COLUMBUS, Ohio — The first of several meetings being held by a newly organized task force for Columbus City Schools was held Tuesday night. The community-lead “facilities task force” will make recommendations on whether the school system should close or consolidate some of its buildings.
The 28-member task force is being lead by Dr. Angela Chapman, superintendent of Columbus City Schools. To form this group, Dr. Chapman said the district reached out to sister agencies within the city as well as Franklin County to find a diverse group of members.
A total of ten meetings will be held over the next several weeks. There will also be additional community engagement sessions where district members will be able to share their thoughts.
This facilities task force will review data, discuss the needs of its current facilities and operations, and have conversations with people in the community about what matters to them.
"We know that in Columbus City Schools, we're currently spending more of our resources on operations which is driven mainly by facilities and maintenance, and we're spending more resources compared to comparison districts… districts of like-size,” Chapman said.
"We're starting behind the starting line so the district has significant challenges as it relates to facilities that really don't support the academic effort,” Jim Negron, co-chair of the task force, said.
The goal of the task force is to assist the board in its decision to possibly close or consolidate buildings so that the funding currently going toward those buildings can be allocated to areas of greater need within the school community.
The task force hopes to make its recommendations to the CCS board in June, at which point the board will then make the final decision.