In a long and emotional meeting Tuesday night, the Columbus City Schools' Board of Education committed to more than $50 million in cuts, despite shooting down two different plans to reduce or eliminate busing for high school students.
Board members also decided to close four more school buildings as part of a continued realignment of district resources.
The cuts and closures come as the district seeks to shore up its finances amid changes to state and federal funding.
Busing woes
As the board worked its way through proposed cuts, busing became a point of contention. The district spends about 6% of its $1.8 billion budget on transportation and the costs have ballooned in recent years.
"Do we want a strong academic program...or are we going to be a regional transportation provider?" CCS Board Vice President Jennifer Adair asked.
Adair and fellow board member Sarah Ingles voted in favor of a plan that would have reduced transportation for students in grades 9 to 12 to the minimum required by state law, effectively eliminating busing for high schools. That was projected to save the district $7.2 million.
Adair and Ingles were outvoted by the rest of the board and that plan was nixed.
A short time later, Adair was in tears when she was forced to decide a 3-to-3 vote on a second plan that would have gotten rid of yellow school buses for district high school students, but would have provided them with public transit options through Central Ohio Transit Authority.
"There's still problems with implementation with COTA. There's no difference with concerns about safety or getting on the bus. The only difference is that we are taking money from our general fund to pay for COTA passes," Adair said as her voice quivered. "That means that we cannot get our academic program(s). And it means that we are cutting more of our people."
Adair said state law would require Columbus City Schools to also pay for COTA passes for charter and non-public students. The district would have to provide those students with traditional school buses if they had to make more than one transfer on public transit.
The plan was still projected to save the district about $4.8 million.
Ultimately, Adair voted against the COTA pass plan, leaving high school busing in tact for the foreseeable future.
After a short break, the board quickly approved a new resolution to create a working group to establish mass transit options for students. That group will bring a plan before the board by the end of 2027.
"I just want to say, we can we need to stop trying to shove kids in buildings. This has to be about student experience."Columbus City Schools Board of Education Vice President Jennifer Adair
Building closures
Board members approved Fairwood Alternative Elementary School, Como Elementary School, Duxberry Park Arts Impact Elementary School, and the former Everett Middle School, which houses Columbus Gifted Academy.
The Duxberry Park Arts and Columbus Gifted Academy programs will be relocated to other buildings.
District Superintendent Angela Chapman had previously suggested moving Columbus Gifted Academy to Avondale Elementary in Franklinton, but Avondale was not mentioned in the plan approved by the board. Nevertheless, faculty and students from Avondale spoke at the beginning of the meeting in defense of their school.
Adair said after visiting Avondale, she thought Columbus Gifted Academy would be a bad fit for the building. Her comments earned applause from Avondale teachers.
"I just want to say we need to stop trying to shove kids in buildings. This has to be about student experience," Adair said.
She said the district can't try to stick students in schools just because numbers match up on paper.
CCS Board President Michael Cole agreed that Avondale was ill-suited to become Columbus Gifted Academy and stressed the importance of visiting buildings before making consolidation decisions.
The four new closures come on top of five other school closures decided last year, as well as the closing of the district administration building on East State Street.
Staff and other reductions
With unspecified staff reductions on the agenda, many district school counselors, social workers and substitute teachers spoke to the board about their roles in making schools safe, welcoming and supportive environments for students.
Yolanda Plair, a counselor at Woodcrest Elementary, came to support her fellow counselors who were speaking.
Plair told WOSU that children need the support that counselors offer.
"We're the ones on the day-to-day basis giving that inspiration when they don't have those supports maybe outside of school," Plair said. "To have a good academic experience, you've gotta have sound social, emotional, mental well being."
Nevertheless, the board asked Chapman to make a plan to reduce staff to save $25.9 million. Because of other spending cuts, that number was lower than the $34.6 million that the board originally sought.
The board also directed Chapman to identify as many as 60 administrative positions to cut, with the goal of saving $6.6 million. Chapman and her team must find another $8.8 million to cut from non-personnel general spending.
Board member Tina Pierce tallied the total cost reductions for the night at $50,453,610, clearing the board's $50 million goal.
