COLUMBUS, Ohio – Someone should poll the residents in the Columbus school district, and ask if they are comfortable with the fact that 69 school employees, mostly administrators, made at least $100,000 per year in the 2014-15 school year.

Their combined salaries for the year came to about $7.8 million.

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Chances are residents would not be impressed, especially if they knew that nearly half of those officials had been in place for at least the previous five years or so, when district operations seemed to sink to a new low.

Just a partial retracing of the school district’s missteps is long and troubling.

In June 2012 it was revealed that many Columbus school administrators had falsified student grade and attendance records, so the schools could get better grades on their state report card.

A few years later more than 600 employees at nine schools, including more than 400 teachers, were ordered to repay bonuses they received due to the manipulated test scores, even though the cheating was largely perpetuated by principals and other administrators, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Only 24 principals and assistant principals were asked to repay their bonuses.

Amazingly, by the fall of 2013, the Dispatch reported that most of the administrators implicated in the scandal were still employed by the district.

In 2014, a state audit revealed that Columbus schools were still making significant errors in tracking and recording student attendance, resulting in faulty figures being reported to the state, according to the Dispatch.

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In November 2013, the school district asked voters to approve a significant property tax increase.

Voters were told that some of the proceeds from the new revenue would be used to combat the district’s poor academic record.

Among the stated plans were “ensuring every high school graduate is ready to go to work, to college or join the military; hiring and retaining better teachers; improving Columbus schools’ grades on state report cards; and allowing every student to earn college credits, acquire trade credentials or get internships with local businesses,” according to a report from State Impact Ohio.

But district officials could not say how progress toward meeting those goals would be measured.

“No one we talked with could provide a formula or an outline as to how progress will be tallied.Columbus City School Board president Carol Perkins says the district will provide its own progress reports, but she would not give details,” State Impact Ohio reported.

Not surprisingly, voters overwhelmingly rejected that tax proposal.

“Today, voters expressed a lack of trust in our school district — a sentiment that we understand,” Alex Fischer, who chaired a group of local business leaders, was quoted as saying by the Dispatch.

“The voters are asking for reform before new taxes. The fact that over half of our kids will wake up and attend a failing school in the morning is a reminder of the challenges we must address.”

Clearly those challenges have not been addressed to any significant degree, if the district’s 2013-14 state report card is any indication.

It received an “F” in four of five key categories – student performance on state tests, general student progress, closing the achievement gap between various racial and socio/economic groups, and graduation rates.

The district received a “D” in one key area – literacy improvement.

Yet through it all, a good percentage of the command structure in the district has remained the same.

Of the 69 employees who made six figures in 2014-15, 31 were on the payroll, making six figures, as far back as 2008-09.

That means that about half of the top officials who helped steer the district toward its current predicament are still in power.

It’s doubtful that the people of Columbus would be pleased to know that.