STEWART, Ohio – On May 21, 2024, the Federal Hocking Board of Education accepted the resignation of Superintendent David Hanning, effective July 31.
Two months later, they hired a new superintendent: Jason Spencer, described in a district Facebook post on July 16, 2024, as “a high-energy, inspirational leader” with “high expectations for himself and those he works with.”
The post described Spencer’s background in general terms: eight years as a teacher, 12 years as a principal, and five years as a district administrator.
What the post didn’t say was that Spencer worked for five different school districts in 10 years. Or that one of those previous employers banned him from school property. Or that he was sued by parents in another district.
The Independent began looking into Spencer’s background when he was hired. The story took on new significance after a raucous Nov. 19, 2024, school board meeting that prompted Spencer to ask for a separation agreement. Spencer remains with the district, although the board of education held a special meeting Monday afternoon following a personal Facebook comment on teacher pay that was made on the district’s official account.
Although he spoke with the Independent in the summer of 2024, Spencer did not respond to the Independent’s more recent requests for an interview.
Former board member Dan Torrence said he regrets approving Spencer’s hire.
“Obviously it was rushed, obviously we didn’t do a very good background check on him and get past reports,” Torrence told the Independent in December 2024. “I think we failed the district.”
No search committee ever formed, according to district Treasurer Bruce Steenrod. Instead, three interviewing groups were formed: one comprising the board of education, Interim Superintendent Bruce Hoover, and Steenrod; plus one each for teachers and classified staff.
“And each group had interested community members sprinkled in,” he said, adding, “I never received an official list of who took part.”
Frequent job changes
Spencer’s job history raised red flags for some familiar with the district’s hiring process.
One issue was his lack of a track record at any single district. According to his application to the superintendent position, obtained by public records request, Spencer taught middle- and high school math for eight years before becoming a school principal in 2007. He was a principal in five different school districts in Ohio and Florida between 2007 and 2017, when he joined Cincinnati Public Schools.
Spencer told the Independent in an August email that the frequent switches were for professional development to eventually become a superintendent.
“As a lifelong educator, my goal was to one day become a superintendent. Each step was designed to help me achieve a goal,” Spencer said.
Sheridan-Boyd said the board specifically considered this pattern before hiring Spencer.
“We specifically asked Dr. Spencer about this,” she said. “He told us he sets goals for himself and has worked hard on achieving those goals, which meant moving districts/areas to make that happen.”
That reasoning doesn’t wash with some district residents.
Job-hopping “is normal if somebody is continually moving up,” said a source familiar with the district’s hiring processes, who was granted anonymity to preserve relationships within the community. “But if a guy moves every three years, you want to think twice about hiring. Especially not how he left his last couple of districts.”
That comment referred to Spencer’s stints at Buckeye Valley Local Schools in Delaware County from 2012 to 2015 and his subsequent job with Minster Local Schools in northwest Ohio.
‘Remain off school grounds’
Public records obtained by the Independent show that Spencer resigned as principal of Minster Junior/Senior High School on March 8, 2019 — less than two years after he was hired.
“I feel it would be best for me and my family if I resign my position as building principal effective July 31 [2019],” he wrote to then-Superintendent Brenda Boeke.
But Spencer didn’t fill out that term: On April 26, 2019, Boeke notified Spencer that he was on paid administrative leave and banned him from the campus.
“You are directed to remain off school grounds unless you have permission from me to be on school grounds,” Boeke wrote.
She further forbade him from communicating with students or district employees “regarding the circumstances of your leave.”
In an April 30, 2019, news article in the Mercer County Outlook, Boeke gave no reason for placing Spencer on leave, other than to say that “there is no district investigation involving Spencer or District staff.”
Former board member Torrence told the Independent that he was unaware of the circumstances surrounding Spencer’s departure from Minster schools.
“I never knew. I was never told that he was kicked off campus and was told not to come about, or anything,” Torrence told the Independent.
Spencer did not respond to the Independent’s requests for an interview. Boeke is no longer with the Minster district.
‘Someone my family and I want nothing to do with’
Before landing in Minster, Spencer was principal of Buckeye Valley Middle School — where he was at the center of a lawsuit filed by a student’s family.
Spencer said the claims made in the case were false.
“The board and I discussed the situation, and I also explained it to the community during the interview process,” Spencer said in an email to the Independent last summer. “These were false accusations and have in no way affected my ability to lead.”
The suit, filed by Eric and Trish Schaad in November 2014, alleged that Spencer asked a medical secretary at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to release their child’s medical records and change a recovery plan following the student’s back surgery. Spencer’s then-district denied the allegations and asked the court to dismiss the case on grounds that the district — and, by extension, Spencer — were immune from liability for actions taken in their official capacity.
A Delaware County judge agreed that the district was immune from liability in the case — but found that Spencer was legally protected only from charges of general negligence and infliction of emotional distress.
The judge ruled that the plaintiffs could still sue Spencer over the allegations that he “induced a hospital employee to disclose nonpublic medical information, … acted in a malicious, wanton, reckless, or bad faith manner” and invaded the child’s privacy. Spencer appealed that ruling to the Fifth District Court of Appeals, which upheld the Delaware County decision in February 2016.
But on Aug. 8, 2016, the Schaads dismissed their case against Spencer “without prejudice,” meaning they could file a new suit against him.
On the same day, the Schaads agreed that they would “not be required to identify” students who allegedly “heard Spencer discussing Plaintiff’s 504 Plan and related issues with school teachers.” The agreement also stipulated that the Schaads could not use the students’ evidence in any suit related to the issue.
Sheridan-Boyd said that the board spoke to Spencer about the lawsuit before he was hired.
“We were not aware until the evening of the interviews,” Sheridan-Boyd told the Independent last summer. “We then called Dr. Spencer as a board and discussed it with him and found out it was actually false.”
Sheridan-Boyd and Torrence both said that then-interim superintendent Bruce Hoover called someone in administration at Buckeye Valley about Spencer.
“[Hoover] did make some phone call to a treasurer at one of the districts and found out that whoever that person was had said good things about [Spencer],” Torrence said. “That’s what we were told.”
Sheridan-Boyd said that Hoover had called the Buckeye Valley district treasurer. “We were told the same as Dr. Spencer had told us — that it was, in fact, incorrect information,” she added.
The superintendent and treasurer at Buckeye Valley Local Schools told the Independent that no one from Federal Hocking spoke with them, and that they could not have spoken about Spencer’s time in the district because it happened before they worked there.
Hoover did not return a message asking for comment.
The lawyer for the plaintiffs declined to address specific questions related to the lawsuit because she is “no longer actively engaged” in her law firm.
Although she declined to respond to specific questions, Trish Piatt-Schaad — the mother of the child in the 2014 case — told the Independent in a Facebook message that she would “encourage those involved in his hiring to be very careful in their decision making.”
“Jason Spencer is someone my family and I want nothing to do with,” she said.
Dani Kington contributed to this reporting.
The Federal Hocking Board of Education meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. The next regular meeting is scheduled for March 18 in the cafeteria of Amesville Elementary School, 23 Main St, Amesville. The board’s finance and buildings and grounds committees will meet at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11, in the library of Federal Hocking Middle School/High School, 8461 SR 144, Stewart
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly spelled Dan Torrence’s last name. We apologize for the error.
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