Alleged drunk driver and occasional Columbus School Board member pens highly illegal anti-union manifesto

Columbus School Board member Brandon Simmons authored a disgusting plan that calls, in part, for stoking racial divisions among teachers and support staff.

Columbus City School Board member Brandon Simmons.

I met Brandon Simmons by chance last fall at One Line Coffee in Franklinton.

In our short conversation, the 22-year-old candidate for Columbus City School Board impressed me enough that I endorsed him in a race he was going to win anyway.

After he won his seat, Simmons became the first Columbus City School Board member I’ve ever seen at the Statehouse. It seemed he was taking the otherwise thankless job seriously by building much-needed personal relationships with Columbus-area legislators.

Finally, a new era was upon the School Board for a district largely ignored by the Franklin County Democratic Party.

Or so I naively thought.

Columbus City Schools has assembled a so-called Task Force that is currently propagating nine different consolidation scenarios that would close numerous schools at all levels of education throughout the city.

John Coneglio, president of the Columbus Education Association, quit the Task Force in late April due to what he said was the district’s plan to focus on school closures.

“We were excited to have [the teachers] as part of that process, and so we very much still consider them allies,” Board president Christina Vera said on May 14th.

However, the Board is taking a different tone privately. We know this thanks to a battle plan composed, at least in part, by first-year member Brandon Simmons.

The Rooster obtained the plan in its entirety, which you can see at the bottom of this article.

The plan, dated May 10th, 2024, is just over five pages long and details the School Board’s plot to crush union opposition to the consolidation plan.

The ideas range from standard anti-union bog behavior to insane and illegal right-wing tactics like stoking racial tensions among teachers and support staff.

“We are not choosing to go to war,” the plan declares. “CEA already attacked CCS. We will not get stronger unless our opponents get weaker.”

The plan lists three goals (emphasis theirs):

1. Dominate the board room.

2. Climb out of the communication deficit.

3. Assert our vision for CCS above all competing views

In the communication section, the plan concedes the Task Force does not have legitimacy or public trust on its side. It accuses its opponents, which, again, are the teachers, of working to “soil the process, which is their strike playbook.”

Thanks to a strike in August 2023, the teachers’ union won key concessions from the School Board, including air conditioning in classrooms.

The most diabolical part of Simmons’ plan is the 12th point, which calls for “driving a wedge” between the teachers and support staff, the latter of whom have only recently unionized in 2023.

The plan calls for stoking racial tensions between the groups. “Don’t ignore the racial dynamics,” one of the subpoints reads. “Put those cards on the table.”

Simmons also advises the Task Force to “stack public comment” sessions with select employees willing to speak out about “mistreatment by teachers.” It also advises the Task Force to hold a hearing on the “disrespect of classified employees by ‘other employees.’”

It’s a searing insight into how Simmons views these problems as not something to be solved by the Board but something to exploit in favor of the employer.

When it comes to meeting with teachers, Simmons calls for the Task Force to “meet with them on our terms.”

He writes, “If the CEA wants to meet, we will do it on our terms at our office at a time that is convenient for us.” The machinations and power plays don’t stop there, either.

Simmons’ plan advises the Task Force to “fill the room with staff and task force members, do not tell [the teachers] in advance.”

It keeps getting worse, too.

The plan reads, “Change the location at the last minute.” Let the teachers “settle into the Board Assembly Room, wait 10 minutes, and then move them to the Cabinet Room.”

Curiously and without a trace of irony, Simmons then advises the Task Force to “interrupt” the teachers because “They are not there to listen to us. They are not there to have an honest conversation.”

He advises that “Authentic engagement requires two parties. They are not interested.”

It’s galling that Simmons and collaborating board members would expect the teachers to authentically engage when they’re busy drafting plans to paint them as racist while planning petty maneuvers like moving the meeting place at the last minute—but only after letting them settle for 10 minutes.

But that’s the kind of hobgoblin maneuvers you can make when you never expect your plan to go public like it is today.

The Sinecure Shuffle

Simmons accepted a job with a Community Shelter Board, a local non-profit that depends on sizable investment from City Hall, earlier this month.

The last section of the plan calls for a “Stakeholder Clean up.” It lists three groups:

• Electeds

• Corporate Partners

• Non-Profit Stakeholders

The “electeds” are obvious allies, as they have seemingly never said “no” to tax abatements that dilute public school coffers. They have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Corporate partners are another obvious choice because nothing in this city—like the dilapidated school district or the bevy of tax abatements—happens without their blessing. City Council, and by extension, the School Board, do nothing but rubber-stamp ideas already ordained by the so-called partners.

The “non-profit stakeholders” is an interesting choice, at least to anyone unfamiliar with the racket between City Hall and various “non-profit” organizations in Columbus. The “non-profit stakeholders” summoned in these types of squabbles are not good-faith actors, and Simmons himself is an example of that.

Take the Community Shelter Board, which does good work to fight homelessness, albeit thanks to its dependence on sizable investment from City Hall. The City Council has invested nearly $15 million in the organization this year alone.

Thanks to that dependence on public money, non-profit organizations then become the perfect landing spot for various friends of the party.

Like Mr. Simmons, the 22-year-old school board member who joined the Board in January and became a “communications coordinator” for the Shelter Board earlier this month.

It’s a way to maintain loyalty because, yes, these types of jobs routinely get threatened as part of intraparty politics within the Franklin County Democratic Party.

Simmons, for his part, appears more than willing to earn that check by putting his name on the Board’s diabolical anti-worker plots as well as touring his alma mater while touting the district’s plan to shutter the building.

This is in stark contrast to his stated principles in his official Board biography:

Brandon firmly believes in the values of public education, including the need for transparency and the need for responsible proactive Board governance.

These are values that are at the heart of Brandon’s decision making.

Needless to say, the knives are out for Simmons.

Allegations of repeated drunk driving left unanswered

Simmons at Marion-Franklin High School in May, touting the district’s plan to close and consolidate the school.

Union leaders obviously didn’t take kindly to being jerked around by a 22-year-old who had only been on the Columbus Board since January. Workers’ livelihoods are on the line, after all.

While it’s unknown if Simmons had help in crafting his plan, he’s currently taking sole blame for the authorship of this disgusting plan. His colleagues, at the very least, will be forced to comment soon enough.

In the meantime, the union gave Simmons 24 hours to resign. That window ended at 11 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“This plan is abhorrent, vile, corrupt, and beneath the dignity of public officials entrusted with the safety and well-being of nearly 50,000 students and the trust of our community,” John Coneglio of the Columbus Education Association and Izetta Thomas of the Columbus Education Justice Coalition said in a joint statement.

Among the issues galling the union, other than the obvious, are numerous allegations of Simmons leaving district events clearly inebriated and without any ride-share or public transportation.

A source who has witnessed Simmons engage in this sort of behavior numerous times pointed out it’s pretty shitty behavior for a guy who is pitching “student safety” as a key selling point about his anti-worker school closure plot to the public.

Simmons, who had spoken with The Rooster previously by text, did not return a request for comment by the time this article went to press.

A request for comment was sent to Simmons on May 20th at 5:31 p.m.

I’ll gladly update this article should Simmons, his colleagues, or Columbus City Schools issue a statement on this debacle.

Regardless, the district will not be pleased that this plan, which you can view in its entirety below, has gone public. If nothing else, it should solidify teachers and support staff against the plan to close schools in mass to consolidate the district.

The Rooster will have more as this story develops.

View the hobgoblin plan in its entirety

You can view the entire document, as obtained by The Rooster, below. Apologies that some of the later pages are somewhat blurry, albeit still readable. You are seeing them exactly as the source sent them.