Since the Akron School Law of 1847, public schools in Ohio have been run by nonpartisan, mostly elected boards of education. Except for the mayoral takeover of Cleveland's school board, the system is designed by its nature to keep dirty city politics from interfering with dirty school politics.

That's not to say City Council members aren't occasionally drawn into the fray. Hardly a candidates night goes by that a voter doesn't ask City Council candidates what they'll do about the schools - while school board candidates sit in the back of the room waiting for their turn to speak. Any council candidate who's smart professes an unwavering support for public education.

Councilman David Crowley, upon being elected in 2001, created the Board of Education Cooperative Affairs Subcommittee, whose very name suggests that the city's role is to write checks and get out of the way.

So a funny thing happened last week when City Council met with the school board at Mayerson Academy.

Amid the resolutions reaffirming their "joint vision" for collaboration and cooperation on the schools' $985 million building plan, Councilman John Cranley brought up the taboo subject of the teachers' contract.

Cranley wondered out loud if City Council should withhold its $8.2 million annual support of the schools until the school board insists on greater accountability from its teachers.

After all, he said, two school board members - Rick Williams and Melanie Bates - have encouraged efforts by the Baptist Ministers Conference, the Amos Project and the Cincinnati Business Committee to withhold support for future tax levies for the same reason.

The school board's Harriet Russell told Cranley to butt out.

"This is not the time for public posturing and public blackmail," said Russell, the former president of the teachers union. "We don't come down to City Hall and tell you how to run your employee relations."

Cranley, wearing his best "what did I do?" expression, didn't back down. "I don't think we should be confined to talk about only those things we completely agree on," he said.

YOUR TAX MONEY: It cost $1,268 for the city's Division of Printing Services to copy 6,735 pages of financial records for the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission. That's more than 18 cents per page.

Human Relations Director Cecil Thomas said the tab was so high because the city had to send most of the work to a private shop after City Manager Valerie Lemmie - responding to council demands March 17 - declared the print job "a top priority."

Councilman Sam Malone is performing his personal audit of the organization.

COMINGS AND GOINGS: The city's "managed competition czar," Michele Kidd, has offered her resignation - just five months after being hired for the $85,000-a-year job.

What happened? Mayor Charlie Luken, in his State of the City speech, said "never mind" to Kidd's mission to save the city money through outsourcing. Kidd won't talk about her departure - but a supporter on City Council will.

"I'm not surprised she was frustrated," said Councilman David Pepper. "She was hired for a specific purpose, and then we took her purpose away."

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com