ASHLAND – The Ashland City Schools Board of Education signed a letter of separation and accepted a letter of resignation from high school social studies teacher Kimberly Siracuse during a special meeting Monday.
Siracuse was arrested Sept. 10 and faces three counts of sexual battery for alleged conduct in May and June 1997 with a former female student. She pleaded not guilty to all three charges on Sept. 12 and posted bond the same day. A jury trial has been scheduled for March 15, 2017. The charges are third-degree felonies and are punishable by up to five years in prison.
The letter of separation was approved by a 4-1 vote, with board President Dr. James Wolfe voting against it. However, Wolfe did sign the letter as it was approved by a majority of the board.
“I feel strongly called to oppose this deal. I cannot help imagining that this could be my child,” Wolfe said.
According to the terms of the letter of separation approved by the board Monday night, Siracuse’s contract with the district ends on Oct. 31, the date of her resignation, and she is retroactively placed on sick leave from Sept. 13 through Oct. 31. In addition, Siracuse will receive pay for two accumulated personal days and $5,000 “settlement of a dispute as to whether (she) is entitled to an Early Retirement Bonus under the current collective bargaining agreement.”
The district received the former teacher’s letter of resignation Friday, which states, “Please accept this correspondence as my irrevocable letter of resignation from the Ashland City Schools, effective the close of business on Oct. 31, 2016.”
In a statement that Wolfe read from during Monday’s meeting, he said, “On the other hand, I have concerns that if it becomes likely that Miss Siracuse will be found guilty, she could plea bargain to a misdemeanor and face no felony conviction or imprisonment for an event that took place nearly 20 years ago. She will then reasonably tell ODE that the district took no formal action other than an initial report on March 4, 2016, against her whatsoever. She’ll be able to say that the district never investigated any charges and that she resigned with the intent to retire. She will have nothing further filed against her with ODE from the district documenting this event and any other of the countless allegations from other students and adults because we never up to this point performed a district investigation out of deference and by request of local law enforcement. She could one day return to the classroom in another district.”
Speaking by phone Tuesday, Wolfe again expressed his displeasure with how the situation was handled.
“Our job is not to decide if she is criminally guilty of anything. Our standard was simply was there behavior that was unethical or unbecoming of her position. The standard of proof for that is clearly much lower. But we’ll never get to that, because we have walked away. We have swept it under the carpet, washed our hands of it and said it’s not our problem,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe said Tuesday he had believed that after the police concluded their investigation, the district would look at the evidence and make a decision about whether to proceed with termination. But now, he is unsure if that was ever the case at all.
“The district has never done an investigation so we have nothing further that we can report to the Ohio Department of Education, we’ve agreed in this separation agreement that we will put nothing in her personnel file. We’re in my opinion complicit in a form of a cover-up,” Wolfe said. “I believe we have a responsibility that extends beyond our district. I believe we have a moral obligation, that if it turns out that she really is guilty, that we not give her a pass out of our district.
“I’m not happy with the terms but I’m happy with the outcome,” board member Bryan Lefelhoc said by phone Tuesday afternoon. Lefelhoc, who voted in favor of the agreement, said he would have preferred to move for termination but knew it would be risky to move forward and that ultimately this was the best decision for the district and the students in the district.
Supt. Doug Marrah did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Siracuse was removed from classroom work on March 4 when the school district reported her to the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Professional Conduct with allegations of conduct unbecoming to the teaching profession. At that time, she was assigned to work from home, based on district needs, on paid leave.
