Pictured are East Cleveland School Board of Education President Una H.R. Keenon (in red sweater), East Cleveland School Board Member Tiffany Fisher (in blue attire), and Sheba-Marcus Bey (in green sweater), whom East Cleveland Public Library Board of Trustees fired last week without either a formal complaint or a hearing, and not even a performance review since her hiring seven months ago. On Tuesday, two of the library trustees responsible for the firing were themselves ousted by the school board, which appoints library board members under state law.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief,
Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog,
Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog
Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press with print newspapers in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
EAST CLEVELAND- The East Cleveland Board of Education voted 5-0 at a special board meeting Tuesday night to oust Cleveland Public Library Board of Trustee President William Fambrough and member Devin Branch, a community activist, from their appointed positions on the seven-member library board.
Minutes of the meeting state in relevant part that the removals are for dereliction of duty, malfeasance and harassment of Black women library employees, including executive director Sheba Marcus Bey, whom the trustees fired last week at a special meeting held a day before New Year's Eve.
"The vote was taken at the school board meeting last night and we voted to remove them," said school board member Tiffany Fisher, an East Cleveland schools parent elected to the school board in November.
Fisher told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read online Black newspaper and one of the most read digital Black newspaper's in the country, that Fambrough and Branch have both been requested to "turn in their keys."
Under state law the school board appoints library board members there, unpaid positions with perks, including out-of-state travel for conferences on the taxpayer's dime.
About 50 people attended Tuesday's school board meeting in below zero weather at Prospect Elementary school, one called by East Cleveland School Board President Una H.R. Keenon after the regularly scheduled meeting, the first meeting of the year where Kennon was reelected president.
Fambrough and Branch both gave speeches after the vote to oust them was taken and vowed to remain aboard, both saying that the state law that gives the school board the authority to appoint them does not give the same school board the authority to remove them for cause.
The 4-3 vote by the trustees last week to terminate Marcus-Bey in the absence of any either written charges or a formal complaint, or even a performance review since her hiring in June, has divided the East Cleveland community.
Fambrough, Branch, former East Cleveland councilman Charles E. Bibb Sr and Edward Parker voted to terminate Marcus Bey's contract while the three women library board members, Dr. Mary Rice, Leontine Synor and Terra Turner, voted against it saying the actions by their four male colleagues are irresponsible, unjust, and likely illegal.
East Cleveland is a majority Black impoverished suburb of Cleveland, a largely Black major American city. In fact, it is Cleveland's first suburb.
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