FREDERICKTOWN — Two Fredericktown board members signed a memorandum of understanding with Knox County prosecutor Chip McConville on April 14 to resolve conflicts of interest between their board positions and employment at Knox County Career Center.
Board members Nate Bellman and Paul Napier will be required to recuse themselves from “any issue pertaining to the interactions of Fredericktown Local Schools and the Knox County Career Center.” This includes but is not limited to: issues of contract, recruitment and updates regarding the career center, according to a copy of the memorandum provided to Knox Pages by the board members’ attorney, Noel Alden of Zelkowitz, Barry & Cullers.
If Bellman and Napier do not abide by the considerations outlined in the memorandum, that opens the door to a removal proceeding, McConville said.
Bellman runs marketing and communications for KCCC, and Napier works as technology coordinator for KCCC.
On Dec. 22, 2021, Ohio Asst. Attorney General Byers Emmerling offered an informal opinion to McConville stating Bellman and Napier, then board members-elect, could not serve as local school board members while being employed by the joint vocational school — KCCC — that serves the local school district.
McConville asked for the opinion at the request of the attorney for the Fredericktown school district, he said at the time.
The informal opinion is not an official statement of the attorney general’s views on the question, but rather an analysis of the situation by the assistant attorney general. Informal and formal opinions are advisory, meaning the opinion did not block the board members-elect from taking office.
Bellman and Napier officially took office in January at the board’s first meeting of 2022, during which board member Todd McClay read a statement informing the community of a forthcoming resolution between Bellman and Napier’s legal counsel and McConville, figuring out a way for the board members to avoid conflicts of interest.
The two entities formally agreed on the circumstances of that resolution in the memorandum signed April 14. The memorandum outlines four specific steps to be taken when a conflict arises.
First, the board members will notify the superintendent of their conflict “as soon as reasonable” when they learn of a topic of discussion pertaining to issues of KCCC.
Next, the board members will immediately let the nature of their conflict be known to the rest of the board and recuse themselves from any discussion of a topic in which they have a conflict. When this happens, the board members will leave the room and, only after they have left the room, will discussion and/or any votes on the conflicted topic continue. This includes a vote to waive this qualification of a conflicted board member.
The board members in conflict will be asked to return to the room after discussion or voting on the conflicted matter ends, is tabled, or the board members’ disqualification has been waived.
Last, the board members in conflict cannot be the liaison to the KCCC and also cannot be involved in the selection of the KCCC liaison.
“We believe that this reflects the will of the people and allows these duly-elected officials to appropriately contribute to their community and their school,” the memorandum reads.
McConville echoed the memorandum conclusion in an interview April 14, noting, “The document speaks for itself in many respects, but I believe this resolves virtually all the issues that are described in that opinion.”
McConville also said he did not expect some of the potential conflicts listed in the informal opinion to occur.
The informal opinion from December 2021 included five reasons as to why serving on the Fredericktown School Board and working at KCCC were incompatible.
For example, finite funding for a local school district and a joint vocational school district puts them in adverse positions to one another when going before the county budget commission.
“As the prosecutor, I’m a member of the budget commission,” McConville explained. “We never have school boards appear for their budget commission hearings. They never participate. The three members of the budget commission get together, we review the numbers, and there they go.
“So there are some of those things that are almost never going to occur.”
Bellman and Napier submitted a joint statement April 14 in response to a request for comment from Knox Pages, through which they allege calculated action taken by the previous school board.
“(We) would like to thank our attorney, Noel Alden, and Knox County Prosecutor, Chip McConville, for working on the Memorandum of Understanding for us to agree to and sign,” the statement reads. “We are disappointed in the previous Fredericktown Local Schools School Board members and school attorney for their calculated actions against the two of us behind our back.
“(We) would like to thank the people of Fredericktown for their outpouring of support through this unnecessary ordeal. We have been and will remain committed to serving the students at Fredericktown Local Schools, along with our staff and community. We continue to work diligently with our current school board members at FLS to do what’s best for students.”
