Patrick Katzenmeyer is one of the six candidates running for the Columbus City Schools' Board of Education.
On the first week of early voting for the 2025 general election, WOSU is breaking down the policies and positions of each of the six candidates on the ballot for the CCS board.
Three seats are up for election after board members Michael Cole, Ramona Reyes and Christina Vera decided not to run for re-election.
Early voting begins Tuesday, Oct. 7. The election is Nov. 4.
Why is Patrick Katzenmeyer running for school board?
Katzenmeyer is a parent of three students in the Columbus City Schools district. He works as a project manager at the Pizzuti Companies in Columbus.
Katzenmeyer said he was spurred to run because Hubbard Elementary where his three children attend school was on the recommended closure list last year. He and his wife, former Columbus City Councilmember Elizabeth Brown, joined a chorus of voices that opposed the last school closure process alongside many teachers, the Columbus Education Justice Coalition and Safe Green Schools.
"We saw the the real damage it caused, even just the thread of closing a school. And I think that was replicated throughout the district," Katzenmeyer said.
His career started in politics, working in former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's administration and with Ohio House Democrats the only two years they've had a majority in the 21st century.
Katzenmeyer said he'd like to bring his building planning and stakeholder gathering experience to the board and to the facilities discussion that the district is having right now.
Katzenmeyer also said it's important to include the voices of parents of current students on the Board of Education.
"We need people on the board with skin in the game. We'll have kids in the district for the next 14 years and every decision that will be made by the board will impact my kids," Katzenmeyer said.
He said that hasn't traditionally been the case, which he finds worrisome. He also said that also wasn't the case on the district's school closure taskforce.
Katzenmeyer said his policies stem from figuring out how to bring families back to Columbus City Schools from private schools and give them the confidence to be there.
"I'm sick of lurching from from crisis to crisis. I want to find a way to kind of put us on a plan and a path to go forward," Katzenmeyer said.
Despite initial opposition, Katzenmeyer says more schools may have to close as district considers budget cuts.
Katzenmeyer told WOSU what he thinks needs to happen as the district deals with a $50 million budget deficit and faces more cuts due to federal and state school funding rollbacks. The district, including Columbus City Schools' Superintendent Angela Chapman accuses the Ohio government of underfunding public schools and the federal government of threatening to roll back grants.
Those cuts all but eliminate the $38 million increase in funding expected by the recent school levy voters passed in 2023.
Katzenmeyer is one of several candidates who are campaigning on creating a 10-15 year facilities master plan to address school closures.
"We can project a sense of confidence to the members of the public who are families who are thinking about sending their kids to Columbus City Schools. And that's the key to stop the bleeding from public schools to charter schools," Katzenmeyer said.
Every elected official in city council and on school boards join the boards in January, often in the middle of ongoing budget negotiations for the next fiscal year. Katzenmeyer said it's unclear what budget cut decisions will be made before the new board is elected.
Katzenmeyer expects another facilities realignment, more commonly known as a school closure process. He said he'd like to see a slower process where the district can give everyone the confidence that they're going to be able to be at their neighborhood schools as long as is needed for their child.
Katzenmeyer also expects "attrition" to help with budget cuts on staff with teacher retirements. He also sees room for cuts to the district's administration.
"I think that, you know to get to $50 million, there's no silver bullet. You're going to have to pull from a lot of different areas," Katzenmeyer said.
Katzenmeyer admitted it may be inevitable the district has to close schools, but that doesn't mean the buildings have to become a hole in the community. He pointed out the district has 47,000 students right now, while in the 1990s, CCS had more than 90,000 students.
"I think where we would lose is if we are closing schools and those schools are are taken over by charter schools," he said. "If that happens, that's showing that there there was a demand for those schools and we've given up on those communities."
He said any new process should be more transparent and decisions should be communicated more clearly to the community.
"I think a lot of that 'Don't close my school' came because, at least from our family, it came because there was no there was no plan for where we would go. I mean, it was totally unclear what our next step would be," Katzenmeyer said.
When it comes to cuts to high school busing being considered by the current board, Katzenmeyer isn't opposed, but is concerned because of the district's high chronic absenteeism rate.
Ohio lawmakers are actively considering property tax reform that can limit the most important local income source for public schools. Katzenmeyer said he is concerned about reform and the possible elimination of property taxes if Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy becomes Ohio's next governor.
"If you eliminate the property tax, our entire school system is going to fail immediately. It will. That's a huge percent of the money that pays for schools and not just in Columbus, all over Ohio and not just schools, you know, police and fire and libraries," Katzenmeyer said.
Katzenmeyer said it will be more incumbent on school districts to spend their money wisely and not going back to the voters for money without showing they've done a good job.
Katzenmeyer supports universal Pre-K and adding community programs to schools
Katzenmeyer said universal pre-K should be available for all families. He said the district currently has pre-K in 65 schools, but the problem is they're not all full.
"We've put in the legwork. We have the facilities to do that. And we need to do a better job of of marketing it and telling parents about it. And we need to bring back busing for pre-K," Katzenmeyer said.
His passion for busing pre-K students comes from his own daughter's experience. Katzenmeyer said his daughter, who goes to pre-K at the same elementary school as his other children, isn't allowed to take the bus to school.
"We learned from talking to her teacher that there were two kids in her class who had enrolled in pre-K and dropped out during the first week because they didn't realize they couldn't send their kid on the bus," Katzenmeyer said.
Katzenmeyer said pre-K is important to provide because it provides a huge financial benefit to help parents save money on daycare, and it gets more children enrolled in public schools and it readies children for the rest of their school career.
Katzenmeyer also wants to advance the community schools program that he says is being piloted around the district in places like Northland High School.
He described the idea as teachers, families and community partners being brought together into the governance of the school while also providing wraparound services in the school, like dental and health care.
"Northland didn't have a student government for a decade and that's back now," Katzenmeyer said. "They're showing huge attendance at their evening events and more kids are getting involved in extracurricular activities, and I think that is as we're talking about kind of realigning the district."
Katzenmeyer said that is the way to put focus on local schools.
