State Rep. requests records from Lorain Schools

LORAIN — State Rep. Joe Miller, D-Amherst, is requesting records from Lorain Schools. Miller sent a letter to the district Tuesday requesting records. Members of the community have made similar requests that haven't been fulfilled. "My goal here of our office is just to get an understanding of what the HB 70 effect is in regards to giving power to the CEO over complete managerial, operational and financial control of the district," he said. "Has that led to any mismanagement of funds, mismanagement of personnel, what is going on." Miller is requesting records for after David Hardy Jr. was named CEO in 2017. His list includes administrators who have been hired and fired; administrator contracts; vendor contracts; documentation of legal fees paid by the district; documentation of reimbursement of expenses for administrators; and administrator evaluations, including Hardy's. If the requests are filled, Miller plans to make the information public. He expects it should take no more than a week or two to turn around the documents. "We used to be able to have a Board of Education check a superintendent, everything was transparent, everything was accountable and the community and the public knew how their tax dollars were being spent," Miller said. "That's not the case under HB 70 and in particular under this administration. With that in mind, I'm trying to get to the bottom of what aspect of school reform this HB 70 is actually helping or hindering in regards to educating students." The district's Academic Distress Commission released Hardy's long-awaited evaluation scores Tuesday evening. On a scale from 1 to 4, he earned a 1.6 for this past school year. He earned a 2.6 for the 2017-18 school year. The scale was based on state teacher evaluation levels, with 1 being the lowest possible score, meaning "ineffective." The records requests are based on information sought by community members and ADC member Diane Conibear-Xander, who has been requesting information since her appointment in January. "There's a lot of questions about his spending," Conibear-Xander said of the CEO. "I hope that eventually he is forced to turn over public records — that was a big concern of mine." She said if Hardy doesn't honor records requests, the matter could be taken to small claims court — something she wanted to avoid. Miller said the Attorney General's Office is aware of the requests he's made, and Conibear-Xander has previously notified them of the roadblocks she and others have faced. Miller said it's up to the Attorney General's Office to enforce the laws, but doesn't want "to go that far." "I'm going to hope that this CEO will recognize that you have a State Legislature representative of 120,000 people that is asking for documents and public records that should be fulfilled in a timely manner, and I believe that request is not an unfair request," he said. He and others in the Legislature plan to request similar documents from Youngstown Schools to be able to compare the districts. Hardy and the school district did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening. Contact Carissa Woytach at 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.