PARMA, Ohio -- It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the Parma City Schools making headlines.

The latest unflattering district news involves a data breach discovered last week.

“We learned Friday night (Aug. 18) that in our website was a survey for private school parents,” Superintendent Charles Smialek said.

“If you clicked on the survey and submitted your information, you then saw a spreadsheet with other private school student information, including things like parent names, addresses, emails and student grade levels.

“That’s as far as the information actually went, but we understand why people were upset,” he said.

The superintendent stressed that the survey was taken down as soon as the data breach was discovered.

Despite the reported incident, so far he hasn’t received any calls from parents.

“We’ll work on sending letters to the folks who were on there and we’ll apologize for that,” he said. “We’ll also review our website posting procedures to make sure that we’re more careful in the future.

“It shouldn’t have been posted. What happened was our transportation director developed the survey and our communications folks uploaded it. We probably should have taken that extra step to see what happened once somebody actually completed it.”

The incident took place less than a week after Seven Hills Mayor Anthony D. Biasiotta released a memo regarding the Parma Schools’ approach to Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) funds and the school master plan.

The mayor’s communication alleged that the district could have received OFCC funds for either a new Parma High School or the refurbishment of the 70-year-old West 54th Street building.

The district, which for years has said that only the former was an option, was caught off guard by the news, with Smialek noting that the waiver discussion wasn’t an option provided to the district by the OFCC.

Then, after late last month announcing a plan to allow certain staff members to carry guns, the district had to clarify that the measure was aimed not at teachers, but instead district security staff members, who after receiving district approval and certification from the Parma Police Department could carry a firearm.

Other recent headlines included a group of residents who in the late spring threatened legal action regarding the proposed demolition of Parma High School later this year. They eventually dropped their efforts.

Asked about the timing of the recent data breach, Smialek said, “Certainly, we would not have wanted to continue to stay in the news cycle with what obviously was not a positive story for the Parma Schools.”

Read more news from the Parma Sun Post.