WOODVILLE, Ohio — The principal of Woodmore Middle School was put on paid administrative leave Monday at his own request, according to Woodmore Local Schools.
The move comes less than two weeks after Kevin D. Ball, 53, was informed that his contract, which expires July 31, would not be renewed.
In a letter dated April 23, Superintendent Mary Schaeffer informed Mr. Ball that his contract would not be renewed this year. He is paid $84,840 as principal.
First hired by Woodmore in 2012, Mr. Ball was named principal of the middle school in 2014. He also served as interim superintendent for five months in 2017 after then-superintendent Jay LeFevre resigned.
While officials have not discussed the reason for not renewing Mr. Ball’s contract, a review of the principal’s personnel file shows a recurring pattern of concerns about discipline, or the lack thereof, in the middle school. It culminated in February when a student was expelled for multiple instances of racial bullying.
As word of his pending departure from the school system became public last month, dozens of students at the middle school staged a walkout during the school day on April 26.
He is a favorite with students and many people in the community. On the day of the walkout, several parents also showed up to voice their support for Mr. Ball.
One parent, Martha Damschroder, said at the time, “Mr. Ball has a huge impact on the whole school. He is great with the special-education program. He is great with the kids. I have had kids in Woodmore for years. I’ve never had any issues, never heard any issues.”
“I have two kids who had Mr. Ball as a principal, so I came here to support him,” she said. “I know there are also kids at the high school who have walked out as well; my daughter was one of them.”
While he may be popular with many students, he has received continuing direction from his superiors to address discipline and other issues at the school, some going back to 2018.
In his annual review in May, 2018, then-Superintendent Tim Rettig cited a number of areas for improvement for Mr. Ball.
He wanted the principal to “utilize resources available to create an in-school restriction room. Create the room to be both disciplinary as well as intervention-based.”
“This type of room can make a big difference in your ability to interject both discipline and get make-up work completed,” Mr. Rettig wrote. He also urged Mr. Ball to work with another administrator to “improve discipline and organization to the cafeteria during lunchtime and dismissal.”
The superintendent said an in-school restriction room “should provide you with other avenues and abilities for more effective discipline and organization.”
The following year, Mr. Rettig noted, “Mr. Ball has worked on creating a better environment in the cafetorium, and we have seen improvement,” but urged further efforts to “make this a situation where you have more freedom from coverage and can step away if needed.”
Mr. Rettig urged the principal, “Do not hesitate to utilize the [school resource officer] in some of these situations.”
In October, 2020, nine months before his contract was set to expire, the school district decided to renew Mr. Ball’s three-year contract through July 31 of this year.
Multiple evaluations before and since the early contract renewal in 2020 have lauded Mr. Ball’s punctuality and good nature, with one noting he “is a philanthropist at heart. When someone needs assistance, he will find a way to support them financially through his community contacts.”
“Mr. Ball has created several external opportunities for Our Community to help ‘Our Kids.’ These organizations and groups will help our community as a whole, and his involvement is noted and appreciated by the administration,” Mr. Rettig wrote in 2022.
Also in his 2022 evaluation, the superintendent didn’t mince words when it came to Mr. Ball’s areas of improvement.
“Mr. Ball needs to improve his overall discipline in the middle school,” Mr. Rettig wrote. “He has been provided progressive discipline and needs to implement this with fidelity. He needs to keep a record of all discipline so he can use numbers as proof that his discipline is improving.”
In her first annual review of Mr. Ball in May, 2023, Superintendent Schaeffer noted “his warm, friendly demeanor and strength organizing events to strengthen our district and community partnerships make him a wonderful ambassador for our middle school and district as a whole.”
Ms. Schaeffer agreed with Mr. Ball’s self-assessment that school improvement was an area of weakness, and noted “while he has taken strides to improve our students academic performance this year (restart, readiness assessments) and more action is necessary as the students have not obtained optimal growth for the school year.”
Concerns about discipline at the middle school, however, came to the forefront in October when the school received an email detailing a racial bullying allegation. According to his personnel file, Mr. Ball failed to properly document the allegation that claimed racial slurs had been used against a student. Instead, he emailed the person who made the complaint and told them he had talked to the students involved and felt there would not be any future problems.
In February, however, the same individual who was subjected to the harassment in the fall reported additional acts of racial bullying.
The superintendent indicated she “overheard the conversation between Mr. Ball and the male student accused of using racial slurs” and that Mr. Ball “told the student that this had to stop and that he has been warning him about using this language.”
The student was assigned in-school restriction, but again, the principal did not document the student’s use of racial slurs and there was no documentation of the student using racial slurs during the 2023-24 school year.
According to the superintendent, in December Mr. Ball received an email from another student, claiming he had been the recipient of racial slurs, including “‘make me a taco’ and calling him a slave.” When a member of the staff asked Mr. Ball whether the incident should be documented in a particular program used by the school, Mr. Ball told her he would speak to the student and “these incidents are not recorded” in the system.
A final racial bullying incident, also in February, resulted in the expulsion of the student who made the slurs. In her assessment of Mr. Ball in April, the superintendent excoriated Mr. Ball’s lack of action.
“I contacted the compliance officers because it came to my attention that this allegation was made and that no action was taken. The investigation conducted by [elementary school principal Gary] Haas resulted in the suspension and ultimate expulsion of the student,” she wrote.
These events “reflect Mr. Ball’s ineffective performance” and “these behaviors do not support the mission, vision, and values of the district. Nor do they uphold the protections provided to students under the law,” wrote Ms. Schaeffer, who became the district’s superintendent in August, 2022.
The superintendent had made Mr. Ball aware of her concerns in March, when they met to discuss an improvement plan for Mr. Ball.
“He needs to initiate systemic change in relation to his handling of student discipline, and follow the progressive discipline policy, state, and federal laws,” she wrote. A mentor was also assigned to assist Mr. Ball “with areas in which he is ineffective and developing.”
Mr. Ball did not return repeated messages for comment.
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