Hilliard School Board Deadlocked 2-2
Resolution Calling for 'Pause' in City's Planning Divides Short Board Coming and Going
Hilliard Board of Education President Beth Murdoch will not reintroduce a failed resolution that appealed to the Hilliard City Council to re-evaluate its comprehensive plan, a planning document that recommends where and how commercial and residential development is to occur in the city.
Board member Kara Crowley criticized how the resolution was advanced at the board’s Sept. 11 meeting and called for its removal from the agenda but the action failed when the four present members deadlocked 2-2.
Board member Nadia Long was absent.
Later in the same meeting, board members considered the resolution and the measure failed by the same 2-2 vote.
The resolution stated the board “expresses its concerns” with the comprehensive plan “density and lack of alignment” with the school district’s master facilities plan and urges the City Council to “maintain current zoning” and “supports a pause and re-evaluation of the comprehensive plan to take into consideration the impact of this plan on Hilliard schools.”
Crowley and board member Brian Perry voted in favor of removing the resolution from the agenda, and later, voted in opposition of the resolution, while Murdoch and board member Zach Vorst voted against removing it from the agenda, and later for adopting the resolution.
Murdoch said she will not reintroduce it when all five members are present.
“Although we disagreed about the substance of this resolution, the resolution was not adopted and I accept the final decision of the board. I have no plans to reintroduce the resolution for consideration when all five members are present. A quorum was present (Sept. 11). The resolution was presented, discussed, and voted down. That’s exactly how the process works,” Murdoch said after the meeting.
Murdoch said she drafted the resolution after reading the comprehensive plan, or community plan, in its entirety.
There are five standards recommended by Ohio School Boards Association for effective school boards and one of those standards involves the creation of district-wide conditions for student and staff success and encompasses a school board’s ability and action related to approving and monitoring the district’s budget, according to Murdoch.
“When I reflected on that standard, I felt it was prudent to ask the Hilliard City Council to pause any zoning decisions in order to give us a chance to analyze and incorporate the potential impacts of their plan into the district's master facilities plan,” Murdoch said.
Hilliard City Council adopted the community plan in April by a 5-2 vote with Council members Les Carrier and Omar Tarazi dissenting.
The community plan is a tool to guide growth in the city for the next ten years, according to Libby Gierach, president and CEO of the Hilliard Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the committee that revised the latest iteration of the community plan, last revised in 2011.
It encourages growing inward rather than outward, continues to focus on Old Hilliard, encourages revitalization along Cemetery Road, additional walking and biking opportunities, and encourages more mixed-use projects that are to bolster the city’s tax based, according to Gierach.
“While not every recommendation in the plan will be supported by everyone, it reflects the committee’s direction, the input of hundreds of other community members, and an understanding of data and trends,” Gierach wrote in a preface to the community plan.
At the Sept. 11 board meeting, Crowley asked that resolution be removed because of “the element of surprise,” and alluded to an agreement among board members against such maneuvers but that it continues to occur.
“This showed up on our agenda with no heads-up, no explanation, and I don’t feel I am in a place where I want to talk about it today,” Crowley said.
Another reason it should be removed from the agenda, Crowley said, is that it is a “distraction…”
“We have more important things to focus on…We need to focus on the real work, which is our students and staff,” Crowley said.
Further, Crowley called the resolution, “political theater at its worst.”
Referring to the 5-2 vote of City Council in April, and a video produced last month by Carrier and Tarazi criticizing the comprehensive plan, Crowley said, “I have no idea why this is on our agenda right now but I have a feeling it has something to do with their re-election and it is not the business of the board.”
Perry said he was concerned with the timing of the resolution’s appearance and that the language made it appear the board opposes the city’s comprehensive plan.
Crowley further questioned why the board is taking the precedent of recommending that Hilliard City Council curb advancement of its planning while not asking the same of Dublin or Columbus.
Murdoch replied while she would like to ask Columbus the same, “But because we have this partnership (with Hilliard), we can ask (and) have that conversation with Hilliard,” Murdoch said.
“But this isn’t a conversation, it’s a resolution,” Crowley said. “We should be having conversations not putting board resolutions in black-and-white and saying we are against this.”
Vorst replied he did not construe the resolution as opposing the city’s comprehensive plan.
“The ask is that we are trying to ask (the city) to give us time (to learn its impact on the district),” Vorst said.
In discussion of the resolution itself, in response Perry said he believes “pressing pause seems after the fact” as the plan was approved in April and that individual board members should advocate a position in lieu of formal resolutions.
“But having these resolutions on other governmental bodies, as a board, should be limited,” Perry said.
Concerning the timing of the resolution, Murdoch said the agenda was posted Sept. 7 for board members to see and disputed Crowley’s viewpoint that she was “surprised” and that inquiring about it prior to Sept. 11 would have violated Ohio Sunshine Laws.
“My interpretation of "no surprises" is that every board member has enough time to read and understand each item on the agenda so as to cast an informed vote. I believe I lived up to that commitment as there were no abstentions and everyone present cast a vote,” Murdoch said.
Our schools provide robust archives of a variety of important meetings including all sessions of School Board. The notes regarding this specific resolution begin on page 8 at the link below.
Hilliard Board of Education 9-11-23 Meeting Notes
Murdoch should reintroduce it at every future meeting…then Nadia won’t attend until after the election. It’s sad and telling that this is even a partisan issue, but everything seems to be with this board.