Board of Education Update: Nov. 2, 2022

At a special meeting called on Nov. 2, 2022, the Lakota Board of Education passed the following resolution with a 4-1 vote. The resolution was supported by Board President Lynda O'Connor, Vice President Isaac Adi and board members Kelley Casper and Julie Shaffer. Board member Darbi Boddy voted in opposition to the resolution. 

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Our Lakota community has been through a lot of turmoil during the last few years. In addition to all the challenges of COVID-19 and its impact on our students, we've been addressing curriculum issues, developing and presenting the master facility plan to our stakeholders, and most recently, responding to concerns about our superintendent, Matt Miller.

After receiving the initial report from the Butler County Sheriff's Office, which consulted with the Prosecutor's Office and found no probable cause of wrongdoing, the Board unanimously voted to hire an outside investigation team to provide our community with an additional level of assurance that all the relevant facts have been discovered in an unbiased and lawful manner. The scope of this investigation included an in-depth forensic audit on all devices used by Superintendent Miller. 

We were informed recently that the results of the investigation and forensic audit have been completed and we spent the past two hours hearing from the investigator. The investigator found no evidence indicating that Mr. Miller engaged in any act that violates law, district policy or his contract.

As a final precautionary step to confirm these results, the Board and Mr. Miller have agreed to a fitness for duty evaluation that will take place soon. 

The Board's process has been very thorough. The Board acknowledges that even these best efforts will probably not be acceptable to some. However, we must move forward and focus our attention on prioritizing the education of our students.