News
OU Trustees Chair To Retire As Columbus Superintendent
By: Tim Sharp
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The Chair of the Ohio University Board of Trustees is expected to announce her retirement as the head of Columbus City Schools.
Gene Harris, who's been in the position since 2001, was tasked with moving the system from "academic emergency" to "academic watch," something she accomplished two years later.
Upon taking office she announced her intention to raise the system's graduation rate froom 55 percent to 90 percent.
While she was unable to achieve that level, she did improve the rate to nearly 73 percent by 2006.
Her administration came under scrutinty though this year when she confirmed that some adminstrators might have benefitted financially by changing student attendance records after-the-fact.
Such a revision was apparently made to improve the state report-card numbers.
Harris vowed to investigate and stop the practice.
At the time she told the Columbus Dispatch the practice was "indefensible" and she had no knowledge of the practice though many of her top-level administrators apparently did.