I had a nice post ready to go about my recent conversations with Statehouse republicans, but Columbus City Schools incompetence felt a bit more pressing as I glanced over this week’s upcoming board meeting agenda.
If they want to eliminate yellow buses for HS students then what sense does it make or move elementary ahead? They will be using fewer yellow buses and this should not be an issue. Further, the COTA idea doesn't seem feasible with a 730 am start time. Routes don't get moving until 530 and that isn't frankly enough time to get to school with ghost buses and missed pick ups.
You point out that our buildings are deplorable, but closing, consolidating, and building new is how the district is trying to fix that. You can't have your cake and eat it too. We can't keep every old building open and also build new ones with kids spread across all of them. If Northland followed the South model, the building could stay open as a middle school, and the community school work there wouldn't disappear.
On the bell schedule, if you watched the meeting, everyone in the room was against the proposals, and the board paused them for more research and community input. That shows they're listening.
On transportation, something has to change. CCS spends about $70 million a year on it. Ohio doesn't require districts to bus high schoolers, and other large urban districts already use transit passes instead. If not transportation, what gets cut? Staff is the biggest expense, so the alternative is more staff cuts. The money has to come from somewhere, and that's what's happening.
That said, it's a good post, and you did a nice job piecing a lot of information together. It just needs more context, because without it, it reads like bait. Most people don't know the layers behind some of this, so the full picture matters.
Oh don’t worry, I have plenty more to say with closures and building new facilities. I am not against closing our rotting buildings, but the politics behind the closure of Northland seem to have escaped you, which is the context provided in this post. The South model (and LMSA, 7-12) does NOT work, which tells me you, “Just Here”, are not an educator in a school building, which does not invalidate your thoughts but it does underline one of my main ideas: People making decisions about children’s education are not aware of the realities or needs of students, but rather, simply money and cutting corners. And on that note, miss me with the transportation paragraph, because acting like transportation and staff are the only two cuts available is absolutely wild, especially if you’re going to argue a monetary savings of 6 million out of a “70 million” expense when the outcome is teenagers not attending school. I encourage you to stick around Shotgun Chelsea for a bit.
The South model you're criticizing is the 7-12 setup, and the plan moves away from it. South's high schoolers go to Marion-Franklin, and the South building becomes a standard 6-8 middle school. The same would apply here. Northland would merge with Beechcroft into a new building, and the Northland building would become a large north side middle school.
As for the politics, it was established at a prior board meeting that as long as the Northland building stands, it will run the community school model. So even after the high school students leave, the building stays open as a middle school and keeps that model. It isn't planned to end.
On transportation, I never said it and staff are the only cuts available. My point is that the money has to come from somewhere, and staff is the biggest expense. Two of the three options also give every high schooler a COTA pass, and the third keeps yellow buses for students with more than one transfer. Only one option leaves them with nothing. I'd rather push for those two than act like all three mean teenagers stop coming to school.
I'm genuinely open to hearing what you'd cut instead. That's the part I think your post is missing. What else is going to be left. Another $50 million needs cut the following year as well. This is literally do or die to cut ends on an already tight budget people complain of.
So to be clear, you're referencing the **proposed** South model, and not the current one. The Community Schools model isn't something that gets "planned" to end, it is a concept that has been fought tooth and nail since 2022 and this closure and "consolidation" process is a kill tactic. If it wasn't, there'd be general investment into the model itself -- and I want to be perfectly clear when I say this: there is no investment from any institutions or people in power besides the performative $60,000 from city hall which was a McCoy Park distraction from the jump.
It is "literally do or die" with every single budget. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to read more about how and where Ohio's largest school district chooses to spend taxpayer money, along with examples of how it could be better spent to serve children. Even if not, thank you for reading and being here!
If they want to eliminate yellow buses for HS students then what sense does it make or move elementary ahead? They will be using fewer yellow buses and this should not be an issue. Further, the COTA idea doesn't seem feasible with a 730 am start time. Routes don't get moving until 530 and that isn't frankly enough time to get to school with ghost buses and missed pick ups.
You point out that our buildings are deplorable, but closing, consolidating, and building new is how the district is trying to fix that. You can't have your cake and eat it too. We can't keep every old building open and also build new ones with kids spread across all of them. If Northland followed the South model, the building could stay open as a middle school, and the community school work there wouldn't disappear.
On the bell schedule, if you watched the meeting, everyone in the room was against the proposals, and the board paused them for more research and community input. That shows they're listening.
On transportation, something has to change. CCS spends about $70 million a year on it. Ohio doesn't require districts to bus high schoolers, and other large urban districts already use transit passes instead. If not transportation, what gets cut? Staff is the biggest expense, so the alternative is more staff cuts. The money has to come from somewhere, and that's what's happening.
That said, it's a good post, and you did a nice job piecing a lot of information together. It just needs more context, because without it, it reads like bait. Most people don't know the layers behind some of this, so the full picture matters.
Oh don’t worry, I have plenty more to say with closures and building new facilities. I am not against closing our rotting buildings, but the politics behind the closure of Northland seem to have escaped you, which is the context provided in this post. The South model (and LMSA, 7-12) does NOT work, which tells me you, “Just Here”, are not an educator in a school building, which does not invalidate your thoughts but it does underline one of my main ideas: People making decisions about children’s education are not aware of the realities or needs of students, but rather, simply money and cutting corners. And on that note, miss me with the transportation paragraph, because acting like transportation and staff are the only two cuts available is absolutely wild, especially if you’re going to argue a monetary savings of 6 million out of a “70 million” expense when the outcome is teenagers not attending school. I encourage you to stick around Shotgun Chelsea for a bit.
The South model you're criticizing is the 7-12 setup, and the plan moves away from it. South's high schoolers go to Marion-Franklin, and the South building becomes a standard 6-8 middle school. The same would apply here. Northland would merge with Beechcroft into a new building, and the Northland building would become a large north side middle school.
As for the politics, it was established at a prior board meeting that as long as the Northland building stands, it will run the community school model. So even after the high school students leave, the building stays open as a middle school and keeps that model. It isn't planned to end.
On transportation, I never said it and staff are the only cuts available. My point is that the money has to come from somewhere, and staff is the biggest expense. Two of the three options also give every high schooler a COTA pass, and the third keeps yellow buses for students with more than one transfer. Only one option leaves them with nothing. I'd rather push for those two than act like all three mean teenagers stop coming to school.
I'm genuinely open to hearing what you'd cut instead. That's the part I think your post is missing. What else is going to be left. Another $50 million needs cut the following year as well. This is literally do or die to cut ends on an already tight budget people complain of.
So to be clear, you're referencing the **proposed** South model, and not the current one. The Community Schools model isn't something that gets "planned" to end, it is a concept that has been fought tooth and nail since 2022 and this closure and "consolidation" process is a kill tactic. If it wasn't, there'd be general investment into the model itself -- and I want to be perfectly clear when I say this: there is no investment from any institutions or people in power besides the performative $60,000 from city hall which was a McCoy Park distraction from the jump.
It is "literally do or die" with every single budget. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to read more about how and where Ohio's largest school district chooses to spend taxpayer money, along with examples of how it could be better spent to serve children. Even if not, thank you for reading and being here!