EDUCATION

Acting Superintendent John Stanford ended up the lone finalist for superintendent after three other candidates dropped out, two secretly, according to the resolution.

The resolution proposed using a mediator to oversee a new search, and an “independent legal counsel” to advise the board.

Two investigators for the state auditor’s office watched from the back of the room. They were there to “observe,” auditor’s spokesman Ben Marrison said.

The decision on who will lead Ohio’s largest school district is now officially in limbo. No further meetings are planned, pending the investigation by state Auditor Dave Yost’s office into whether the board violated the Ohio Open Meetings Act, board President Gary Baker said after Tuesday’s meeting.

“I believe it’s advisable

that we allow his investigation to conclude,” Baker said.

Asked whether decisions were made behind closed doors as the resolution stated, Baker said: “We continued to act on the advice of counsel.”

The resolution spells out many decisions made privately, revealing new details:

• The board worked privately with its search consultant, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, to create a list of seven candidates to interview.

• It later met secretly with them, and while in a private meeting, the board “identified another prospective candidate to meet with,” bringing the total to eight, including four who never applied for the job and weren’t on the list of 19 candidates released by the district.

• After meeting with each of the eight candidates, the board privately narrowed the list to five semifinalists.

• The board then identified two secret semifinalists for a second interview, neither of whom had applied for the job. However both of these “original finalists” withdrew, sending the board back to the drawing board.

• The board later announced three different names as “finalists”: Stanford, former district administrator Keith Bell and Akron City Schools Superintendent David James. Bell was eliminated during a public vote, and James withdrew, leaving only Stanford.

The board never intended to violate state law, Hudson said after the meeting. “For myself, I feel like we did make decisions (in private meetings). ... It was unfortunate. It was all in the name of getting the best candidate.”

The mediator was proposed to oversee the search because “we can’t agree on anything,” Hudson said. The independent counsel would be to ensure that the Open Meetings Act is followed the next time, she added.