OHIO — Newly released recordings by the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office sparked additional calls for any Columbus City School Board members involved in the leaked document scandal to resign. The recordings were a part of a complaint filed by Columbus City School Board Member Brandon Simmons. 

What You Need To Know

  • Two recordings of conversations with Simmons, Board VP, Tina Pierce and board member Jennifer Adair
  • The conversation with Pierce details a strategy on what to say, when and how after the document was released
  • It also details how to deal with CEA leadership
  • A brief conversation with Adair provides an explanation into why she shared the document with another board member and the belief that the public leak was an effort to remove Simmons from the board

In the complaint that Simmons filed with the auditor’s office last month, Simmons accuses colleagues of misusing public resources and working to “hide information surrounding the leaked document about school closures, threatening him with physical violence and retaliating against him.

The new recordings come a day after Simmons walked out of a special board meeting after the board voted and passed a resolution which censures Simmons in a number of ways. This includes:

  • Cutting off access to all school grounds and attendance at virtual district events without written permission.

  • Prohibiting him from holding office hours on district property without permission 

  • Requiring a security escort during board meetings and any time he’s on school grounds 

The board accuses Simmons of improper conduct on school grounds that disrupted day-to-day operations. Board President Christina Vera said during its special meeting Monday night, “This is in no form a retaliation. This is about the safety of our students…our staff, and I’m really disappointed that we still are here having to deal with this.” 

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Excerpts from a recording with Tina Pierce: 

“What we do not want or need and I hope you are not recording this because I do not approve of being recorded is for you to proactively go out here and break the story and say something or put additional information that John can go after.” 

“Let John show his cards and then we respond appropriately.” “If he does the public records request…okay you have the document from us that has passwords on it. You don’t have names attached to it. He does the public records request…okay now you got some people that were in the room. Remember what you told me earlier…we were all in the room. It was a variety of ideas. Is Jennifer going to stick to that story?”

“Brandon, if you’re preemptive, and you go out here and say x, y, z happened, it doesn’t let the full story play out.” “Right now, the story is Brandon wrote a document. We need to go after Brandon. Nobody knows the full players that were in the room or who shared the document. The way that becomes exposed is by John making the public records request.” “There is a record of who was in the room. So be still, be patient.”   

“There are some people who feel very strongly and they want to destroy you and they want you to never be able to run for office again. I think at the end of the day, we let those people come out…show their cards.” 

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Excerpts from a recording with Jennifer Adair:

Adair: “Obviously, I shared it with Sarah, but I didn’t know she was going to do that.” So one, I just wanted to apologize to you.” 

Adair: I talked to her, and I was like, you know you just put our whole board at risk. Why would you share that outside of us?” “I told Sarah…you just created a storm. This just makes us again look like we don’t know what we’re doing. Why would we share internal information outward?” 

Simmons: “I think today, you never do anything right away, right? Cause that’s when people are …like emotions are high.” “It’s a Friday night, I don’t think we need to do anything. Tomorrow’s Saturday. We can catch our breath.” 

Adair: “Sarah, I think she’s got some real big feelings about you.” 

Simmons: “What do you mean?” 

Adair: “I mean I really think she’s doing this to get you off the board.” 

CEA President, John Coneglio said “It is beyond disappointing that many of our Board Members, who should be looked to as examples of public service, are instead wallowed in plotting, infighting, cover-ups, and self-preservation. Fortunately, there is one Columbus City Schools Board Member who had the courage to do right by our community. Board Member Ingles should be commended for her integrity and fortitude.”