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Findlay School Board Member Urges Public to Remain Uninformed

Author

John Eakin
April 09, 2025

After months of calculated silence from the Findlay City Schools Board of Education regarding damning evidence about the FFE investigation, Board Member Susan Russel has finally broken her silence—not to address the substantive concerns or provide corrections, but to launch a breathtakingly dismissive attack, attempting to label meticulously documented evidence from FCS's own records as mere "opinion being disguised as fact."

This brazen attempt to gaslight the community comes after board members were provided advance copies of all documentation and given multiple opportunities to correct any perceived inaccuracies—opportunities they systematically ignored until now, when the evidence threatens to impact their levy campaign.

The Article in Question: "Findlay City Schools Administrators Peddled FFE Investigation Falsehoods at Feb. 6 Town Hall"

The report Susan Russel takes issue with, published on FFEFile.com, documented how FCS administrators misrepresented key facts during a February 6 town hall that was meant to drum up support for the upcoming tax levy.

The article revealed several troubling discrepancies:

  1. Misrepresentation of Investigation Costs: When pressed about the true cost of the FFE investigation, Treasurer Pam Harrington claimed taxpayers had spent only $11,089. However, legal invoices obtained through public records requests (after a protracted legal battle) tell a different story.

  2. Timeline Fabrication: During the town hall, Superintendent Hatton claimed he held "several conversations" with Kevin Manley at the "end of the school year" about providing additional administrative support. The article provided Manley's actual resignation letter, dated April 11, with nearly two months of school remaining - contradicting Hatton's characterization of when these alleged conversations occurred.

  3. Selective Transparency: Perhaps most tellingly, the article quoted Superintendent Hatton's admission that "Since it's connected to finances, obviously we will answer these questions" - revealing that administrators only address certain questions when it might impact passage of the tax levy.

The article included verifiable evidence including the actual resignation letter and referenced the legal invoices obtained through public records requests - primary source documents from FCS itself.

The Claim vs. The Evidence

In a recent Facebook exchange on a WFIN post about an upcoming FCS levy town hall, community member Chaze Proehl commented: "I was unaware of the administration decisions on the new directors' positions for FFE that have made an obvious immediate financial struggle and it will definitely have an impact on my decision."

Russel's response was telling: "Please don't take something that you read on a blog as fact. It is not fact; it is opinion being disguised as fact."

Russel’s claim collapses under even minimal scrutiny. The FFEFile.com reports she's attempting to discredit aren't speculation or opinion pieces—they consist entirely of direct quotes, screenshots, and documents obtained directly from Findlay City Schools through public records requests. These are the district's own records—emails, internal communications, and official documents that Russel herself has access to as a board member.

Board Members Had Advance Knowledge

What makes Russel's dismissive comment particularly egregious is that all FCS board members, including Russel herself, had this information since before it was even published.

"You've known this information, which consists of documents from your own administrators, since October," I pointed out in response. "You've even been notified in advance, so corrections could be made if necessary. FCS Board provided none."

The FCS Board received advance notification of all FFEFile.com reports prior to publication, giving them ample opportunity to address any perceived inaccuracies. Their collective silence for months, followed now by Russel's vague dismissal without identifying any specific errors, represents a calculated strategy to avoid accountability.

FCS Board Member claims their records are a "Fictional Tale"

When cornered to engage with the actual content of the reports, Russel's response descended into even more blatant evasion. In a new comment, she wrote:

"Mr. Eakin, I have no desire to read your blog and would encourage others to do the same. Please do not drag me into your fictional tale."

This response is particularly revealing. Without having read the material, by her own admission, Russel dismisses it as "fictional" — yet offers no explanation of how she could determine its accuracy without reviewing it. This creates a truly bizarre and intellectually dishonest circular argument: she won't read the evidence, then claims it's fictional precisely because she hasn't read it.

Board members are charged with providing informed oversight, yet Russel openly admits she chooses blind dismissal over informed evaluation. This is precisely the kind of accountability failure that has plagued the FFE investigation from the start.

The Pattern Continues

Russel’s deflection echoes concerns voiced by community member Lee Ann Kubitsky Ireland in the same thread: "What people struggle to tolerate is when people don't own up to their mistakes and take responsibility for them... There are many voters that want the administration to take responsibility for the mistakes made and give proof they won't happen again."

Instead of addressing documented issues with transparency, the board's approach continues to be ignoring, deflecting, and dismissing — a strategy that only deepens community frustration regarding the FFE investigation and its aftermath.

When directly challenged to identify what specifically was false in the reporting — "What part of that report is false, Susan?" — Russel provided no response, tacitly acknowledging she couldn't identify any factual errors.

Independent Analysis

In the interest of thorough fact-checking, I had an independent AI system, Elon Musk’s Grok, analyze my reporting and Russel's claims. The analysis unequivocally confirmed the factual nature of the FFEFile.com reports, noting they are "primarily fact-based, supported by primary sources" including "Manley's resignation letter, legal invoices, and Hatton's quote."

The analysis concluded Russel's claim lacks credibility:

❝

There is little credibility to Russel’s claim that your article is "opinion being disguised as fact." Your article is grounded in factual evidence—Manley’s resignation letter, legal invoices, and Hatton’s quote—and while it includes some interpretive language, this is standard in investigative journalism. Russel’s dismissal lacks specificity, doesn’t address your evidence, and appears defensive, especially given her prior knowledge of your reports and lack of earlier response.

Conclusion from Elon Musk’s Grok AI Model

You can review the full conversation with the Grok AI model here.

Demand for Accountability Continues

As FCS aggressively pushes for passage of an income tax on the May 6 ballot, the community deserves far better than this contemptuous deflection and dismissal from its elected officials. The systematic pattern of avoiding accountability for the FFE investigation's mishandling doesn't merely "erode trust"—it obliterates it.

Perhaps most telling is this: if these reports are truly "fictional" as Russel claims, why is it that only FCS administrators and board members are challenging their accuracy? Not a single FFE parent, FCS teacher, or student who was actually involved in the investigation, attended the parent meetings, or had direct involvement in the process has come forward to issue corrections or claim misrepresentation. Those closest to the events—the people who experienced the investigation firsthand—have not disputed the documentation, while those with the most to lose politically are the only ones crying "fiction."

You already know why.

The evidence doesn't just speak for itself—it screams. If Susan Russel or any other FCS Board member genuinely believed there were factual errors in the FFEFile.com reporting, they've had months to identify and correct them. Their calculated silence, followed now by vague, baseless accusations of "opinion disguised as fact" without specifying a single error, reveals something far more troubling than mere incompetence. It demonstrates a fundamental contempt for public accountability, an arrogant disregard for taxpayers' right to know, and a cynical belief that Findlay voters can be manipulated through strategic misinformation.