The Riverside School Board indicated that it intends to consider ending Superintendent Chris Rateno’s contract on Dec. 4 after community members packed the room to show support for the superintendent. A 3-1 board majority voted to declare an intention not to reemploy, an intention to consider the termination of contract and to report educator misconduct to the Ohio Board of Education and/or the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce at the special meeting. Riverside School Board serves prediscipline notice to superintendent While the agenda did not list the name of the official those resolutions applied to, a district official later confirmed that they applied to Rateno, a fact that was widely assumed throughout the night by those in attendance. The measures passed with support from board members Denise Brewster, Scott Fishel and Dennis Keeney, while board member Lori Krenisky voted against. Board member Belinda Grassi was not present. No board members offered an explanation for their vote during the meeting or responded to a request for comment immediately after. The votes came after the board spent more than three and a half hours in an executive session. Administration officials and others shuffled in and out of the board conference room while the board deliberated and audience members waited outside. Dozens of attendees, including parents, current and former educators and other community members, lined the hallways near the school entrance, held signs stating “Riverside Stands with Rateno” or wore buttons with the same message before the meeting and during the hours they waited. Many remained until the very end, packing the room when the executive session ended after 9 p.m. After the votes, when the board voted to adjourn, crowd members erupted in chants of “Rateno.” They later yelled “shame” and similar criticisms at the board as they left the room. Crowd members later booed and shouted comments at Brewster, Fishel and Keeney as the three board members left, escorted by two sheriff’s deputies. A crowd fills the Riverside School Board conference room on Dec. 4. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Audience members sit outside the Riverside School Board meeting room two hours into an executive session to determine the fate of Superintendent Chris Rateno on Dec. 4. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Crowd members line the hallway outside the Riverside School Board conference room displaying support for Superintendent Chris Rateno during a Dec. 4 board meeting. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Riverside school board and administration officials prepare to leave after a Dec. 4 board meeting. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Show Caption1 of 4A crowd fills the Riverside School Board conference room on Dec. 4. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Expand Protest organizers Renee Carbone and Crystal Archer offered praise for Rateno before the vote. “He’s very well loved by all the students and staff, parents, and a lot of the people here are parent group volunteer people, teachers, there’s a lot of students,” Carbone said. “He’s a very good superintendent,” added Archer. She said that they started a stakeholder Facebook group about a year ago, when a 3-2 board majority voted to add onto Riverview Elementary School. About 75 percent of 360 survey respondents had voted for a different plan. Archer said that they worked to make sure the board members who voted in favor of that plan would not be elected to another term. Two of those members, Fishel and Keeney, were up for election on Nov. 4 and lost. Their terms end Dec. 31. Carbone said they wanted to show support for Rateno and that they did not want the termination to happen. “We hope that whatever does happen today can be undone later or does not have any finite repercussions for Dr. Rateno,” she said. “That’s our concern. We are concerned about our district, our kids, our families, but mostly we’re concerned for him personally. He’s a good person.” Fishel said that the board will have a special meeting on Dec. 10 at 4:30 p.m. ...read more read less