City school board’s placeholder member leaving

A mix of state law and board policy is complicating the process to replace former Columbus Board of Education member Dominic Paretti, who resigned last month.

On Wednesday, the district announced that Paretti’s replacement on the board, Bryan Steward, also has resigned, effective Nov. 8.

Steward joined the board Oct. 2 as a placeholder and to buy time: State law requires the board to appoint a replacement within 30 days of a vacancy, or the county probate court instead makes the decision.

The board needed time because its policy requires that it “seek qualified and interested candidates from the community through the news media, word of mouth, and contacts with appropriate organizations,” and that anyone interested in filling the vacancy “submit a notice of their interest, in writing, to the treasurer,” setting up the opportunity for board interviews.

That process got bogged down when 55 district residents applied after Paretti suddenly resigned Sept. 21 as The Dispatch prepared a story saying he was under investigation by his employer, the state legislature, where he worked as a Democratic aide. Paretti was accused of sending early-morning, sexually explicit text messages to two female staff members.

Pressed for time as the 30-day clock was running down, the board named Steward — a former two-time board member — to fill Paretti’s seat, with Steward volunteering to resign whenever the board was ready to name a permanent replacement to serve until the next board election in November 2019.

Steward’s resignation Wednesday signals that the board has focused on some finalists.

“It has been a great honor to serve the students, community and district for this short period,” Steward said in a written statement released Steward Board President Gary Baker

by the district.

However, the permanent replacement now isn’t for Paretti, but for Steward, requiring the board to reopen the application process. Those newly interested will have their names added to the 54 others still under consideration.

“We are required to welcome additional applications,” board President Gary Baker said Wednesday. “Now that we do have a vacancy (Steward’s), the board can meet in executive session to discuss applicants.

“What this time did allow is for board members to read through all of these 55 applications,” he said.

Baker expects a permanent replacement to be named at a meeting Nov. 20. The board will not choose finalists for interviews in an open meeting, Baker said, even though it was forced to redo its superintendent search earlier this year because it had selected finalists for that post in closed sessions. Ohio law prohibits making any official board decision in a private meeting.

Baker said the board will talk privately, “and based on all of that discussion, I will then recommend to the board probably four or five candidates that I think we should interview.”

And if the board doesn’t like his recommendations?

“Then they’ll let me know that,” Baker said.