The new communications director at Akron Public Schools glanced at Gregory Harrison, the last of four school board members to enter an elevator.
“I know you’re not trying to have a stare down,” Stacey Hodoh said to Harrison, according to her Dec. 19 complaint to then-Board President Diana Autry.
Hodoh wrote later in a complaint that she felt Harrison was staring at her in an attempt to intimidate her. Harrison wrote in his own complaint that he stood in the middle of the packed elevator because there was nowhere else to go.
“Who are you?” Harrison asked Hodoh, according to complaints filed by Harrison and Hodoh.
“You know who I am,” Hodoh responded.
The back-and-forth exchange on Dec. 18, according to public documents obtained by Signal Akron, marks the latest in a string of incidents related to Akron Public Schools administration, who serve 20,000 students and manage a roughly $500 million budget.
They include accusations that Superintendent Michael Robinson bullied Board Member Rene Molenaur, emails were set to disappear from board members’ accounts and pre-Kindergarten classrooms faced safety and hygiene concerns.
Hodoh: ‘He will find himself on a poster messing around with me’
Back in the elevator, neither Molenaur, who was also in the elevator, nor Harrison recognized Hodoh, who was dressed in “casual attire,” according to Molenaur’s report of the incident. Access to the executive-level floors of the APS headquarters is restricted.
“You know who I am,” Hodoh repeated in a louder voice, according to Molenaur’s version of events. Harrison repeated: “Who are you?”
Molenaur wrote that she shifted her position in the elevator “out of a concern for safety.” Board president Carla Jackson and member Barbara Sykes were also on the elevator.
Hodoh told Harrison he would be “put up on posters,” according to reports by Molenaur and Harrison. (Recently, Hodoh threatened legal action after posters were discovered around Akron that characterized Superintendent Michael Robinson as a “bully.”)
“Given her threatening, aggressive demeanor and unprovoked hyperagitation, I rightfully understood Dr. Hodoh’s statement as a threat,” Harrison wrote in his complaint.
Harrison, Molenaur and Jackson exited the elevator. Hodoh, according to Molenaur, “continued shouting nonsensical and inflammatory remarks,” including an allegation that Harrison threatened her. Hodoh did not mention any threats by Harrison in her complaint to Autry.
Following their exit from the elevator, Harrison wrote that Hodoh continued shouting after him.
“He’s a bully and I’m not scared of him,” Hodoh said, according to Harrison’s complaint. “He will find himself on a poster messing around with me.”
Sykes stayed back with Hodoh in an attempt to calm the situation.
“Dr. Hodoh appeared to be upset, so as we walked out of the elevator, I walked straight ahead with her,” Sykes told Signal Akron. “The security guard was standing there, and I asked if he could walk her to her car.”
Communications director may be included in ongoing investigation into district leadership
Hodoh was picked by Robinson to lead the district’s communication department. Her hiring was approved by the board on Nov. 25 and she was briefly introduced at a Dec. 9 board meeting. Harrison and Molenaur were in attendance.
Hodoh, whose annual salary is around $140,000, is the primary liaison between the district, the public and media. She does not work for the board, nor does she act as its spokesperson. Oftentimes, the board president — currently Carla Jackson — is the public-facing voice of the elected body.
Hodoh refused multiple requests for comments from Signal Akron for this article. Harrison, who said he retained legal counsel, did not speak on the record for this article. Molenaur referred Signal Akron to her incident report.
Less than a month into her role, Hodoh posted on Facebook that the Akron Beacon Journal was “toxic,” claiming that Robinson and former APS Superintendent Christine Fowler-Mack deal with “systems of bias” in Akron.
The post accused APS employees and local media of “conspiring to publish ‘unbalanced,’ ‘salacious’ articles that are ‘not even fact-checked’ and intended to ‘destroy lives for advertising.’”
Molenaur, who previously chaired the Legal, Contracts and Board Policy subcommittee, wrote that the post may violate district social media policy.
Molenaur noted in her elevator incident report that Tod Wammes, the school district’s labor relations manager, had already requested that Hodoh be included in the ongoing external investigation into Superintendent Michael Robinson and other staff members.
The board has hired the law firm Brennan Manna and Diamond to conduct an outside investigation into allegations of misconduct among district leadership.
Harrison to Hodoh: ‘Do not email me again’
Harrison and Hodoh did have an interaction over email prior to the elevator incident. Harrison stated in his complaint that Hodoh contacted him to object to Harrison speaking with Robinson following a board subcommittee meeting on Dec. 16.
It’s unclear what exactly Harrison and Robinson spoke about after that December meeting.
“I expressed my concerns directly to the Superintendent,” Harrison replied over email. “Do not contact me again.”
Harrison wrote that his reply to Hodoh triggered a “series of emails” that “contained allegations against me and my conduct as a board member.”
“If there is a professional reason for me to email you or any district employee as part of my professional responsibility, I am obliged to do so,” Hodoh replied to Harrison. “Again, please refrain from directing me on who and how to communicate. For some reason, this expectation is unclear for you.”
Hodoh writes she plans to file unfair labor practice complaint
In an email to Autry, the former board president, Hodoh said she intended to file an ethics complaint with the state of Ohio following “egregious behavior” by Harrison. In her Dec. 18 message, Hodoh said Harrison “was seen moving furniture in the Board of Education Administration conference room with a media reporter” on Dec. 16. That reporter was Signal Akron Education Reporter Andrew Keiper.
Hodoh said in her email that Harrison’s decision to move furniture constituted a potential unfair labor practice because it “may violate district policy as furniture moves are handled by Facility Maintenance personnel per our union labor agreement.”
Susan Willeke, the training and communications manager for the Ohio Ethics Commission, said any filings or investigations are confidential until a settlement is reached. She could not say whether Hodoh filed a complaint. Hodoh did not respond to a text message seeking comment about her message to Autry; a phone call went straight to voicemail, and Hodoh’s voice mailbox was not set up.
A spokesperson for the State Employment Relations Board said a review of their records showed no unfair labor practice had been filed against Harrison.