On the very last day for Bellaire St. John Central Academy, Austin Smith was the assistant principal.
As promoted on its website, the school was the “Home of the Fighting Irish” and offered K-12 classes with a curriculum “built in order to help our students succeed and learn information that will be essential in life. We focus on college readiness and preparation for the next level of education.”
On June 19th on it’s “St. John Central Academy Facebook page, however, the following update was posted at 9:56 a.m.:
“Hello everyone!
It is with great sadness that the Board of Directors at St. John Central Academy in Bellaire, Ohio, must announce the closing of the school. This is a result of the lack of funding available to support the school.
“The decision was not made lightly, as the board and school leadership exhausted every possible avenue to secure financial stability for the Academy. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, dwindling enrollment numbers and increasing operational costs made it impossible to sustain the institution. St. John Central High School and St. John Central Academy have been a cornerstone of the Bellaire community, fostering education and values for generations of students.”
The board’s chairperson, Johnetta Leonard, explained to reporter Gage Vota in an article published on June 20th by the Martins Ferry Times Leader that the school’s biggest – and anonymous – donor pulled funding after the terminations of the principal – Dr. John Rose – and its athletic director – Bubba Kapral – caused a reaction that she told the reporter “sprouted a gigantic ball of fierce lies, disparaging comments, rumors, and a lot of these things were directed at me, but they were also directed at out major donor.”
Leornard said, according to the newspaper’s report, that’s when the donor told her, “I’m not doing this anymore.”
An attempt to communicate with the donor via Facebook Messenger has been unsuccessful.
“I thought we had a great year before the principal and the athletic director got fire out of the blue, and that just ruined everything,” Smith said. “We still thought we were coming back next year for another year, but the board made the decision to close. The main donor pulled out, and that was that. The school had to close.
“Most people know who the donor is, even though he’s supposed to be anonymous, so I won’t say his name out of respect for that, but without him and his donations, there couldn’t be a school,” he said. “Our student population had declined, and I was told that’s why the donor pulled the money.”
A Final Farewell
Following the terminations of Rose and Kapral, Smith organized an assembly so the two administrators could say goodbye to their colleagues and to the student body. He says he’ll take the blame.
For what? He’s not too sure just yet.
“I did call the assembly. I’ll take the blame for whatever because I thought they should have the opportunity to say goodbye. I’ll take the blame for that because it was me who called the assembly,” Smith said. “I don’t think it was a bad thing either, but board members did.
“The principal and athletic director had great rapport with the students, so they deserved that chance,” he said. “There were a lot of emotions during the assembly because they had to tell the kids they weren’t going to be there the next year. And I told the kids I wouldn’t be there either because I had resigned. I wasn’t let go like people like to say, and I resigned because of what I saw going on.”
Smith insisted his resignation wasn’t immediate and that he planned to complete his contract that runs through, yes, July 11th.
“And there were several others who weren’t planning to come back, and they announced those intentions during the assembly, but everyone still thought at that time that the kids were coming back. Everyone thought there would still be a school, and there were teachers who were planning to sign their contracts for the next year.
“Even though I was resigning, I was still planning to work through my contract, but I wasn’t seeing any replacement postings to replace the principal and the athletic director or any of the other teachers,” he explained. “There were budgets to work on, too, but there was nothing but crickets from the top. And then, the board voted to close it down because the donor pulled out.”
Contractual Clauses
The contract he signed for his second year is several pages in length, and there’s a section where Smith and other at-will employees had to initial to acknowledge more than a few requirements involving social media activity and public interaction.
“Anyone who signed a contract had initialed provisions that limits what an employee could and couldn’t say or post on social media. It stopped anyone from saying or posting anything negative even if it was truthful,” Smith said. “When you did, you’d receive a little message from the school’s attorney instructing you to take the post down.
“We never really heard from the (Board of Directors) much; maybe a text here and there, but that was it,” he said. “I think the assembly opened the donor’s eyes. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
Smith was a guest this past Monday on the “Novotney Now” radio program on River Talk 100.1/100.9 FM, and he plans to return on July 11th at 5 p.m. to continue the conversation. This time, however, his final paycheck should be in this bank account and the contractual requirements will be expired.
“There’s a lot of truth that needs to be talked about and because it’s not positive about the school and about people, I can’t discuss a lot of things until the end of next week. I can’t make posts on social media about it either,” Smith said. “I’ve already had to take down one post because of what it was about and who was mentioned.
“I know there’s a lot of gossip out there, but I won’t get involved with it. I plan to just stick to the facts I know,” he said. “The truth will get out there eventually, and I’ll help in about a week. Once the deadline passes, I hope I get to find out what’s true and what isn’t.”
Smith believes a number of his former colleagues will be searching for many of the same answers and information.
“That’s why I’ll be reaching out to some staff and faculty just to ask them what was really happening. I just want to get some answers for me personally,” Smith said. “I don’t know if I’ll get any of the answers, but I will ask the questions, and I’ll do it on the radio that first day.
“I just want to know the truth, and there’s a lot of us who want to why this happened and why it had to go down the way it did,” the assistant principal added. “We did a lot of great things at St. John’s, and if there were other donors, I know a lot of people who would love to keep it open. I know a lot of alums who feel the same way.”
