The Quiet Exit: Findlay City Schools Missed An Opportunity for Transparency and Trust

As Findlay City Schools quietly announces the retirement of a key figure behind last year's controversial FFE investigation, the district continues to misunderstand why voters rejected their November levy. In a Findlay City Schools Board meeting agenda last week, the district confirmed that Assistant Superintendent Krista Crates-Miller will retire at the end of the current school year. The announcement, buried in administrative updates, made no mention of Crates-Miller's role in last year's controversial Findlay First Edition (FFE) investigation that led to the departure of longtime director Kevin Manley and created deep community divisions that continue to reverberate.

Crates-Miller's retirement comes at a critical time for the district, which is desperately seeking community support for its May 6 levy proposal. The 1% earned income tax, which would generate approximately $13 million annually, faces significant headwinds following the district's November 2024 levy failure and subsequent $6 million in budget cuts.

However, Findlay City Schools leadership appears to fundamentally misunderstand the concept of "retail politics" – which can be used as an effective strategy to rebuild community trust through transparent actions rather than empty rhetoric if necessary. The quiet handling of Crates-Miller's departure represents yet another missed opportunity to acknowledge mistakes and begin genuine healing.

A Central Figure in Controversy

Documents obtained through public records requests paint a troubling picture of Crates-Miller's involvement in the FFE investigation. As Manley noted in his May 9, 2024 rebuttal letter (which the district never attached to the investigation report despite his explicit request), the investigation itself contained numerous inconsistencies.

Most glaringly, the investigator claimed interviews began on November 27, 2023, yet the investigating agency wasn't contacted until November 28. The report also failed to interview key individuals with direct knowledge of the program, including the Assistant Choir Director, FFE accompanist, choreographer, and costumer.

Crates-Miller's communications during this period, revealed through public records requests, suggest coordination that manipulated the investigation's purported independence. Yet instead of addressing these concerns, the district has opted to let Crates-Miller quietly exit while maintaining the narrative that the investigation was properly conducted.

The Failed Post-Election Analysis

Perhaps the most telling sign of Findlay City Schools’ strategic blindness is the apparent absence of any meaningful post-mortem analysis following November's levy failure. Standard practice for any organization facing a significant setback – particularly one with financial implications as severe as these – would be to conduct a thorough, honest assessment of what went wrong.

As someone who has built a career in political data science and campaign analytics, I find the district's approach particularly amateur. There are numerous sophisticated tools and methodologies available for conducting post-election analyses that could have provided crucial insights into voter sentiment and messaging effectiveness. I know this because I've played a role in writing some of those very software systems – tools that have become industry-standards in major political campaigns across the country.

Modern campaign analytics can identify which neighborhoods and demographic groups were most opposed to the levy, allowing targeted outreach to address specific concerns. Sentiment analysis of public comments and social media could have quantified the impact of the FFE controversy, and others, on public opinion. Focus groups with representative voters could have tested whether transparency about past mistakes would improve willingness to support future funding.

These aren't exotic techniques – they're standard practice for any well-run political campaign or ballot initiative. Yet Findlay City Schools appears to have bypassed this critical step entirely.

In fact, I even developed a specialized post-election analysis tool specifically for the FCS levy scenario, which is available on my GitHub repository.

Such an analysis would have identified the trust deficit created by the FFE investigation, and others, as a significant factor in the community's reluctance to approve new funding. It would have recognized that rebuilding credibility requires more than just rhetoric about transparency – it demands demonstrable actions that acknowledge past mistakes and implement visible reforms.

Instead, Findlay City Schools seems to have simply repackaged the same levy proposal with the same messaging, hoping for a different result. The district has failed to understand that voters aren't simply rejecting a tax increase – they're expressing a fundamental lack of confidence in the administration's judgment and integrity.

A proper post-election analysis would have led to concrete steps: public acknowledgment of investigative missteps, appropriate administrative consequences for those responsible, and the implementation of new oversight procedures to prevent similar incidents. Rather than allowing Miller to quietly retire, the district might have recognized the symbolic importance of addressing her role in the controversy directly.

The Disconnect: "Not About One Administrator or Decision"

FCS Board President Matt Cooper has repeatedly insisted that the levy vote is not about one administrator or decision, a talking point now parroted by the Citizens for Findlay Schools Facebook page. This messaging demonstrates how profoundly out of touch district leadership has become with community sentiment.

The reality is precisely the opposite – for many Findlay residents, this is about one decision: the mishandled FFE investigation that forced out a beloved teacher and damaged a program that brought national recognition to the district. By refusing to acknowledge this elephant in the room, district leadership appears tone-deaf to the very concerns that led to November's levy failure.

This disconnect is further evidenced by the district's media strategy over the past two months, which has included several carefully placed puff pieces about FFE in The Courier, including recent coverage of the group's third-place finish at a national competition in Orlando, and their Cabaret taking place this weekend. These articles, while celebrating student achievements, are intended to create a misleading impression that all is well with the program when, in fact, the damage done by Findlay City Schools administration remains unaddressed.

Particularly telling is the emphasis on FFE winning the "Most Improved" award at the Orlando competition. This isn't the triumphant achievement it's being portrayed as – instead it’s a stark reminder of how far the program has fallen. Under J.D. Smith’s leadership FFE was consistently one of the premier show choir groups in the country. The success of FFE continued under Kevin Manley’s leadership. Celebrating a "Most Improved" award only highlights how devastating the administration's actions have been to a once-elite program, and further demonstrates the administration's unwillingness to recognize the harm they've caused.

The strategy of ignoring the controversy shows Findlay City School Board’s fundamental misunderstanding of how trust is rebuilt. You cannot simply bypass accountability and expect community support. This isn't sophisticated political strategy – it's avoidance.

The Failed Strategy of Silence

Findlay City Schools’ current approach to the levy campaign reflects the same flawed strategy. Rather than placing Crates-Miller on administrative leave and publicly acknowledging investigative missteps, the district continues its pattern of avoiding uncomfortable truths.

Just last week, the school board held a "working meeting" on transparency and accountability – precisely the issues that doomed their previous levy attempt. Yet this meeting received virtually no publicity, and the district's communications director failed to leverage it as an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to change.

Contradictions Undermine Campaign

Superintendent Andy Hatton's recent editorial in The Courier emphasized "transparency, accountability, and partnership" as pillars for rebuilding the district. Yet these words ring hollow when contrasted with the district's actions.

Financial discrepancies further erode credibility. At a February town hall, administrators claimed the FFE investigation cost $11,089, yet legal invoices obtained through public records requests show December's legal services alone totaled $24,462 – more than twice the publicly stated amount.

Furthermore, after Manley's departure, the district replaced him (salary: $91,000) with two directors at a combined salary of $180,000, plus $32,000 for an external pianist – a 120% cost increase during a supposed budget crisis.

The Path Forward

As Findlay considers whether to support Findlay City Schools, they face a fundamental question: Has the district earned back trust through meaningful action, or merely offered words without substance?

True healing would require specific, tangible actions from the district:

1. Public acknowledgment: The board should issue a formal statement acknowledging the procedural flaws in the FFE investigation and apologizing to affected students, parents, and staff. This statement should be attached to the original investigation report wherever it exists in district records.

2. Formal review process: The district should establish a transparent review framework for all future investigations, with clear stakeholder representation and independent oversight. This framework should be developed with community input and formally adopted as board policy.

3. Administrative accountability: Rather than allowing quiet retirements, leadership should take visible responsibility for errors in judgment. This might include public reprimands, temporary reassignments, or at minimum, explicit acknowledgment of shortcomings in personnel evaluations.

What's particularly frustrating is that these recommendations aren't new. They were clearly articulated to the board as far back as October 2024 in a comprehensive analysis of the FFE situation (available here). That analysis, based on the district's own documents, laid out precisely the steps needed to rebuild trust and move forward constructively.

Further, direct correspondence with the school board in October 2024 (source) outlined the severity of the issues and requested immediate action. To date, the board has not responded to this communication or implemented any of the recommended reforms. Their continued silence in the face of documented concerns speaks volumes about their approach to accountability.

The district's recent performance at the FFE national competition in Orlando (where they placed third overall) demonstrates the program's resilience despite administrative turmoil. However, rebuilding broader community confidence will require more than student achievements – it demands administrative accountability.

Findlay City Schools sits at a crossroads, but the path to rebuilding trust isn't mysterious. It starts with acknowledging past mistakes rather than allowing key figures to quietly exit while maintaining the fiction that all proper procedures were followed.

If the district truly wants community support, it must first demonstrate it deserves that support through actions, not just words.