NEWS

Forest Hills board says it's taking 'appropriate action'

Hannah Sparling
hsparling@enquirer.com

Scroll to the bottom of this article to read the documents via Scribd

The Forest Hills Board of Education is taking "appropriate action" regarding an investigation into Superintendent Dallas Jackson.

What that action is, though, remains unclear.

The district on Tuesday released documents pertaining to an investigation into whether Jackson wrongly intervened on an exam his son failed. The records shed a bit more light on what happened, but they don't actually say whether Jackson was in the right or wrong.

There's a timeline of events, a listing of facts gathered, but no objective resolution.

Board president Randy Smith issued a statement, but it says only that the board reviewed the investigative report, met with Jackson in executive session and is taking "appropriate action."

There's no mention of the incident in Jackson's personnel file, meaning if any disciplinary action was taken, it wasn't documented there.

The Enquirer requested clarification through district spokeswoman Erika Daggett, but she said personnel matters are protected under the Ohio Revised Code, and thus any clarification would have to come through the district attorney.

Jackson issued the following statement: "Forest Hills is a district of excellence and we will continue to stay focused on educating our students and supporting our students and teachers. My goal has always been – and continues to be – to do what is best for the students of Forest Hills School District and to help each student reach success."

Problems begin with a December exam

At issue is a first-semester pre-calculus exam. The test was given Dec. 17 and 18 at Turpin High School, and when grades came back, it turned out 44 percent of teacher Lindsey Stelzer's class failed, records show.

Report cards went out on Jan. 21, and on Jan. 22, Jackson requested a copy of grade distributions for Anderson and Turpin high schools.

On Jan. 23, Jackson met with Turpin Principal Peggy Johnson and told her the poor scores were due to either "a bad test or bad teaching."

On Jan. 26, Jackson met again with Johnson, "emphasizing that something needed to be done," records show. Jackson offered the idea of averaging out exam grades, but the calculus teachers "rebuffed the idea," according to the records.

Jackson then turned the matter over to the district's human resources director, asking her to consult an attorney.

Ultimately, teachers and school officials agreed to mitigate the poor scores by offering students the opportunity to correct their mistakes and earn back 10 points. The plan was "unacceptable to the Superintendent" but was implemented anyway, records state.

Stelzer, too, was unhappy but conceded to the plan. In an email to district administrators, she wrote that she was "analyzing and stewing" over the results but stands by her test.

"I feel strongly that the exam was fair and equitable but was clearly unhappy with the (students') results," she wrote. "... I made peace with the results – especially because the semester averages remained the same as years past."

The investigation was sparked after more than two dozen Turpin teachers signed a letter to the school board, alleging Jackson bullied the teachers into changing grades.

The district hired David P. Kamp, an outside investigator, to look into the situation. It is still not clear how much Kamp was paid for his report. The Enquirer made its first records request regarding the investigation on April 16, but nothing was provided until just before 5 p.m. Tuesday.

For some, that lack of immediate transparency is troubling. There's a "culture of fear" at Forest Hills, and people are afraid to speak up, said lifelong Anderson Township resident Elizabeth Barber, who has a daughter in kindergarten.

"My No. 1 concern is integrity, and it's being called into question at this point in a public way," Barber said. "The school board has a responsibility to react with integrity, and that means being forthcoming, that means being open and honest. And up to now, I don't think we've seen that.

"Forest Hills has a major integrity issue on its hands. There's a reason people are reacting so strongly to this."

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