COLUMBUS, Ohio — The superintendent of Columbus City Schools has appointed a task force of 28 community members to evaluate closing and consolidating schools and administrative buildings.
In a school board meeting Tuesday evening, Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman said the district is taking this step to reduce costs. She said the district is spending more on its buildings and resources than other districts of similar sizes, possibly due to the age of some CCS buildings.
The district has not identified which specific buildings it will look at.
The task force will have its first meeting next Tuesday and make its recommendations to the school board in June.
The task force is made up of people from all aspects of the community including education, politics, faith and more. It also includes CCS students and parents.
Al Edmondson will serve on the task force in between cutting hair at his barber shop, A Cut Above The Rest.
“I think it is very important to be a part of this task force because I came from Columbus public city schools as well and I want to see the best for our children and the community and I think this task force coming together to work on making the community better and city better I think it is good for me to be a part of that,” Edmondson said.
He will be able to take the concerns and thoughts from the families he serves each day in his barber shop, like Frederick Points, who said his nieces and nephews are enrolled in private schools. He said there is a lack of neighborhood pride in Columbus City Schools. “We are still looking for quality education, to get good training we want them to have opportunities to go to college so we send them to schools that are gonna do that,” Points said.
John Gregory will serve on the task force, representing Equity Now Coalition.
“I think what I will be able to do is represent the overwhelming number of Black individuals who want to participate in the success of CCS and I think from a business perspective we will be able to contribute good business sound decisions,” Gregory said.
Currently, 46,062 students are enrolled in Columbus City Schools.
As the city continues to grow, the President of the Columbus Education Association wondered if closing schools is the right move.
“They don’t have a plan to grow the district, they have a plan to shrink the district in a city, in a region that is growing so that is something that kind of bothers me,” said John Coneglio. “We don’t do anything to try and attract students, we don’t try and compete with the charter schools and private schools.”
As the task force moves forward, the members will evaluate the impact on the district’s finances with the impact to students and staff.
“I think families want to make sure that we keep it equitable and we don’t look to favor one side of town versus another side of town and we make sure we keep it as viewed as being fair and there is good representation,” Gregory said.
There will be an opportunity for public comment before the school board votes.
Any changes would be implemented in the fall of 2025.