Cincinnati Public Schools, Ohio

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The Cincinnati Public School District (CPS) is a school district in Ohio. It is located in Hamilton County. It is Ohio's third-largest public school district, serving a 90-square-mile that includes most of Cincinnati, Ohio.

The district was founded in 1829 as the Common Schools of Cincinnati.[1]

[edit] Governance

The Cincinnati Board of Education is the governing body for the Cincinnati Public School District. The Board includes seven people who are elected at large to four-year terms. The Board selects its president and vice president from among the 7 members of the board, typically at its organizational meeting on the first Monday in January.

In January 2009, the board includes:

  • Eileen Reed, president.[2]
  • Melanie Bates, vice-president.[3]

[edit] CPS hides resumes in box

In its 2009 search for a new superintendent, the Cincinnati school board is having job applicants send their resumes to a P.O. Box in Corryville, Ohio. The resumes are to accumulate, untouched, in the P.O. Box until March 16, 2009.

The school board doesn't want employees in the district to see the names of the applicants. The school board also believes that under the Ohio Open Records Law, it would be required to make public the names. The board believes that by having applicants send their resumes to the P.O. Box in Corryville, it can legally sidestep any obligation to make the names public.[4]

Attorney Jack Greiner, who represents The Cincinnati Enquirer in open-records issues, believes the board is mistaken. "When it's received in a P.O. box they control, whether they go and open it or not is completely irrelevant. It is in all respects a public record and the fact they tried to set up this scam should not work. Feel free to use the word 'scam.'"

The board has conducted three superintendent searches in the decade beginning in 2000. In one case, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, "the board only learned of a tawdry sexual harassment scandal involving one semifinalist after the Enquirer named him as a candidate, and members of the public started doing their own research."

The Cincinnati Enquirer has filed a lawsuit against the school district in the Ohio First District Court of Appeals seeking to require the district to open their mail and provide the resumes to the public. The suit alleges that the "failure by CPS to produce the records in their entirety is consistent with its continuing pattern and practice to delay production of public records and otherwise to frustrate the letter and spirit of Ohio’s Sunshine Law". [5]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ The Early History of Cincinnati Public Schools
  2. ↑ Eileen Reed
  3. ↑ Melanie Bates
  4. ↑ Cincinnati Enquirer, "CPS chief resumes hidden in box", February 4, 2009
  5. ↑ Enquirer sues Cincinnati schools, Cincinnati Enquirer, March 5, 2009


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