COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus City School District's Superintendent’s Community Facilities Task Force held its final community feedback meetings on Thursday. The task force is looking for feedback on the initial list of possible school closures and consolidations.
For Charles Ferguson, the decision to close some schools is personal. His son goes to a school in the district and he himself is a graduate of East High School. Although the task force has hosted many community conversations, Ferguson said the public hasn’t had enough involvement.
“There was no input from the community, not from a strategic standpoint and not from the idea of how do we revitalize the city school system overall,” said Ferguson.
He believes the task force has not thought about the neighborhood impact of the school closures.
“You are talking about cultures that have been established. When you go from culture and environment then to just putting folks together, that takes time too,” said Ferguson.
Regina Fuentes, a spokesperson for the Columbus Education Association, said they are against the closures. They want the district to pause the conversation about closures.
“The trust has been broken with the community and the educators with Columbus City Schools. We need further transparency and know we can trust this process,” said Fuentes.
Fuentes said it’s a big decision to close schools and she wants the district to take more time in making the decision.
“We need to have transparency with this board and know what exactly is the future of the school and our students. They are the top priority, not any of the other things happening,” said Fuentes.
The task force will move ahead with final recommendations to the board on June 18.
Kevin Harrison, a member of the task force, said he wants people to know their feedback counts.
“We have been listening to their feedback and some of the things, contrary to the data, things that community folks have brought up that may not have been brought to our attention,” said Harrison.
The task force will have two more meetings before making final recommendations.
10TV reached out to the district for a response on the Columbus Board of Education’s call to pause the conversation of closures and for board member Brandon Simmons to resign.
A district spokesperson said ““It’s important to clarify, the Superintendent’s Community Facilities Task Force is independent of the Board of Education and has nothing to do with the actions of Board Member Simmons. On Tuesday, the Board President released a statement on its action, and also waived attorney-client privilege in the release of the investigation into the creation of the document in question. The Task Force is completing the feedback phase of its work and is focused on providing the best outcomes to push student achievement forward. Its final recommendations to the Board will come in late June.”