Antoinette Miranda 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 began Tuesday. The election is Nov. 4.
Why is Antoinette Miranda running for school board?
Miranda is a past member of the Ohio Board of Education and former chair of Ohio State University's Department of Teaching and Learning as a professor of school psychology. Miranda is retired now from her long career in teaching and education policy, but said she knew her next path would still be in education trying to steer the largest school district in the state in the right direction.
She is a longtime resident of Columbus whose children graduated from Columbus City Schools.
Miranda says her focus is on parent and community engagement, transparency from the district, data-driven decisions and improving leadership in all of the district's schools.
"And then we should really look at elementary, middle and high schools that are rockin' it, that are really doing good stuff and really examine them and see what are they doing that may be different than what other schools are doing," Miranda said. "I think we have good examples in our school district and we should take advantage of that.”
Miranda said she thinks her experience and her studies make her one of the better choices in this race.
She also touted her work consulting with the principal of Ohio Avenue Elementary School to help turn the school's grade from an "F" to a "C." The school now stands at a 2.5 star rating in the new grading system.
"What (the principal) did was amazing. And again, what it taught me is that leadership is critically important," Miranda said.
Miranda says cuts will be difficult, but are a reality.
Miranda, and any of the other five candidates, would be entering the seven-member board at a difficult time. The district is facing a $50 million budget deficit and has to make cuts to the next budget year starting July 1.
This deficit is largely the result of state and federal cuts to education funding. The cuts even eclipse the recent school levy passed by voters, which provides just over $38 million in revenue.
All six candidates will likely have a hand in any budget cuts that could affect staff, services or even more school closures.
Miranda said the district’s $50 million deficit and looming decisions on potential budget cuts are daunting. But Miranda says it's something she wants to help guide Columbus through.
“I think we're really kind of at a reality checkpoint where we can't do everything that we used to do 20 years ago, 15 years ago. Times have changed and we have to make some hard decisions," Miranda said.
Miranda said the district needs to plan ahead and get community input before making big decisions like closing schools. Miranda would have opposed the five school closures that were voted on by the current board earlier this year.
She said if more schools have to close, which she thinks will happen, the district needs to hire a local consultant to do the job and get more community involvement. She'd also like to have a set plan for school buildings once they close so they don't just sit empty.
Miranda is one of several candidates proposing a 10-15 year facilities master plan that can make clear to the community what the future of their school buildings are.
"Is everybody gonna get everything they want? Absolutely not. They're not. But can we make some trade-offs where the community feels like you have my best interest at heart, and I had a voice to see how we're gonna proceed?" Miranda said.
When it comes to cuts to high school busing, Miranda said the district is spending too much on transportation because there's not enough drivers and the district is spending too much on private vendors to fill that gap.
"If we can cut out the vendors, maybe we can pay our bus drivers more money," Miranda said.
Those extra vendor costs are on top of penalties the district gets to bus private school students.
"I would ask parents, would you rather have your money going to resources to help your child achieve academically, or would you have it going to transportation? That really is our conundrum," Miranda said.
Miranda said if the district can cut busing by $20 million to $30 million, that means the district can focus more on resources. She said the district can also contract with the Central Ohio Transit Authority to allow high school students to use city buses.
No matter what, Miranda said the students in the district should be prioritized when cuts are being considered. She said programs where the district gets the biggest bang for their buck should not be let go.
Miranda said the district can also cut administrators, but that only accounts for 3% of the budget and would be akin to "cutting meat off the bone." She said she doesn't want staff, whose pay makes up over 80% of the budget, to be "sacrificial lamb" in budget cuts.
"It's really hard because I think sometimes staff is what gets cut, and that is really hard for me because staff, and when I say staff, I'm talking about instructional aides, are the lifeblood of some of these schools," Miranda said.
Miranda said the best way to address cuts is through attrition by seeing how retirements affect the budget.
Ohio lawmakers are actively considering property tax reform that can limit the most important local income source for public schools. Miranda said this will really hurt urban and rural schools depending on what changes are passed.
Miranda said one solution is to have better funding at the state level and to look closely at and possibly reform tax abatements given to businesses and developers by Columbus City Council.
"I think that there's a way that you can do tax abatements, maybe, but you give a percentage back to the school district," Miranda said.
Miranda said she's seen other cities where pushback from the community-limited tax abatements, but the businesses and developments still came anyway due to supply and demand in the community. She questioned whether its true that tax abatements are needed to attract these businesses.
Miranda said she's prepared to deal with budget challenges because she went through a similar situation within her department at Ohio State when enrollment began declining.
Miranda gives her opinions on transparency, chronic absenteeism and new ideas.
Miranda wants to hold district-wide listening sessions to connect with the community to improve transparency. She said these sessions would be on a regular basis and happen all around the district.
Miranda said spreading board meetings around town would also be a good idea.
"There's nothing that says we have to have it all the way on South High Street. We have libraries, amazing libraries, where we could have these meetings. Not only that, our schools. Let's utilize the schools," Miranda said.
On chronic absenteeism, Miranda said there's no easy fix. Columbus City Schools made some progress, but still had a high rate where more than 50% of students were chronically absent, missing 10% or more of the school year.
Miranda said the district needs to do a better job of identifying the root causes of students being chronically absent by identifying the students who are at particular risk.
"You need to look at who are the kids that are chronically absent. What is that percent? And then get at what is the issue for each of them and then develop solutions or strategies for getting them (to school)," Miranda said.
Good leadership in schools and continuing leadership development in the district is another of her priorities. Miranda went back to her example of Ohio Avenue Elementary and its principal.
"(Teachers) were onboard because they respected (the principal) and they knew she would have their back and she made sure she rewarded them and it wasn't with money," Miranda said. "So there are different ways you can reward faculty... and they saw the results in the report card."
Miranda acknowledged solutions for Ohio Avenue Elementary may not apply to every school, so the district would have to prioritize solutions that fit each area.
Miranda said the culture and climate of schools should be examined, because even if the district can't hire more health consultants because of the deficit, she proposed more community partnerships as a solution.
