The Ohio State Board of Education on Monday selected Vice President Charlotte McGuire as its new president and Steve Dackin as the new vice president.
The vote came after former board president Laura Kohler and board member Eric Poklar resigned late October after voting against the repeal of an anti-racist resolution.
"It's in my heart that we need to move forward and pursue peace and unity for the sake of our children and for the sake of our state," McGuire said. "I believe Ohio can distinguish itself... if we can all get on the same page. I am humbled. I didn't really seek this."
The election of McGuire and Dackin, who both voted to repeal the resolution, comes amid a push by state legislators to winnow the governor's influence over the state board of education.
McGuire beat out Antoinette Miranda for president overwhelmingly, with only four votes for Miranda or abstaining. Dackin won 11 votes to seven.
McGuire, appointed by former Gov. John Kasich in 2016 and then elected in 2018, has 40 years of experience in the government and nonprofit sector. Hailing from the Dayton area, she was a community affairs director for the city of Dayton and was a leader at multiple service organizations.
More:Former Ohio school board member Laura Kohler: 'Not resigning was not an option'
"When it comes down right to it, she’ll put children first over politics, over anything,” board member Martha Manchester said.
Dackin, appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine and from Reynoldsburg, works at Columbus State Community College overseeing community partnerships and was a superintendent of the Reynoldsburg City School District.
The context
The state board of education, which oversees the state's educational policies and offers guidance to schools, is a mix of 11 elected members and eight members who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
In the case of Kohler and Poklar, the GOP-controlled Ohio Senate decided not to confirm their appointments partly due to concerns over their votes to keep Resolution 20, said Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima.
Resolution 20 was a document passed by the board last year after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, which sparked nationwide protests and conversations on race. It condemned all forms of racism and called on Ohio schools to evaluate whether their test questions, textbooks and implicit biases contribute to the state's longstanding achievement gap for minority students.
But the resolution drew controversy amid a nationwide debate over teaching critical race theory, and was ultimately repealed, with Kohler and Poklar voting against the repeal. With no consent from the Senate likely, the two appointees resigned instead. Kohler said DeWine asked her to resign.
"I could not see the point of dragging this out because it wouldn’t change the outcome," Kohler said previously. "I was afraid it would be a distraction from the very important work of the state board."
Huffman said there were other reasons that the Ohio Senate didn't want to consent, such as they wanted board members from different places in Ohio.
The two were replaced by Brandon Kern and Richard Chernesky. Kern was sworn into office Monday.
All this drama over who is appointed to the state board may become irrelevant. State legislators are pushing a bipartisan bill to make the entire Ohio Board of Education an elected body.
Bureau reporter Anna Staver contributed.
Titus Wu is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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