The Columbus City Schools' Board of Education has selected its new president.
She's Antoinette Miranda, 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.
Many challenges await Miranda as Columbus City Schools' board decides how to cut $50 million from its budget. The deficit is largely the result of state and federal funding cuts.
WOSU’s Debbie Holmes spoke with Miranda about the challenges facing the district.
Debbie Holmes: It's your first year with the board and you've already been elected president. What do you think that says about the district's situation?
Antoinette Miranda: I think it's a recognition of the experience that I bring, you know, my time on the state board, but my wealth of knowledge from being in education, a professor of school psychology, leading a department and just the work I've done in education throughout central Ohio.
Debbie Holmes: With $50 million in budget cuts that are needed, how do you see that developing and working out? And is that the biggest hurdle you'll have this year?
Antoinette Miranda: It's probably the biggest hurdle, but one of the things that I'm really committed to is looking forward. And so while it's a $50 million cut, I think it's an opportunity to do some really good things with the district. It does sort of force our hand to make some really hard decisions, but I think in the long run, if we do it right, Columbus can come out better on the other end.
Debbie Holmes: What are some of the cuts then that you see? The board has talked about the transportation budget getting slashed. What areas do you see then that could be cut?
Antoinette Miranda: We will be looking at that, which makes sense, because 80 to 83% of your budget is personnel. And so, when you're talking about cuts, you have to do that. But one of the things we're going to do is make sure that the cuts we make, we're actually analyzing this to look at what the effect is on student learning. And so, the cuts, we will make in personnel will first be through attrition, but also looking at where can we cut that doesn't negatively impact student learning? And so we're always looking at that. They will not be random. They will be looking at how can we make sure that student learning will stay at the forefront and at the center. We will also make some other cuts eventually in transportation. That was put on hold, but there are some cuts in transportation around schools that are not 100% lottery in K-8. Transportation will be looked at again, but we have a working group so that we can plan when we make those cuts if they come down the pike.
Debbie Holmes: Do you see then that $50 million will be all you need to cut?
Antoinette Miranda: No, my understanding is that there will be another $50 million in the next year. But my hope is that as we begin to develop a strategic plan and really begin to look at where we can cut dollars and consolidate, hopefully it won't be as painful. Next year will be another biennium at the state level, and the hope is the state will not continue to cut public education. But right now, that is, that's really difficult because the state cutting public education really puts us in a hole. And we're not the only district. I mean districts all around the state of Ohio are experiencing it. Our deficit is just bigger because we're just a much larger district.
Debbie Holmes: Columbus City Schools is trying to be a lottery school district and a neighborhood school district. Can you continue to do both effectively?
Antoinette Miranda: That's what we're going to be looking at this year is looking at where do we need to make some changes. People have really liked that because they were able to have choice. Our goal is how do we make neighborhood schools as good as the school you want to go to across the city. And so we'll be looking at the data around that to make a decision about what do we do. Now part of it is, it's not only lottery schools, but what we call open enrollment. And so open enrollment may be affected more than lottery schools. We'll just have to see. But I am a data person. I think we have to look at the data to let us know why parents are moving and sending their kids. Because my goal is how do we make every school (places) where parents want to put their students? And hopefully those will be neighborhood schools because essentially that does cut down on your transportation. So that's something we'll be looking at.
Debbie Holmes: What is the district doing right?
Antoinette Miranda: I think there are some really good things that are going on, and what I say is we need to look at what those are and can we replicate them. There are schools that are very successful, and I think we need to use those as models. There are some good things. We're looking at green schools, so I think we're moving forward with that to have energy savings.
