'THE FACTS OF THE CASE'
For years, according to the facts found by US Ohio Southern District judge Michael H. Watson a collection of Hills and Dales elected officials have been trying to get Hills and Dales moved from the Plain Local School District into the Jackson Local School District.
According to Judge Watson, the following is the history of the effort:
- In 1954, Hills and Dales chose to a part of the Plain Local School District in spite of being physically located in the Jackson Local School District,
- In 1954, at a minimum was 94% (actually a year 2000 number) white
- By 2019, Plain was 72% white whereas Jackson was 87% white with 42% of Plain's students being labeled 'disadvantaged as compared to Jackson 16%,
- In 2004, Hills and Dales attempted to transfer from Plain SD to the Jackson SD,
- In 2005, Ohio's administrative process coupled with confirming action of the State Board of Education resulted in Hills and Dales (H&D) being denied a transfer on the basis of maintaining sociological diversity and on the basis of the adverse economic impact to Plain Schools if a transferred was permitted and, moreover, a Hills and Dales appeal was unsuccessful,
- Due to and contemporaneously with the failure of the 2004/2005 effort, then Hills and Dales councilmen David Peppard and Patrick Dunn continued to search for ways to effect the desired transfer one such effort (apparently involving Ohio General Assembly [OGA] member Kirk Schuring of Stark County in 2018) in a proposed land Plain/Jackson land swap which failed.
- In June, 2019 Stark County auditor Alan Harold presented to H&D councilman Peppard the language in what has been labeled "Fast-Track Transfer Statute" [FTTS] for review, (see excerpt from Judge Watson's opinion immediately below: (Note the proposed FTTS was inserted in HB 166 but removed in the Ohio Senate version only to be reinserted [see bullet point below] on the 'oral motion of Scott Oelslager)
- In 2019, the OGA was in process of putting together Ohio's every two years budget bill (HB 166) and low and behold what shows up as a part of HB 166, to wit: (highlighting added)
