Investigation clears Akron North High principal but raises teacher conduct questions

A months-long investigation into a North High School principal cleared her of any significant wrongdoing after allegations that she created a toxic and retaliatory work environment, but it has opened questions around teacher conduct, according to administrators.

Kathryn Rodocker will return to work Monday, a district spokesperson said, but not to North High. She will be assigned a position in central office, within the Department of Human Capital, through the end of the school year.

Rodocker had been on leave since August pending the outcome of the investigation by INCompliance Consulting, a third-party firm.

The investigation stated the evidence did not support findings for the allegations that Rodocker had "created a toxic culture consisting of retaliation, revenge, and retribution at North High School" or committed professional misconduct.

The investigators recommended Rodocker be returned to her position or a comparable one in the district, but that she also undergo professional development in "the areas of timely and effective communication strategies and time management."

Rodocker's attorney, Mark Weiker, said in a statement she is anxious to return to serving students and families.

"Ms. Rodocker is grateful that APS allocated the time and resources to thoroughly investigate the anonymous complaint and come to the right conclusion," the statement said. "Ms. Rodocker cannot speak to the motivations of the APS employee or employees who submitted the anonymous complaint, but hopes that they are willing to accept the outcome and move forward in a positive and professional manner. That is certainly what Ms. Rodocker plans to do."

But the investigation also painted a picture of a school building divided, and raised several concerns that may prompt additional investigations, Executive Director of Human Capital Yamini Adkins and Director of Labor Relations Mike Defibaugh told the Beacon Journal Wednesday.

Both also said proper processes were not followed at the start of the investigation, and that in hindsight, the issue may not have warranted Rodocker being placed on leave at all.

"This should not happen, what happened here," Adkins said. "It should not happen again."

Adkins and Defibaugh, who were both hired after the investigation began, said the report raised concerns that teachers had been defying direct orders from Rodocker, their supervisor, and that it was her pushing back on their conduct that led to their accusations that she was retaliatory.

Adkins said the report gives the district a starting point for looking into issues she said have "permeated" the district at large.

"We do want to maintain a district that is fair and people feel inclusive," Adkins said. "It's one thing to have performance deficiencies that people may have, that happens in all employment settings... and we have to address those issues.

"It's another thing where there seems to be a very deliberate targeting, if you want to call it that, of an individual. That's highly concerning."

There were a handful of specific allegations of teacher misconduct that Rodocker had reportedly tried to handle or discipline teachers for, according to the report, including an alleged racial slur used against a student, and a staff member who had their own security cameras installed in their office because they allowed students to spend time in there unsupervised.

Those issues could prompt secondary investigations if they have not already been through the investigative and disciplinary process, Adkins and Defibaugh said.

"There's some alarming things that were brought up through this report that we will have to follow up on," Adkins said. "I don't have all the answers of whether they've all been dealt with before. We'd have to take a look at that carefully. But there are some things that are significant here."

Defibaugh said the additional possible investigations are not being used as retaliation against teachers who come forward with concerns, or who participate in investigations.

"They are allowed to participate in an investigation, and you can't retaliate against somebody for doing so, is the moral of the story, but where there are facts that we need to follow up on and we independently discover, we will take action," he said.

The Akron Education Association teachers' union issued a statement Wednesday raising concerns about the district's handling of the case and alleging "educators having knowledge and evidence of Mrs. Rodocker's actions were never interviewed by the so called 'independent investigator.'"

The teachers' union also accused the administration "of not holding administrators accountable for their serious misconduct while applying the most severe consequences to educators."

"As the school board and this administration continue to wave the flag of transparency, they are doing the exact opposite," the teachers' union said in its statement. "Shame on Akron Public Schools."

Anonymous complaint sent to former board President Derrick Hall

The original complaint was anonymous, and was sent by email to then-Board President Derrick Hall, who left the board in January after he declined to run for re-election.

Adkins said anonymous complaints can trigger someone being placed on leave, but that it's not automatic. A quick review is usually done to assess whether there are facts to back up a claim and whether the seriousness warrants an employee to be put on leave.

Adkins said the process was somewhat derailed by Hall, who reached back out to the letter writer asking them to come forward and to let others know that they could come forward to him as well.

"That's just concerning from our end, a little bit, about how this whole thing came about," she said. "Again, we were not here at that time, but just from a process standpoint, that is not something a board director would be doing."

Reached by phone Wednesday, Hall said he forwarded the complaint he received to the superintendent, Michael Robinson, who was new to the job but had started by the time the complaint was sent. Hall noted it was the superintendent's decision to place Rodocker on leave.

"If someone brings me a problem, I did what I was supposed to," Hall said. "I took it to the superintendent."

Hall said he did have an additional conversation with a staff member at North High about it, but said he continued to be involved because the district did not have a director of human resources at the time, and confidence in the department was low.

"There was concern among some board members on how HR had handled the previous investigation involving Ms. Rodocker," Hall said.

Separate investigation in 2022 led to 72-day leave

The previous school year, Rodocker was placed on leave for a separate investigation in 2022 for an administrative issue involving adding classes to a student's schedule mid-semester and then dropping them. That leave lasted 72 days.

Rodocker received a human resources reprimand and was ordered to go through training. The district then transferred her to North, as North's previous principal had been moved to Ellet Community Learning Center.

The report does not indicate that there were further allegations of grade tampering or improperly adding or removing students to classes. Defibaugh said that issue was addressed in the report in a footnote from the investigator, but that footnote was redacted from the report sent to media. The district said that redaction was due to student privacy laws.

Robinson placed Rodocker on leave in August after the anonymous complaint was sent to Hall. Adkins said being new to the district, Robinson wanted an outside person to complete the investigation.

Adkins said they will work with Rodocker on next steps, whether that means returning to North or being a principal at all. The district will also provide the training that the report recommended.

"(Rodocker) was trying to address certain issues, trying to run an operation, set out some ground rules, set out some instructions, and was met with some resistance on that," Adkins said. "It is important as the principal to be able to have some control in terms of the management of the school. We want to make sure that we're there to support that."

Defibaugh said his biggest takeaway was that the district needed to better support principals overall in managing their buildings as workplaces.

Adkins said it was not a matter of being anti-union.

"We're not trying to show any animus toward unions," she said. "We work with seven unions here, we work successfully with them. But this situation, it really does raise that issue for us."

Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Investigation clears Akron North High principal but raises teacher conduct questions