Gene Harris has served as Columbus superintendent for 11 years.
The former top administrator of the Columbus City Schools faces possible jail time for alleged dereliction of duty.The charge is linked to a data-rigging scandalin Columbus that surfaced more than two years ago.Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien said the charge against former superintendent Gene Harris is based on false attendance and grade data the district filed in 2012 with the Ohio Department of Education.State law requires each school district to file accurate reports.“So the nature of the charge is that as the CEO of the Columbus school district that Dr. Harris did not see that the reports are accurate,” said O’Brien.Harris is the third Columbus school official to face criminal charges linked to a data scrubbing scandal.A state audit last year showed thousands of student grades and attendance records were changed to make the district look better on state report cards.Harris is expected to plead ‘no contest’ to the misdemeanor charge later this week, and could be sentenced up to 90 days in jail.