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Ohio School Board President Has No Concerns About the Lack of State Superintendent Applicants

Richard Ross and school board
KAREN KASLER
/
OHIO PUBLIC RADIO

There’s been an opening at the Ohio Department of Education since the end of last year, and so far, it appears no one has applied to become the new state school superintendent.  But the president of the board that will pick the new schools' chief says he’s not concerned. 

State school board President Tom Gunlock said it’s taken a while to develop, post and advertise the position vacated by former superintendent Richard Ross on Dec. 31.  The deadline is two weeks away. But Gunlock says he’s not worried that no applications have been received.

“No, not at all. We’ll see how many applications we get on April 8, and we’ll come up with a process depending on how many we receive as to how we go from there.”

Lonny Rivera, who’s serving as interim superintendent, has told the board he doesn’t want the job because he’s concerned about his family life and what he called the “political sniping” on the board. The successful candidate will be the Kasich administration’s fourth superintendent in five years.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.