Columbus City Schools Superintendent Dan Good announced on Thursday that he’s leaving the district he helped guide out of a data rigging scandal four years ago.
Good said in a Thursday morning press conference that’ll he retire at the end of December.
“Knowing that so much has been accomplished and our District is back on a sustainable positive trajectory with the right people and processes firmly in place, I have felt a sense of peacefulness about starting another journey I put on hold fifty months ago,” Good was quoted as saying in a blog post released by the district.
“I purposely chose to wait until December so our District can stay focused on starting this new school year strong and so I can work closely with our Board of Education to ensure an easy transition,” the post said.
The announcement comes less than two weeks before the start of the new school year. The district says there's not a timetable for finding a replacement.
Good became superintendent at a dark time in the district’s history. His hiring followed the resignation of former superintendent Gene Harris, who stepped down amid a scandal in which several school officials changed student grades and retroactively withdrew and re-enrolled students who performed poorly on standardized test scores. That kept their test scores from affecting district report card ratings.
Harris pleaded no contest to a criminal charge of dereliction of duty. She received probation and community service.
In the weeks after Good’s hiring, voters overwhelmingly rejected a levy request that would have sharply increased property taxes and changed the auditing structure of the district. It was the first Columbus City Schools levy to fail in more than two decades.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther released a statement Thursday, saying he was "grateful for the leadership Dr. Good provided to Columbus City Schools. He took charge of Ohio's largest school district at a particularly challenging time and helped restore its integrity."
Last November, voters approved a more-modest levy to fund a backlog of maintenance projects and expand district operations.
Good was previously the superintendent for Westerville City Schools.
