The Columbus City Schools budget and potential cuts to come were on the mind of five candidates running for the school district's board of education at a candidate forum Thursday evening.
The candidates present at the forum at the Family Ministry Baptist Church on the city's south side included Patrick Katzenmeyer, Janeece Keyes, Mounir Lynch, Kimberly Mason and Antoinette Miranda. The sixth candidate Jermaine Kennedy was not present.
The biggest issue facing the board right now is budget cuts as it seeks to address a $50 million deficit. The board is considering cuts to staff, high school busing and more as it seeks financial stability.
Some of the candidates said developers need to start paying their fair share and believe they aren't because of politics on the Columbus City Council.
Candidate Mounir Lynch, a health educator, said he thinks tax abatements that take away revenue from schools is a result of these Columbus politics. He said he would like to see school board members show up to city hall and the statehouse to advocate on behalf of the district more.
"We have had school board members and city councils that are in cahoots with each other from the campaign to election and they wanna stay safe and sound in their position and there's no fight to acknowledge the issues that we face in our city and hold each other accountable," Lynch said.
Lynch said the district is being "robbed" and pointed to the Columbus Education Association's past criticism of property tax relief for developments like the $50 million in property taxes avoided by the CoverMyMeds headquarters in downtown Columbus.
Candidate Patrick Katzenmeyer, who works for the developer Pizzuti Companies, agreed and proposed a joint committee on tax abatements between the city and school board.
Candidate Janeece Keyes, a program manager with the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, is calling for less property tax abatements for developers as a way to recoup funding.
"I believe backroom deals have occurred, as well as I believe that people that are on the board are afraid to say anything because who's greasing my palms," Keyes said.
The five candidates said they would have voted against closing schools if they were on the Board of Education last year. The district voted to close five schools out of over a dozen recommended closures.
As the district faces a $50 million deficit, closing more schools may be on the horizon for the state's largest school district.
Candidate Antoinette Miranda, a former member of the Ohio Board of Education, said the district erred in the last process and will have to close schools, but there should be a plan in place for the building after it closes.
"If we have a plan, closure probably should not happen for two or three years because it is not gonna solve our $50 million deficit right now. It's a long-term solution," Miranda said.
Miranda said the last process didn't involve the community.
Keyes said the district didn't do the last process "accurately." She argued the district's school closure task force made the decisions in a backroom before consulting parents.
"We did not involve our community. We did no involve our parents. We didn't give the data to the community for them to actually mull over," Keyes said.
Mason said the district would not be in this position if CCS spent money from previous tax levies correctly.
"If we would have done right with the money from the 2006 tax levy, the facilities master's plan, this wouldn't be a topic of conversation," Mason said.
Katzenmeyer was a vocal opponent of school closures because his daughters attend one of the schools that was being considered. He called the process confusing.
"We didn't know what school our kids would then be going to in large part because they were gonna close the other two closest schools to us," Katzenmeyer said.
Katzenmeyer said it's naive to say that CCS will never have to close the school again.
"I'd love for that to be the case, but we have 47,000 kids in the district now. We had 90,000 plus in the 90s. So there's going to have to be changes, but we can do it a lot slower so it doesn't feel like we're kind of lurching from closure to closure," Katzenmeyer said.
Lynch said the board didn't involve teachers enough and the weren't held at times the community could attend.
"We cannot have an entire side of town without an elementary school. We can't pick on certain areas and leave them with very few options, is what I mean by that," Lynch said.
Pastor Kevin Hairston, the moderator, sparred with the candidates a lot on this issue. He appeared not to agree with their stance.
"Let me make sure I'm right," Hairston said. "You guys say, keep (students) at the school and taxpayers continue to fund buildings that are low in attendance either been abandoned for 10 or more years or have so many. Problems because they're over a hundred years old and will require a major makeover."
Hairston is a former school board candidate himself. He lost in 2021 to the same three board members that are departing the board next year, leaving these three seats open. Those members are Michael Cole, Ramona Reyes and Christina Vera.
Much of the rest of the forum was a constant back and forth between Hairston and the candidates with him interrupting the candidates often. Hairston questioned the candidates about how they would improve communication between the current board and the community.
Hairston later asked about how the candidates would address chronic absenteeism. The latest State of Ohio report card for the district showed CCS had a chronic absenteeism rate of 52.6%.
Katzenmeyer said it is one of the biggest issues facing CCS and said he is slightly concerned about the current board's plan to consider taking away busing for high school students.
"I just get worried that taking away transportation is just going to throw up another barrier for folks," Katzenmeyer said.
Keyes said she would want to consider changing start times for certain students based on age groups. She suggested elementary school students come to school earlier than high school students.
"It's going to cost us less money to slip that as well as our students may be ready to actually learn when they come in versus the early morning bell toll," Keyes said.
Miranda said the data needs to be shown on why students are absent. She said parents don't often understand that their students need to show up to school in order for their children to academically achieve.
Miranda said the district needs to target the students that aren't getting to school and having principals hold interventions on that issue.
The full forum can be viewed on the church's Facebook page.
