New library board appointment still researching north building

Cameron Knight
Cincinnati Enquirer
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Karen Clemons

After months of heated meetings and protests, the Hamilton County Commissioners appointed a new board member Wednesday to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

St. Bernard Elementary School Principal Karen Clemons will fill the empty seat.

After the library board decided this summer to move public services out of the North Building of the Main Library Downtown, activists have been petitioning the board and the county commissioners to take action and protect the building from a potential sale.

Vince Tafallo with the "Our Library, Our Decision!" coalition said he is happy that Clemons background in education more aligned with the goals of the library than the banker she's replacing, but also wants to know her thoughts on the north building.

Clemons told The Enquirer that she has not yet formed an opinion about the building, and that she's still researching the issue.

According to her application, Clemons lives in Green Township. She graduated from Roger Bacon High School. She received a bachelor of arts in elementary education from Lane College in Tennessee.

Clemons went on to receive two masters of education from Antioch University in Yellow Springs: one in early childhood education and another in education leadership.

She has worked at St. Bernard-Elmwood Place Schools since July 2013 and prior to that worked at Mount Healthy City Schools.

Commissioner Denise Driehaus said Clemons has instituted a "Stop, Drop and Read" program at her school. At some point every day at her school, the students drop everything they're doing to read for 20 minutes.

In September when Zaring's term expired, only Zaring and two others had applied for the seat: Mayor John Cranley's mother, Susan Cranley, and LGBT-rights attorney Josh Langdon. The commissioners extended the application period netting three more applicants: Clemons, Sean Crowe, a University of Cincinnati librarian, and Jeffrey Hall, the principal at Frederick Douglass Elementary School in Walnut Hills.

Clemons will serve a seven-year term in the volunteer position.

From 1995 to 1997, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County underwent a major two-year construction project that included the 165,000- square-foot addition of the North Building that expanded the Main Library across Ninth Street with a dramatic, four-story bridge and the renovation of the South Building.

Read More:Man banned from Cincinnati Library shows up at news conference announcing apology, receives apology

Read more:Activists confront library leaders, Hamilton County Commissioners

Read more:Who will decide the fate of Main Library's north building?

Read more:The library wants a tax increase. Does it really need it?

Read more:Users lash out at library leaders over closure

Read more:Public Library to close North Building, might leave an entire Downtown block available

Read more:Next library board member: Mayor's mom? LGBT lawyer? Banker?

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