and practices, particularly as they relate to the culture of our district and each of our school buildings.
"Our Strategic Plan. Soon, we will meet with our strategic plan facilitator to review the information gathered from the focus groups, interviews, and surveys over the last several weeks. We will use that information to set the course for the next three years of our district, and we expect additional priorities to emerge from that work. We commit to keeping the community informed of those efforts through our board meetings, including opportunities for community members to get involved and support the work ahead.
"The Petition. We take seriously the call for the resignation or termination of four of the district’s top administrators. Please know that these administrators, like our other administrators and teachers, have employment contracts which cannot be terminated in the absence of good and just cause and a lengthy, expensive legal process. This is required by law. Moreover, immediately and simultaneously terminating the employment of four of our top administrators is far from the careful, efficient succession planning that this district needs to ensure long-term success. We intend to work with Dr. Shoaf and his team to effect change. We ask that you give our administration a chance to do the job for which they were hired.
"Continued Excellence. Our school district continues to provide high quality educational experiences every day to our more than 2600 students. We remain deeply proud of the excellent work done by our students, teachers and staff, and led by our administrators. We are grateful for the tireless work put in by our administrative team, principals, teachers, and support staff. We have a strong foundation of excellence on which to build towards improvement.
"As a board, we are committed to keeping the community informed of our work. You can expect regular updates directly from the Board at our public meetings about improvement efforts and opportunities to provide input directly to us. Together, we have much to celebrate, and we look forward to leading our district into the future.
"Signed,
The Rocky River City Schools Board of Education
Jessica Wilson, PresidentPeter Corrigan, Vice PresidentDiana LeitchLauren NegreyAddie Olander"
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