Meeting summary:

  • There were underlying criticisms and shortfalls of the pilot year for this “corridor” model for the high schools. The model was intended to increase equity and opportunity for students limited by transportation needs. Data and board members express friction and frustrations with the model, while district administration defends the model and insists it needs more time to be effective 
  • There was a general tone of hostility, defensiveness, and passive aggression throughout the meeting. The board and staff felt at times adversarial, and board members were short-tempered with each other, despite maintaining masks of professionalism.
  • The budget process is moving more smoothly than usual, but in ways that frustrate the board. The board is concerned that administrative staff are making budgetary decisions that should be board voted or supported. These efforts to make the budget process more efficient are clashing with arguments around education policy and transparency.

Documenter’s follow-up question:

  • Treasurer Gustin and the Cincinnati Public Schools larger administrative team are walking out of this meeting planning budgets for 4-plus possible different strategies for next year. This feels highly inefficient and like a major time waste for not just the executive team of the district but the board. How can this process be streamlined to minimize staff time waste?
  • There seem to be a lot of points of contention between district administration and the board of education, including failures to collect and communicate data; conflicting opinions over decision-making power; and how much data is necessary to collect before decisions are made. The atmosphere of the meeting felt toxic and hostile, and the culture of the board and administration inform the culture of the district. I am concerned that so much time is being spent arguing that opportunities are being missed and students are not being impacted as well as they could be. 

 Notes

  • All school board members present:
    • Board President Brandon Craig
    • Board Vice President Kareem Moncree-Moffett
    • Board Member Kari Armbruster
    • Board Member Eve Bolton
    • Board Member Jim Crosset
    • Board Member Ben Lindy
    • Board Member Kendra Mapp.
  • ANNOUNCEMENTS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    • Announcements and Acknowledgements – Board Members
      • Successful Women’s History Month panel featuring several CPS administrators and educators 
      • Silverton Leader and Me day
      • Western Hills University High School celebration of Mental Health Month
      • Kudos to CPS treasurer and a clean audit
      • All Star Showcase raised $28k for Project Connect
    • Announcements and Retirements – Superintendent Murphy
      • Walnut Hills counselor nominated for Best Ohio school counselor 2026
  • PUBLIC COMMENT AND GUESTS
    • Suggestion to outsource budgeting and long term strategic fiscal planning to better ensure consistency, professionalism, and quality 
    • April 22, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Mary Ronan, public education is under attack town hall (link)- this is essential with proposed tax changes at the federal level
  • PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
    • Transportation – Chris Burkhardt, chief operations officer
      • Not much community engagement and feedback driving the team’s work; they have no data collection mechanism to listen to the community
      • Still a significant bus driver shortage (nationwide)
      • The district has only 10 buses and 17 microbuses allocated for all middle and high school extracurriculars. Do these minibuses alleviate budgetary stressors or not?
      • Can we use the presented data to drive program adoption in high schools? For instance, determining how many Taft High School students bus up to Woodward High School for a specific program; can those specific programs replicate at Woodward?
      • We must reach out to 130 schools beyond Cincinnati Public Schools to see if they want to opt in for transportation. The district is required to transport all students in our zone to their schools, unless the school opts out.
        • These schools represent fewer students than the CPS population
        • The location-based programs present a major equity burden for students that must take Metro buses to get to school- means they may be spending an hour or more on a bus each way. Theoretically, the “corridor” restructuring will address this inequity (we can learn this by breaking the data down by grade). Increasing middle school awareness events will help the corridor structure succeed in high school.
        • If we changed the structure of the high school day to adapt around career tech, this could fix the busing problem. This could also be true around timing for the school days to stagger busing assets.
      • CPS issues 12,000 Metro passes
        • This move to Metro saved the district about $2,000 per student
        • 7,000 students are able to take direct bus routes to school; 5,000 require a transfer, and  1,000 of these transfers are at Government Square alone 
        • 10,000 taps per day are CPS related: This is a decrease due to increased in direct routes, thanks to strategy between CPS and Metro 
        • Able to geo track students’ paths and possible routes to school, which provides great insight into student traffic patterns
        • Soon to get an update on safety concerns at Government Square: Anecdotally, there are fewer safety incidents due to Metro pass policy changes and police officer presence.
        • After investigating, the district learned that transporting students with siblings that would have access to yellow buses would not be cost effective.
      • Budgetarily, this costs us $44 million currently, and the number has been steeply inclining over the last three to five years. This trend is anticipated to continue. Because of citywide timelines, budgeting needs to happen now despite full data not being available until August, so budgets are only data driven to an extent.
    • Budget Pathways and High Priorities Timeline – Superintendent Murphy, Treasurer Gustin
      • Fiscal Year 2027 budget target is $627.9 million; legally, $142.7 million must be sent on bare minimum of legal compliance
      • High priority budget items (what the district needs to survive): school staff, bare bones of central staff, and cross departmental dependencies. Theoretically, about $400 million.
        • All collective bargaining staff and continuing agreements are in this segment of the budget. The collective bargaining agreement with teaching staff constitutes about half of this amount; the board wants more understanding about what constitutes the other half. Staff contends there is very little “wiggle room” in this chunk of money, especially as it relates to teaching staff. The district is already at the high end of class sizes and cannot cut staff presence.
        • This was a point of frustration for the board; that these dollars (the vast majority of spending) was decided amongst administration and did not involve the board or public. They want more information about these dollars being allocated without board control.
      • After this phase of budgeting, there will be $85 million to allocate to a pathway (see below). Is there a way to blend these paths? For now, Treasurer Gustin will continue expanding all four pathways as well as blends of each
        • Decentralizing operations (which would increase admin costs per school)
        • Return to pre-COVID staffing and programming
        • Leverage partners and investment in talent
        • (Invisible fourth pathway- no changes). This shows the district is about $20 million under budget. This is the least popular option amongst the board.
    • Strategic Plan Update – Murphy
      • Current stage: DATA COLLECTION. Consulting firms (Bellweather & Rice) are meeting with Board of Education members; next is advisory committee small group sessions. 
      • For community members that would like to be engaged in this process, reach out directly to Murphy.
        • Board members criticized this, indicating it sounds restrictive and gatekept. There should be an easier mechanism to engage the community, they said.
      • Consultants will be visiting specific schools soon to understand the district community. Schools represent all grade levels, but were not strategically selected on any other criteria.
    • Our Communities – Murphy
    • BOARD MATTERS, INQUIRIES, UPDATES, AND ASSIGNMENTS
      • Pre-School Enrollment – Vice President Kareem Moncree-Moffett
        • Preschool enrollment could increase if decentralized and allow elementary schools to open classrooms to preschoolers who are siblings of other kids enrolled at that school.
        • Murphy has not heard much about this need or interest, and is having other conversations about changing preschool enrollment to meet budgetary alignments and adult education needs as well.
        • There is frustration that several board members have asked for demographic data to back up these decisions.  The data has not been produced by the district regarding preschool, after months of waiting for it.
      • Middle School Naming – Board President Brandon Craig
        • Concern that the larger group needs to adhere to board policies on building renaming processes.
        • Feedback was collected from the community through 5 different mechanisms, with a wide array of participants. Moffett is concerned that these community councils have not been adequately engaged and invited to be a part of this process.
        • Board Member Eve Bolton was insistent that all six to eight schools should be called “middle schools” with no mixtures of “junior highs” for clarity. Neighborhood names could also be antagonizing to converging communities. She finally insisted that we emphasize Black Cincinnati history in our renaming process, specifically citing John Isom Gaines.
        • Craig expressed that we need to be mindful of the capital elements and maintainability / sustainability of a building when we rename it.
      • Board of Education 2027 Meeting Schedule – passed unanimously
        • Concern about Saturday extended meetings/retreats; these sessions were removed from the 2027 schedule and replaced with a Jan. 29 and Sept. 24 retreat/work session.
  • PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS
  • CONSIDERATION, DISCUSSION, AND ACCEPTANCE OF CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS WITH EXCEPTIONS
    • April 13 meeting
      • Moffett wants the CPS administration to develop a relationship with The Oaks, which seems like an excellent model that we should be implementing. She also requested an update on how the district plans to utilize Rawson House. Superintendent Murphy believes CANS will be given the space.
      • Bolton wants the administration to get the historian community to be engaged in the bicentennial planning; she also requested more information about busing data around field trips and enrichment information.
  • ROLL CALL VOTE FOR THE CONSENT AGENDA WITH REVISIONS 

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcincinnati.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.

Find more Documenters’ notes here.