Kenton Board Approves Numerous Personnel Items at October Meeting

The Kenton City Schools Board of Education conducted the October meeting Monday evening.

The Board approved a resolution to terminate the contract of Bus Driver Glenn T. (Chris) Horner effective immediately.

The following is the resolution on the agenda used by the Board as the reason for taking the action: 

WHEREAS, Glenn Thomas (Chris) Horner (“Mr. Horner”) is employed by the Kenton City School District Board of Education (“Board”) as a Bus Driver; and

WHEREAS, the Board believes a Bus Driver must perform his job duties in a competent, efficient and professional manner; and

WHEREAS, the Board believes a Bus Driver properly can be held to a standard

of behavior consistent with the employee’s responsibilities to perform his job duties in a competent, efficient and professional manner; and

WHEREAS, the Board believes Mr. Horner’s misconduct, as alleged below, is

wholly contrary to his responsibilities, duties and obligations as a Bus Driver; and

WHEREAS, the Board delivered and/or made all reasonable attempts to deliver a

written Pre-Termination Notice to Mr. Horner on September 30, 2022, this Notice is incorporated here by reference, it included a directive to attend a meeting on October 6, 2022, and Mr. Horner attended the October 6 meeting with union representatives and legal counsel to respond to the charges against him; and

WHEREAS, the Superintendent now recommends the Board terminate the

employment of Mr. Horner for incompetency, inefficiency, neglect of duty, failure of good behavior, and/or other acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance, based on his misconduct, as alleged hereinbelow; and

WHEREAS, the Board agrees with these recommendations;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, pursuant to Article 10 of the Negotiated

Agreement between the Board of Education of the Kenton City School District and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, Local 344, that the Board terminates Mr. Horner’s contracts of employment, effective immediately, for incompetency, inefficiency, neglect of duty, failure of good behavior and/or other acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance in his job. The grounds for such consideration, each of which is asserted below and each of which is asserted independent of, and/or in combination with, some or all of the other grounds enumerated, are:

1. On September 8, 2022, Mr. Horner abandoned his job and/or left the volleyball team stranded at an away match for approximately one hour after it ended. More specifically:

a. After dropping off the volleyball team at Celina at approximately 4:00 p.m., Mr. Horner drove to Lima, which is about 40 minutes from Celina, to have

dinner. Mr. Horner did this even though he knew or reasonably should have

known to stay close to the event site in case of a cancellation, emergency or

other event affecting the team’s schedule. Mr. Horner also did not inform the

coaches that he planned to leave Celina.

b. Mr. Horner remained away from Celina after the volleyball match ended and the team was ready for pick-up. Mr. Horner did this even though he knew or reasonably should have known to return to the event site before the match ended. As a result, the team was stranded in Celina without transportation, and the coach(es) had to call school officials to determine Mr. Horner’s whereabouts and when he would return to transport the team back to Kenton.

c. Mr. Horner remained away from Celina after school officials contacted him. It should have taken 40 minutes to return, but Mr. Horner left the team stranded without transportation for more than one (1) hour. Mr. Horner’s conduct also caused the District to incur unnecessary and/or inappropriate fuel and bus wear and tear expenses, even though there are several restaurants in Celina.

d. Mr. Horner did not return to Celina until 9:08 p.m., which delayed the

volleyball team’s return to Kenton by approximately one (1) hour. As a result,

Mr. Horner disrupted the schedules of students, parents, and coaches. As a

result of Mr. Horner’s conduct, the coach(es) had to send a mass

communication to all parents about the delay. Celina’s athletic director also

had to find an area for our students to wait, and the athletic director was

forced to remain at the event site until Mr. Horner arrived.

2. Mr. Horner engaged in a repeated pattern of misconduct. In addition to Mr.

Horner’s latest incident, he received a three (3) day unpaid suspension following an incident on April 7, 2022, in which he failed or refused to adequately supervise, control and/or correct students who engaged in behaviors including but not limited to:

a. Walking and/or dancing up and down the bus aisle while the bus was moving;

b. Wrestling and/or punching other students in their seats;

c. Climbing and/or tumbling over seats;

d. Pulling other students across the aisle while the bus was moving;

e. Jumping up and down while the bus was moving;

f. Sitting and/or laying in their seats with their feet in the air;

g. Dangling hair out the window;

h. Throwing objects across the aisle;

i. Screaming and yelling;

j. Playing with and pretending to talk on the bus radio; and

k. Allowing student(s) to spray perfume around the bus after another student vomited.

3. Mr. Horner has engaged in a repeated pattern of misconduct. In addition to 

the incidents described in paragraphs #1 and 2 of this resolution, which occurred

less than six (6) months apart, Mr. Horner received:

a. Written directives on or about March 9, 2020 for inappropriate comments on the bus radio and disregard of student ridership procedures;

b. A formal written warning on October 20, 2021 for a moving violation citation while operating a school bus with students aboard; and

c. A formal written warning on January 20, 2022 for offensive and/or negative comments that Mr. Horner made to a student and a staff member.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the District Treasurer is authorized and directed

to promptly furnish Mr. Horner a written notice, signed by the Treasurer, of this

Board’s action to terminate his contract and that this notice be sent via certified

mail.

Several other personnel items on the agenda, including the approval of a list of substitute positions were approved as well.

As part of the meeting, Kenton High School Principal Jason Jones presented a report.

Cadets Sadie Larabee and Patrick Cannode of Kenton High School’s Army JROTC program presented their program and accomplishments to the Kenton City Schools Board of Education Monday night.

Treasurer Jill Smith gave an update on interest earned from March through September, “For our LFI’s (Local Funded Initiatives), about $40,750, our local share is almost $44,000, and then our state’s very low because we just got a couple of state receipts in the last two months, that’s a little over $3000. Those aren’t as aggressive on the interest rates as the other two are, again because it’s going to be more cyclical where it’s going to be coming more in and out quicker, so that’s where we’re at with interest.”

Superintendent Chad Thrush said they are continuing to provide updates on the schools website https://news.kentoncityschools.org/  about the construction process for the new building, “There’s a new floor plan that’s on there. It’s still changing. We’re hoping to have  pretty well narrowed down by Thursday this week, because we’re really ending the schematic design phase of the project and we’re going to be moving into design development, which now that we know where things are going to be located as far as what’s going to be next to what, how they run the electrical and types of heating and air condition systems that type of stuff is now going to have to be planned for that building.”

The next meeting will be held November 21.