 Education is always on the ballot. Whether there’s a School Board race (not this year, FHSD!) or a new bill being proposed in Ohio, expanding access to vouchers here in Ohio (news article here) or a Presidential Candidate promises to abolish the Department of Education at a rally in Wisconsin, we pay attention to the activity around educational policies including funding, curriculum, and much more. We hope to bring you relevant information about the policies of both parties before the November election through a series of blog posts. While federal policy influences FHSD's experience, local elections matter as much if not more, but we hope those interested in hearing about educational policy on the ballots - the debate between the presidential candidates Kamala Harris (D) and Donald Trump (R) is Tuesday night. Articles recently posted by the Pew Research Center and the Brookings Institute provide insights from their research, and they’ve provided additional useful context. Vice President and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris released her policies ahead of the debate here, where they've chosen to focus on affordability. The Democrat platform outlines a focus on high-quality education in all zip codes. The platform highlights a commitment to universal pre-K, and an effort to lower the cost of post-high-school education.  The Democrats further outline a plan to expand access to career and technical education, support for magnet schools focused on science, the arts, and International Baccalaureate programs to meet the multiple paths a diverse group of American high school students benefit from. Investments in high-quality science, tech, engineering and math programs are also outlined, as the “Democrats believe we must prioritize STEAM education and funding to equip students with the knowledge and skills to understand complex scientific issues”. They intend to ban for-profit schools’ use of public funds while increasing accountability for charter schools by requiring the same standards of transparency as traditional public schools. One place both parties seem to share an interest is in expanding broadband access for all; this makes sense, as so much of what high school students are doing now is through computers. Additionally, Democrats suggest a plan to “significantly increase investments in rural, urban and tribal broadband infrastructure to close the digital divide.” This is one place where we see Republican and Democrat support. Ohio announced a $94.5M investment expansion high-speed internet to 35,000 households using a combination of funds provided by the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Bill ($17.5M and $50M from state funds and the remaining from other sources). The Republican Party platform on education was difficult to find, so we’ll reference this list here, by The American Presidency Project. Many have suggested that Project 2025 has more of the Republican ideal policies, but the party has not stated a commitment to that platform despite the widely held impression. The summary of policy items from the Republicans has 20 items, only three reference to specific policies for education. Recently, at a rally in Wisconsin, presidential candidate Donald Trump repeated his intent to eliminate the federal Department of Education as part of an effort to send oversight back to the states, much like he did with access to abortion during his term as the 45th President. He has committed to this at several occasions since 2023, and this statement aligns with the statements made in Project 2025. The Republican list of priorities states:
Additionally, it’s notable that the Republican party educational platform has strongly pushed what they refer to as “universal school choice.” In an Article by the AP, they point out this is the “first time the GOP platform has gone beyond merely supporting school choice to calling for it as a universal option. It remains unclear how that would come to pass, given the platform also calls for shuttering the U.S. Department of Education, founded in 1979, and sending education policy-making “back to the States, where it belongs.”  Universal school choice - also known as voucher programs - would allow federal and state taxpayer dollars to be redirected to private schools, where accountability for the use of taxpayer funds has less oversight and fewer guidelines for use than public schools, and not every student is required to be admitted as public schools are required to support. In Ohio, where vouchers were originally intended to go to socioeconomically disadvantaged students in challenged or failing districts, most have gone to wealthy families that never attended public schools after Ohio expanded the income threshold for vouchers to cover beyond the original mandate and allowing it to be accessed by all Ohioans, even millionaires. See the news story here. Ohio spent over $1B in 2023 on Vouchers, money coming straight out of taxpayer funds originally intended for public schools, and that is expected to rise in 2024. Federal representation on educational policy will affect Forest Hills School District in this year and the years to come, as will local and state policies. From the devastating options provided by Project 2025, a policy document described by the BBC as “a Wish List for a Trump Presidency Explained” to the local policies proposed by Ohio elected leadership, it’s imperative we as voters know what is happening with reference to education The success of our own FHSD students and the future of American innovation & leadership will rely on what America's students learn today, which makes every policy related to education important. We hope to hear more about both Presidential candidates’ positions at the debate on Tuesday night (Sept 10, 2024) and we hope each of you will investigate the positions of both parties at state and federal levels, and watch the debate on Tuesday, and make informed decisions as we turn out to vote this November 5th.
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Our FHSD school board met last night in a special executive session, which followed the two executive sessions held on the night of the August board meeting. The topic: Employment or Compensation of a public official. The team at AdvocateFHSD discussed, and came up with a working hypothesis, based on input from former board members and community members. We’ve had our eye on actions around these two contracts since late last year — which inspired our January blog post — since the board is only responsible for hiring the two roles of Treasurer and Superintendent. The Forest Hills School District Board of Education has approved contract updates for nearly everyone employed by the district, the only remaining contracts to discuss would be those for the Treasurer and Superintendent, both of whom have contracts ending next year, 2025. Responsible leadership would consider risk vs. impact to the district with any significant decision to extend or terminate a contract.  District Superintendent Larry Hook and District Treasurer Alana Cropper We hypothesize that the board may be discussing an extension for Mr Hook, and a termination of the Treasurer, based on conversations we had at the end of the year in 2023. Speaking with former board members from previous terms, several advised that Sara Jonas, Katie Stewart and Bob Bibb still had intent to remove people who had been hired during previous board terms. Our sources suggested that Jonas’ strategy to block future board members from making hiring decisions that they would not make themselves if they were unable to be re-elected, or should seats for future Republican party candidates fail in 2025. We reached out to Board President Jonas for comment today, as of the publication time, we have not heard back. We will update if we receive a comment or quote.
Today, NPR reported that the Forest Hills School District offered to settle the lawsuit surrounding the Culture of Kindness Resolution, a written document created in part between Sara Jonas and several local residents and implemented in a flurry of chaos over a year ago. In June of 2022, members of the Forest Hills School District Board of Education Linda Hausfeld, Bob Bibb and Sara Jonas voted in support of a resolution that banned assignments where students would have to consider their race, socioeconomic class, religion, gender identity and sexuality. Board members Leslie Rasmussen and Katie Stewart voted against the resolution. Soon after, a group of parents and teachers filed a federal lawsuit claiming the resolution violated their constitutional rights. In October the judge assigned to the case issued a ruling on a motion to dismiss by the district. At that time the district issued a statement stating they intended to continue the fight to enact the language of the resolution “vigorously”.  The negative impact of external agenda-driven groups isn’t a risk here in Forest Hills, it’s already a reality.  In a series of emails recovered through a Public Records Request (PRR) and social media content garnered from investigations into education-attacking political groups, we learned
that the “4 for Forest Hills” may have allowed the influence of potentially fringe political party members, dark-money group leaders and non-FHSD residents, to drive the agenda that they've attempted to implement — bringing expensive and embarrassing consequences to our district as shown in previous blog posts. Extremist board members can impact school CostsFor school districts, the intolerance of extremism can have a multitude of costs, we lay out a few significant and measurable costs of extremism in school boards here. Legal expenses: when controversial or illegal actions are taken by board members, the school incurs legal expenses to defend against the lawsuits and investigations. Court fees, insurance company’s higher premiums, settlements and the hours and hours of employee’s time spent in depositions and defense takes away from the true work of the district. In July 2023, the Cincinnati Enquirer estimated the district had spent around $500,000, nearly $75 per student, compared with CPS - a district with three times the number of students, spending $33 per student. Insurance covers most of this, but premiums will suffer - if the aggressive and exclusionary actions were never taken, we would not be dealing with lawsuits.  In the first few weeks of the 2023-2024 school year here in the Forest Hills School District, the Superintendent and Board have made several critical decisions on short timetables that have left parents wondering:
  On August 29th, 2023, a soft-lockdown was enacted at 7 of the district's 9 schools. In the first email sent to communicate the lockdown (full email here), Superintendent Hook stated only that "we located an unauthorized individual walking around the Anderson High School campus a short while ago" followed by his second email (available here) which stated, "After a thorough search of the area, it has been determined that the unknown individual is no longer on district property" both quotes seem to imply the man was outside the school and then somehow disappeared.
Hook's email from today (shown above) explains a more serious breach. He provides details explaining that a staff member discovered an adult male had entered Anderson High school through a propped-open side-door and found his way into the hallways during school hours. Several sources advised us a week ago following the Forest Hills Council meeting (days before the district communicated to the public) that Superintendent Hook had shared the details now provided in an email. We at AdvocateFHSD.org have been gathering information about the incident, and before publishing anything, we reached out to the district yesterday asking for any statement on the situation and submitting a PRR for the surveillance video. Our full email is here. This past summer, a well-known and well-liked student mural promoting inclusion was covered by a new banner as part of a culture/branding initiative by Forest Hills. Community awareness of the action occurred around the time of the 2023-2024 Nagel Open House, and since that time, members of our group have been advocating for the relocation of the banner to allow the student-painted artwork to remain as a symbol of acceptance for all Nagel students. Today, students have informed us that when they arrived to Nagel this morning, the banner had been removed (as seen below) in what appears to be an unauthorized manner.  Advocate FHSD leadership and members categorically do not condone the destruction of school property at any time, for any reason. At the same time, it is a reasonable and logical conclusion that the act to hide the mural has clearly impacted students, some very personally. While we acknowledge aggression and physical acts are not the best way to resolve issues, it is clear that the decision to cover the mural will continue to negatively affect students, and there exists a very simple solution - listening to the students asking to allow the inclusive mural to remain visible. Students in Turpin's GSA independently wrote the district administration, asking for the mural to be moved further signaling the impact to them personally, as well as the apparent miscalculation of the administration regarding potential negative impact to students. We will continue to encourage district administrators to replace the banner on a different wall and insist they do not cover up this student artwork that is clearly meaningful to many.
If you are so inclined, we suggest an email to [email protected] and [email protected] to express your thoughts on allowing the mural to remain uncovered, and finding another location for the culture initiative's vinyl banner. We have also heard that other actions may have been taken today that negatively affect students. We do not yet have evidence to support the claims, so we also ask here: if your student has been asked by a staff member, administrator or board member to remove an article of clothing, sticker, pin, button or keychain because it demonstrates support for one of these celebrated communities shown in the mural by a staff member, administrator or board member, please reach out to us at [email protected] we would like to hear about the details of the incident. As a group, Advocate FHSD supports inclusivity and acceptance of every student's personal identity, religion and community of origin – whether that identity is theirs alone or one shared by many, we encourage understanding and acceptance. That support includes students’ expression of their identities in all legally-acceptable forms–including t-shirts, stickers or other symbols that promote a culture of belonging and, we are committed to continue to respectfully advocate on behalf of a welcoming, warm and accepting culture for all of our community's students and staff.  The “Culture of Kindness” resolution was dictated by an unelected community member, “typed” and introduced by board member Jonas, and passed by a majority (not unanimous) vote. We were all taken by surprise and a little frightened about what it meant for our students. Especially since many of the board members do not appear to have a vested interest in the success of our schools, or students attending the Forest Hills School District (FHSD) themselves, and they seem preoccupied with the “culture war” topic du jour.  As FHSD parents, one thing that we have kept an eye on in the wake of the resolution is the protection of our student’s first amendment rights. For instance, in the case of the student-led walkout over the cancellation of Diversity Day, a portion of students left Turpin and Anderson high schools quietly without disrupting class and exercised their right to peaceful assembly. Since art is a form of speech, we also kept an eye on the murals throughout the buildings. In particular, the Nagel mural about diversity that was painted (with permission) by students has become a symbol of belonging to future students in the years to come. The diversity mural has been covered by a large banner before the start of the 2023-24 school year to the dismay of some parents and students. We have been told by school leadership that banners have been installed as part of an overall strategy to create a culture where staff can be more proactive, less reactive, and more … inclusive.
 Nagel students arriving to the open house tonight were stunned to discover that the student-painted inclusive mural celebrating the diverse authenticity that our students represent has been hidden behind a black tarp with the simple words, "Honest Connections". Several parents received shocked texts like the one shown here as students learned of the change.  In June of 2022, a reliable source suggested that the new board members stated their intentions to pass the Culture of Kindness resolution and use that as a basis to remove the student-created mural from the view of Nagel students and staff. The resolution, passed by the Republican-endorsed school board members Bibb, Jonas, and Hausfeld resulted in an on-going legal battle and depositions of several board members and Superintendent Hook (Depositions can be found here for Jonas, Rasmussen, and Hook) and a former student writing a scathing Op-Ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Rules suggest the board needs to take an open vote to remove the mural, but in the absence of this, a principal may make the decision under the category of "routine maintenance" with the support of the Superintendent and board. Advocate FHSD has submitted a public records request to understand the source of the decision and determine if any link to the Culture of Kindness effort exists. Students leaving the Open House were informally asked about their feelings on the change, and several stated they were disappointed, and one stated "it felt like a shock, like that it's not okay to celebrate who we are here. Why would they hide something that lets people feel its okay to be themselves here?" From a timing perspective, wherever this decision came from, it is incredibly poor; in relation to the start of school and open houses & the shock that students would feel, not to mention the potential impact on active campaigns for open board seats. Could this decision possibly drive voter enthusiasm & stronger voter turnout for candidates running on a platform of inclusivity for all students? If the members of the administration were responsible, this is a significant misstep with regard to the community relationship, and we've heard from a number of teachers that no communication to staff was initiated, either. With a board meeting scheduled for August 16th, why not announce the intent to change, or take a vote by the board to ensure transparency and protect the community from speculation and overreaction and allow parents to prepare students for the change? Banners similar to the one shown are placed in all stairwells which indicates some consistency, and other murals not originally targeted by the "4 for Forest Hills" that drove less controversy are still visible. Some may appreciate that the decision to hide the mural with a large printed banner suggests they had time to order the sign in advance, why not take that time to communicate the intent in advance at the upcoming board meeting and to staff as well? We will continue to update the blog as more information becomes available, and evidence of the origins of the decision are provided. As a side note, Advocate FHSD will be creating & donating 1000 free stickers of the mural in honor of the student art and making the stickers available for students to add to binders, water bottles, notebooks and lunch containers should they want one to remind themselves and others that in this community, no matter your race, gender, religion or sexual orientation there are more people that celebrate our community's diversity than those that do not. Please stay tuned, we'll be digging in to see where the origin of the decision lies, and why no communication of the change was provided to the community in advance.
 Rich Neumann Anderson resident and former FHSD Board Member Rich Neuman has decades of experience in deal-making. As President of Baseball Development for Mandalay Baseball Properties and then as a VP of Major Accounts for Brailsford & Dunlavey, he pitched communities on new/renovated sports facilities and negotiated millions of dollars in sponsorships, naming rights, etc . He also was/is an expert in relationship development and innovative proposals that use a mixture of public and private funds (and optimistic revenue projections) to secure financing. Now, as a consultant for Elevar Design Group (formerly SFA Architects), Neumann has proposed the sale of Anderson High School for private, mixed-use development. High school students would move to the “Bartels campus,” and elementary students would be reshuffled as part of a consolidation. Innovative, indeed. To succeed in deal-making one must be persistent, and Neumann is nothing if not persistent. In fact, he attempted to consolidate the two FHSD high schools in 2010 when he was on the school board, and was involved in an earlier more detailed study in 2005. During that scheme, he and others were sued for closed door meetings that were subject to sunshine law. Once the Cincinnati Enquirer’s lawsuit brought the issue to light, public meetings were held and the community responded that no—they did not want to consolidate high schools. In 2015, he brought forward another plan to sell Anderson High School: “The Plan that Makes Too Much Sense". Many of the players involved in 2015 are the same players involved now: Neuman, Tom Fernandez of Elevar/SFA, Andrew Brossart of Bradley Payne Advisors (formerly with 5/3 Securities), etc. As part of the 2015 plan, Anderson High School would have sold for a dollar as part of a multi-part land swap placing a new high school on Beech Acres property. Ultimately, all parties agreed that deal was not feasible. Notably, the plan would use the $25 million earmarked for Anderson renovations toward the new school. The Anatomy of a Rich Neumann Development Proposal: We reviewed hundreds of news articles and dozens of public records about Neumann’s prior deals with municipalities across the US (and even Ottawa, CA). We discovered a few themes with notable similarities to “Project Intrepid.”
The current school board has stated on multiple occasions that financial problems have been inherited from the previous school board. Alana Cropper is the District Treasurer and has worked under many boards, including the present one. She has done a great job attempting to educate this school board about the district financials. Alana has even presented multiple options for an operating levy in either 2022 or 2023 to avoid large cuts and last resorts like consolidation. Her explanation can be found in a video from the April 6, 2022 Work Session. We would now like to present the 2021 Financial Report to you for your consideration:
Dear Superintendent Hook and Forest Hills Board Members,
Our community is one that deeply cares for district excellence. Two weeks ago, the community was made broadly aware of the intent of the board to re-shape the face of this beloved district and that conversations, both in person and virtual, have been happening between the board and Elevar representative Rich Neumann since March. Following the community feedback during and after the public board meeting September 21, Superintendent Larry Hook issued a letter with this commitment claiming “You can be sure that factual, reliable information on this topic will come from myself and the district. We will share more details as they become available.” To date, no new facts, details, or clarity to the decision-making process or proposal have been provided to the community, despite a plan being presented for 2 hours to the board members in executive session following the public meeting September 21. Communication from Elevar CEO also re-directs community inquiries to the district for the details of the plan. This community deserves more than an email asking us to trust them with such an important decision, when to date, all activity has been secretive, and requested records have not been shared. To prevent a further loss of trust in the district leadership at a time when the need for transparency is paramount, we respectfully request that the district issue a fact sheet or share the plan as it was outlined to them by Elevar in executive session. Thank you for advocating for district excellence with us, Advocate FHSD Board Chairs Kimberly Olthoff, Sara Sudkamp, Sean Martin, Kristen Kalonick, Katie Quehl 
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