The $40 million problem that can’t be blamed on Republicans
Public records obtained by The Rooster show how much damage one negligent, apparently job-hungry bureaucrat can do.
Columbus City Schools (CCS) Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman has made a name for herself by closing public schools to appease city developers and attempting to take away busing for the city’s high school students while raking in a salary of nearly $300,000.
Most recently, CCS leadership, including the Board of Education, has blamed the Republican-dominated State Legislature for having to make $50 million in cuts due to defunding at the state level, which resulted in hundreds of educators—and no administrators—losing their jobs and the promise of more public school closures.
Conveniently left out of this narrative was that Courtney Hale, the district’s Executive Director of Human Resources (with a salary of over $145,000), has cost the district a casual $40 million over the course of two years, with several more million to be lost in the upcoming year.
According to 112 pages of public records obtained by The Rooster, Hale has been mismanaging the district’s money regarding insurance practices and was swindled by the district’s third-party insurance broker, Aon.
The investigation into Hale’s conduct ultimately led to the documentation of her firing as part of the “close of books” meeting—the Board of Education’s last meeting of the fiscal year, on June 30, 2026, which lasted three minutes and 56 seconds.
According to records, Hale had been signing off for Aon to do the work of an insurance broker, which is, in short, comparing benefit plans for the district’s staff and finding the best ones. Aon’s scope of work also included quarterly reports and keeping CCS up to speed on how much the benefits (primarily healthcare) plans were costing the district.
