CINCINNATI — Dohn Community High School is a long way from the Abbeytown subdivision in Colerain Township.
But the two are connected by a paper trail of transactions that show how Dohn contracts may have enabled private investments in real estate, a bar in Northside and a restaurant in Walnut Hills.
The WCPO 9 I-Team has been exploring business relationships between Leando Romane Davenport, Dohn’s former superintendent, and Larry Ballew, who owned two companies that provided construction and staff training services to the school.
The Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, Dohn’s Columbus-based sponsor, called out both men in a June 2024 letter that asked Ohio’s Auditor to investigate financial problems at Dohn.
In subsequent letters, the foundation criticized payments to one of Ballew’s companies as “egregious,” and said they threatened the school’s fiscal viability.
Ballew and Davenport have not responded to multiple requests for interviews.
But a former Dohn teacher said he’s been wondering about their business ties since October 2023, when he attended a Dohn board meeting to ask for higher teacher salaries and better facilities to educate students.
“I just drew attention to the fact that $2 million had been spent on consulting services, according to their public filings, and I just said, where did all that money go?” said Clinton Christensen, who left Dohn in May 2024.
WATCH: Looking at private investments connected to Dohn's superintendent, contractor
Christensen said he taught in a third-floor space at 608 E. McMillan that was a converted boxing gym. The open floor plan required about 100 students from multiple classes to share the same space. It was noisy and chaotic.
“Education was suffering because the environment was not sufficient to teach,” he said.
After taking his complaints to the board, Christensen said he was placed on administrative leave. He relocated to another state, where he now teaches inmates seeking a high school equivalency diploma.
He declined to name the state where he now works because he’s worried about retribution by his former bosses. But he agreed to an interview because he wants to encourage a thorough investigation of his former school.
“It’s more important that the truth come out and that justice be done for these kids,” Christensen said. “So that’s why I’m willing to speak with you, because I want to try and further that end. And I want to people to realize what happened so this doesn’t happen in the future.”
And that’s what brings us to the Abbeytown subdivision, where Davenport paid $413,285 for a single-family home at 12061 Westland Court in November 2023.
Hamilton County records show Davenport used the home as collateral for two loans totaling $711,500. One of those loans came from Core Educational Services, a Dohn vendor established by Ballew in 2015.
The other came from Nationwide Commercial Mortgage LLC, which lists a residential address in West Price Hill as its business location. That address, 4727 Loretta Ave., also appeared on a state corporation document for Savannah Properties II LLC, a “residential and commercial improvement” company established by Ballew in 2023.
Savannah Properties paid $380,000 for a two-story commercial property at 4034 Hamilton Ave. in November 2023. Red Rose Lounge LLC, established by Davenport in August 2023, sought a liquor license transfer for that address from the state of Ohio in August 2024.
Another connection to the Colerain Township home involves AD Staffing LLC, which Davenport established in 2022. Davenport transferred the home 12061 Westland Court to AD Staffing on July 10, 2024, one day before Nationwide Commercial Mortgage filed a mortgage on the property with the Hamilton County Recorder.
In 2023, AD Staffing asked the state of Ohio for a liquor license at 1026 E. McMillan, according to city records. That’s the address of the Rose Garden Lounge, established by Davenport in 2023, with Ballew acting as the company’s statutory agent.
Whether all of this contributed to Dohn’s financial collapse, Christensen can’t begin to guess. That’s why he’s glad the Ohio Auditor’s special investigation unit is combing through Dohn’s business records to determine what went wrong.
If hope that if there is money missing, that it’s recovered. I hope that the foundations and taxpayers that provided those funds get them back. If crimes were committed, then people should be prosecuted,” said Christensen.
