WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Former Westerville City Schools superintendent Joseph Clark is hoping to clear his name of what he says were mischaracterizations made by the district.
The school board announced last week Clark was stepping down for "personal reasons."
A document within Clark's personnel file, obtained by 10TV through an open records request, states that Clark was confronted about potential violations of board policies and ethics laws. Instead of going through with the investigation, he elected to resign.
According to the document, around Feb. 14, Clark recorded several teaching modules for an online course at American College of Education, based in Indianapolis. He allegedly made the recordings during the school day in his district office using district-owned equipment. The document says there were five such recordings in the recycle bin on Clark's district account.
The document also says Clark told the board that he was going to stop teaching at the college. Clark rejected that claim in a statement issued Wednesday, saying he told the board he would give up the position at ACE if it was ever a distraction from his duties as superintendent.
"My unequivocal presence and visibility at school and community events shows that my ACE work was never a distraction from my work as superintendent," Clark said.
Clark added he has been a professor in the Education Leadership program at the college since 2000 and it gives him access to future educators.
"I have the opportunity to develop and mentor future school principals, many of whom live and work here in Ohio," Clark said. "Not only does this work fulfill me professionally, but it is also beneficial to the school districts in which I work."
Another allegation made in the document is that Clark, before he starting as superintendent last fall, posted a promotion for a book he authored on his official Westerville Superintendent social media page — something the district described as a possible violation of ethics laws.
The document also says he gave a presentation at Otterbein University on Feb. 19 and his PowerPoint contained a slide with the Westerville City Schools logo alongside an image of a book he authored.
Clark said he has never used his position as superintendent to promote his book and that he was invited to Otterbein to speak to students in the college of education about preparing for their careers.
"The presentation I gave was voluntary, unpaid, and done on the February 19 Presidents Day holiday. The introductory slide of my presentation contained pictures of the Westerville Schools logo, a PhD cap, and a picture of my book. It was an introductory slide created to tell the audience of future teachers about myself," Clark said. "I did not promote my book or ask the audience to buy it. It was a simple slide meant to tell the audience about myself."
The document says Clark was confronted about the presentations and possible violations of ethics laws, as well as other violations of multiple board policies "prohibiting the use of district time, facilities, and resources for personal/private business."
The board told Clark it intended to start the disciplinary process based on his conduct. Clark decided to resign before the investigation took place.
Clark was only on the job for about five months before he resigned.
The board recently named Angela Hamberg to serve as interim superintendent. Clark is serving as an advisor to her and will assist in the transition of administrative and operational duties through July 31, the effective date of his resignation.