Over the past two days, we’ve revealed how emails and documents released by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) directly link outgoing State Superintendent Dick Ross to the creation of a Youngstown Cabinet that worked to enact a takeover of the Youngstown City Schools via the hijacking of House Bill 70.
The Youngstown Cabinet intentionally kept their membership a secret while Ross and ODE crafted the plans. Not until after the bill was swiftly passed (in a single day) did they finally reveal their existence. Minutes from the April and May meetings were released months ago that […]
We reported yesterday that emails and documents released by ODE tie Dick Ross directly to the formation of the Youngstown Schools “cabinet” that eventually led to the takeover of the Youngstown City Schools, despite his testimony to the State Board of Education that the committee merely came to him for advice. More emails and documents continue to defy those claims, showing that Dick Ross was part of a very small group that began the process and initiated the formation of the cabinet and its members.
A follow-up phone call occurred on September 27 with even fewer individuals than […]
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In July, after the state legislature passed a bill to change the process for Academic Distress Commissions, leading to a state takeover of the Youngstown City School District, Dick Ross told the State Board of Education that the plan was not his, was not led by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), and that “It came from Youngstown. I provided assistance.”
Recently released emails and documents from ODE show that Ross actually did substantially more than that, collaborating with Governor Kasich’s office on a plan to overtake Youngstown and being intimately involved in the crafting of plans since […]
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