001of us were into it, but you know what I mean? Like, so that that was like an early on thing. We were like, "Oh, I don't think we're that kind of bent." >> So, we kind of were just like, "No thanks." And, you know, the shirt went back down and it was like kind of awkward. Was there a video of that going? I wish. >> Yeah. It's grainy probably. >> Whoever that was, we apologize for how that made you feel, but also like, you know, it just wasn't. >> You had to learn. >> That's right. We can say no. And then on the flip side, some of the highlights and like you can't believe this just happened kind of thing. >> Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Like >> Oh, yeah. >> Well, it's like
002it's all that random stuff that you like watch as a kid and then you go you're actually doing it like we did uh did Clark Rock and New Year's Eve Times Square where we did the Macy's Day Parade >> and that was both in the same year, right? >> Ninja Turtles. Yeah. And so it's like >> just bizarre stuff like that. I mean playing >> Yeah. I playing MTV World Stage in Malaysia was one our first like big international show that that was like we had a police escort to the show and like there were thousands of people >> and we're so self-deprecating. We're like we don't need cops to like escort us. >> No one cares. >> Yeah. It's just stuff like that. And and then >> just it's such a gift too to
003like look at look out at shows and see faces from 15 years ago still coming. So that that's like that's also a pinch me like people care that much about our crappy little band. No, we're not crappy. We're good. >> Our incredible band. >> Well, we are so uh grateful that you're here today and took the time to do this for for us and all of our listeners and we love what you do >> and congratulations on this latest album and all the success. >> Thank you so much for having us. >> You're welcome. And we'll do our final giveaway after this final song that they take us out with and it is Neon Trees. What's this last one? >> We'll do Everybody talks. >> All right. >> Hey baby, won't you look my way?
004I could be your new addiction. Hey baby, what you got to say? All you're giving me is fiction. I'm a sorry sucker and this happens all the time. And I found out that everybody talks, everybody talks, everybody. It started with a whisper and that was when I kissed and you in my lips. I could hear the chit me to your love shack. Mama's always got a back to wreck when everybody talks back. Hey honey, you could be my drug. You could be my new prescription too much. You be an overdose. All this trash talk making me itch. I know my my everybody talks. Everybody talks. Everybody talks too much. It started with a whisper and I was and then she made my lips hurt. I could hear a chit chat [Music] me to your love
005sh m's always got a back when everybody talks back I never thought I'd live see the day when everybody's words got in the Yeah. [Music] Hey sugar, show me all your love. All you're giving me is affection. Hey sugar, what you got to say? It started with a whisper and now you in my lips head. I could hear the chit. Oh yeah. I t your love sh. Mama's always got a bad when everybody touch. Everybody talks. Everybody talks. Everybody talks. Everybody [Music] >> It started with one whisper. >> And that was when I get >> Everybody talks. Everybody talks. [Music] What are we going to do? Well, we there's a few, but now I'm holding a different guitar. So, we'll probably do one of two. Let's do another way. Um, which is the uh So,
006we're playing songs off of this new album, Beacons, that came out a little while ago and we're in the middle of this big Beacons tour. The first disc is all what we're calling Americana, which is this electric, >> you know, that word is can mean almost everything. >> Big umbrella there. >> Yeah, pretty big umbrella. But we're playing like, >> you know, some bluesier stuff. And again, we're coming from bluegrass. Disc two um is all the bluegrass stuff with Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush and that stuff. But we're going to close. This is the song that ends um the Americana side. And just say two words about it real quick. Um, well, for the last couple years, um, Eric and I just kept talking to each other and I think talking to everybody I know
007and just this this term or this we just kept saying these same words to each other, which is there's got to be another way for us all to to live here on Earth and and get along better. There's just got to be another way than than what's happening right now. Um, because it's just it's just so awful for all of us. So many of us are in pain and hurting and divided. So, this idea of there's got to be another way, another way. So, we wrote a song called Another Way and uh we hope it uh you know touches you. >> All right. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you so much, guys. >> Sounds great. >> I'm going to count us all in. Here we go. One, two, one, two.
008[Music] I come from the river. I couldn't tell you which one. I've been turning around here since the wheels first. It's never made much difference cuz you end up where you need. Any old place to hang my hat is home to me. I've sold myself in stories wishes down the world that this is how it ought to be. Been hunting my own footprints, chasing my lost in the same old but ain't here to stay clear someday. There's always another way. We've all got to find way. [Music] Well, I come across the ocean. I couldn't call it by name. It was high low by the carrying crow. In the end, it's all the same. You can stroll the beat and fly the raven's wing. But as long as you're a rambling, we'll have some song to
009sing. We marched in the cities, buried our heads in the sand. We have chosen sides and snakes. But isn't it a pity eternal fight? And the time we made a change. Oh, hard times ain't here to stay. Our sky someday. There's always another way. We both find another way. [Music] Down [Music] go down. Heat. Heat. [Music] I feel [Music] nice. [Music] I come from more mountain high by the car and crow in the end it's all the You can stroll the beaten path. We'll fly the raven's wing. But as long as you're sing [Music] >> What do you do? Good evening everyone. Today is September 11, 2005, Thursday. Uh, welcome to today's special board meeting where we will be convening a joint committee. Uh, Mr. Treasurer, can we call the role? >> Yes. Vice President
010Adair >> present. >> President Cole >> here. >> Miss Engles >> here. >> Pierce is absent. Miss Reyes. >> Mr. Simmons >> present. >> Miss Vera >> here. >> You have quum. >> All right. We have qu. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you so much. Uh before we go into um some of the uh pageantry of of the meeting, I think it's really important to make just a brief statement. Today is a very special day. Um one that's horrid in in the history of our country, but one that is special nonetheless. I'd like uh today's remarks uh the the 24th anniversary of September 11th attacks. This is a day that forever has changed our country and even the world, reminding us of the strength of unity and the reliance of the human spirit. I
011invite us all to take a brief moment of silence to honor the lives lost, the families forever changed, and the first responders and service members and also our military service men and women. I'd like to have a moment of silence to acknowledge them. I thank you for that. Now we'll rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Amen. [Music] Now um we will walk through an adoption of the agenda. Um and first and foremost also let me thank everyone for being here. Um it is an absolute delight um and pleasure to see how many committed community people there are as committee members but also
012as folks in our audience who could have been anywhere doing any number of things that you felt important to do but made the time to be here to do the work that we're all engaged in together. So I just want to thank each and every one of you for being here with us this evening. Um so before we adopt the agenda tonight we will uh begin with uh section 3.0 in the joint committee section session that deals with career academy presentations. We'll receive a presentation on that from Dr. Chapman. We'll then walk into 3.2. That section is the review of the five-year forecast to be convened by Treasurer Cook. And then the administration will go further into committee work between ETRM and AFAC uh to convene 3.3 which is a conversation on transportation cost models
013and academic impacts as well as 3.4 which will then be facts about enrollment and lottery will then adjourn. Um there will be no executive session or no further action. Uh everybody will leave. In addition to that, housekeeping, there are uh trash can food is available. Please feel free to grab as much as you'd like. For those who want to warm up their food, there is a kitchen in the hallway here. Inside that kitchen is a microwave. So, if you'd like to heat up your food, please feel free to heat up your food and the microwave that is available for anyone who needs to use it. Um uh is there a motion to adopt the agenda? >> So moved. And is there a second? Second. Uh, call the roll. >> Miss Engles. >> Yes. >> M.
014Reyes? >> Yes. >> Mr. Simmons? >> Yes. >> Miss Vieira? >> Yes. >> Vice President Adair? >> Yes. >> President Cole? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> All right. We have adopted the agenda. We will move on into our joint committee session. Um, we will go into career academy presentation. Dr. Chapman, thank you for being with us tonight. >> Good evening. Okay. Today, tonight I would like to share uh how we are reimagining education for our students with themies of Columbus City Schools, creating smaller, supportive learning communities where every student is known, challenged, and inspired. We are strengthening the connection between classrooms and the real world. Ensuring that our students have opportunities to prepare for college, careers, and life. That means access to internships, mentorships, industry credentials, and hands-on learning with the region's leading employers.
015And most importantly, this work is about providing an opportunity for each of our students who deserve to graduate with the confidence, skills, and experiences to lead in whatever pathway they choose. Our vision for Columbus City Schools is rooted in creating small, safe, and supportive learning environments inside of each of our high schools. Through college and career connected learning, students engage in a career and college thing pathway that prepares them not just for graduation but for success in both postsecary education and the workforce. Nationally, this model has three proven components. First, small learning communities that foster a strong sense of belonging among students. Second, learning through a career lens where academ academics are tied to real world challenges. And third, business and community engagement, ensuring that our students are connected to mentors, internships, and opportunities beyond
016the classroom. Together, these components create the foundation for our students to thrive and lead. This work aligns with the National Career Academy Coalition, also known as INSAC, which has been supporting schools since 1996. The vision of INSAC is to partner with schools and communities to design sustainable and transformational preparing all students for college, career, and life. Columbus City Schools is proud to bring this proven framework to scale for our students. This year marks the launch of our freshmanies at four of our high schools, Beachcraft, East, Walnut Ridge, and West High School. The first step in a phase expansion that would ultimately reach 10 schools. In 2026, we add two more and in 2027, four additional schools. This phased approach enables us to strengthen staff training, prepare spaces, and deepen employer partnerships, ensuring every roll out
017is strong from the start. This year, at the four high schools where we've launched this strategy, we have already seen an increase in student enrollment at three of the campuses or or four of the campuses. But at East High School, the increase has been by 48 students. At West High School, two students, Walnut Ridge High School, 134 students. And Beachcraftoft High School, 26 students. Ourmies are built on a strong foundation guided by a set of essential elements that make this model work for students. First, every student begins with freshman seminar. This seminar helps ninth graders develop the habits, skills, and confidence they need to adjust to high school. It sets the foundation for success in their chosen academy pathways. Second, we prioritize intentional business engagement. Employers are directly involved in shaping and planning the creation
018of work-based learning experiences. Our slides will catch up with us, but we'll keep going. Um, these partnerships provide mentorship, real world expertise, and help align curriculum with workforce needs. Third, our model emphasizes interdisciplinary instruction. Teachers from different subject areas collaborate regularly. Students see how academics connect across the disciplines and to future careers. We've created a defined college and career readiness continuum with clear benchmarks that guide student progress from freshman year through graduation. It also ensures that students graduate academically prepared, credentialed, and competitive for the workforce. We've built in a student leadership structure as well. students are empowered to take ownership of their learning and opportunities that lead to build confidence and real leadership skills. And finally, we provide strong support for the 8th to 9th grade transition. We provided targeted supports to help students move
019smoothly from middle school into high school, one of the most important transitions in their journey. And it also ensures that students enter high schools feeling confident, connected, and ready. For our incoming ninth graders, our ninth graders will start their journey in a freshman academy. And again, we have started and launched this strategy at four of our high schools this year. This is the foundation of college and career connected learning. This design gives incoming students the chance to adjust to the expectations and routines of high school in a supportive and structured environment. be part of a small learning community where they see the same teachers and peers every day. That consistency helps students feel connected and builds a sense of belonging. They also engage in team-based activities that develop collaboration, problem solving, and personal leadership skills.
020They also have opportunities to explore their interests before they commit to a pathway for grades 10 through 12. Every student also takes a freshman seminar course which focuses on study habits, time management, digital literacy, and goal setting skills that help them succeed not only in high school but also in college and career pathways. The first year is about building confidence by providing students with the tools, relationships, and support they need from day one. We set them up to thrive in the academy that they choose. No matter which academy a student chooses, their learning is designed to connect directly to the real world. Courses are tied to authentic challenges that local companies and industries are working to solve. This makes learning meaningful and relevant for them. Learning happens inside classrooms and in the community. Students are
021not only doing the work in their classrooms, they are out visiting work sites, problem solving with mentors, and applying their skills in real world situations. Work-based learning is central. Students job shadow professionals, complete internships, and participate in capstone projects that let them demonstrate their skills in authentic ways. The goal is that every student leaves their academy prepared academically with the practical skills, workplace experience, and career awareness to take their next step with confidence. Meaningful partnerships with businesses, colleges, and community organizations strengthen them. Local businesses and employers play an active role in shaping curriculum, mentoring students, and opening doors for them. Colleges and universities create pathways to higher education through dual enrollment and campus visits. Nonprofits and community organizations provide support and enrichment that helps students see their potential. This network of partnerships ensure students have
022access to work-based learning, career exploration, real world projects, internships, and capstones. When schools and communities align, students benefit from opportunities that not that would not exist otherwise. And at Beachcraftoft High School, there are twomies, the Academy of Engineering and Design and the Academy of Entrepreneurship and Sports Medicine. And within each academy, there are centers. So for the Academy of Engineering and Design, there's a center for engineering and then there's a center for media arts. For the Academy of Entrepreneurship and Sports Medicine, there's the center for entrepreneurship and the center for sports medicine. At East High School, there are two pathways. the Academy of Health Sciences, which includes the Center of Health Sciences, and the Academy of Media Production, which includes the Center of Arts and Communication. At Walnut Ridge High School, there's the Academy of
023Smart Automate Smart Automation and Transportation, which includes a center for smart automation and a center of advanced air mobility, as well as the Academy of Communications and Logistics, which includes the Center of Communications and the Center of International Logistics. Themies for West High School include the academy of engineering technologies which includes the center for tech center of engineering and the center for information technology. There's also the academy of marketing and life science which includes the center of marketing and the center of farming and innovation. Our endgame is clear. Ensuring that every CCS student will graduate with the pathway forward. Some will choose to enroll in college or pursue post-secary training. Some will enlist in the armed forces to serve our country and build new skills. Others will step directly into sustainable careers with growth opportunities
024right here in Columbus. The key is that no student leaves us without options. Every graduate will walk across the stage with a diploma in one hand and the confidence, credentials, and experiences they need to succeed in the other. >> Thank you. >> Good job. >> Thank you. And I'd also would like to acknowledge the support of Megan Noble who has been leading this strategy and very instrumental in helping um to really launch these um themies of Columbus. >> Okay. Uh round of applause. Let's give our team a hand. Thank you for this. This is uh a wonderful beginning of a trajectory uh that not only brings alignment to the district in a way that we want to maximize potential of human beings, the adults responsible for kids and kids themselves. So, thank you for this.
025I look forward to seeing how this unfurs. Um at this point in time, uh I want to also make sure that we open I want to open this for questions. I want to open the floor for questions. Um, and if there's anyone who has a question, please feel free to raise your hand. I will acknowledge you. And what I want to make sure we do at the same time is ask a question. I want to make sure we ask questions. All right. Uh, we want to make every bit of time we can for that. All right, Mr. Robinson. Dr. Robinson. >> Um, Mr. Superintendent, thank you for that presentation. It was wonderful. Negative effect, it gave me goosebumps on that last slide that said the endgame. Um when does this start? I'm saying does it
026engage students in the eighth grade, seventh grade, ninth grade? When does thesemies actually start engaging students? >> So with themies um the when we're thinking about our feeder patterns, this work ideally this work begins beginning in as early as elementary school where we're exposing our students to careers. As early as prek, students are uh learning about different careers. In middle school, they're have more exploration opportunities. So, they're learning about the various pathways to the high demand, high-skll pathways within the city of Columbus and our region. And then by the time they are beginning to transition from 8th to 9th grade, they are actually making informed choices and decisions. Um the the premise here is that we can't wait until our students graduate to begin introducing them to the career pathways and the high-skilled, high demand
027jobs that are available to them in our city and our region. We have to prepare them for those opportunities well before they get to high school. And so this is a step in that direction to ensure that all of our students have access, have opportunity um to really deepen those skills while they're in high school. >> All right. Thank you for that. We have another question. And Dr. Chapman, please feel free to as you're answering these questions, let's uh I'd love it if we could tie your vision overall uh to the answers to questions. Thank you for that. Uh we'll go down there and then we'll go to board member Engles. >> Thank you Dr. Chapman. Um what if any opportunities in the careermies exist for students uh special education students or students with disabilities?
028>> Thank you for asking that question. So are students with um disabilities um or are students with exceptional needs? We consider lots of our students have a need um but students with um varying learning styles they are all a part of thesemies and have experiences and opportunities that are centered around their needs. So it is inclusive of all students. It is we are not excluding anyone. So students who u may need more time to learn English, students who may be gifted or have an exceptionality in one subject area, students who um may have an IEP, students who may have a 504 plan. Um we already have a template for what this looks like. Um most of our do we have several programs that exist right now in the district. Um they are work-based learning experiences
029for our students with exceptionalities and they are thriving. Um they're um they're we have a partnership with some of our students. They're working in our food production center and some of our students work outside of the district and those are students with exceptionalities and they are doing an exceptional job and remind us every day of why we should be providing this experience for every child and that we should be making sure that these are not experiences that happen by chance. We are designing the system to ensure that every student has these type of opportunities. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. Board member Les, >> how are the specific programs chosen for each school and how do you see that developing if at all as we go through this uh phase in process? >> So
030that's a great question. um one of the ways that we have been we're really building on the existing program in the schools and building out the pathways. So for example at um the at East High School there's a health sciences academy um there have been health science programming at East High School. We think about the location of East High School. um Ohio State um hospital is right in the backyard and so it makes perfect logical sense in terms of the need as well as the access and opportunity for those work-based learning experiences. So we think about um existing program. We know that we have um really done a um worked really hard to expand uh CTE programming in our high schools. So now we're building out the existing CTE programs to also add career pathways
031that really make sense and build on the assets and the talent that already exists at the school, including the the skill sets of our teachers because we have teachers that are interested in these areas. So they're there and they're saying, "Give me more. I want to have I want to serve more students. I want to support more students." And so it's really been um more of an organic process of thinking about how do we expand existing pathways to make sure that again more students have access to them. >> I thank you for that. Uh yes sir please >> Dr. Chapman, I'm I'm curious about the procedures of um regarding unbalanced interest or disproportional enrollment inmies. Are is there a point where students are asked to change their selection and if so how would that happen
032and how do you uh with that gauging the selection of the differentmies prepare for the management of resources in either academy? So we really want um the the students to have choice and so that's why we have we have themies but there's also centers within the academy. Um we really want the students to be able to choose the pathway that makes sense for them. Um all of these strategies and these pathways have to be rooted in student agency. This isn't us choosing for them what they want for themselves. The students have to choose the pathway that resonates for them. They have to be able the whole experience is about them being able to see themselves in these careers. And that's um those work-based learning experiences and providing them with those experiences outside of the classroom
033helps make much more informed decisions in high school so that when they graduate and when they decide to enroll in an a two-year, a four-year, or go right into the workforce, they will all they hopefully they know exactly what they want to do, but if they don't, they also know what they don't want to do. And so those are experiences that when I was going to school, I had to figure that out on my own. I had to figure that out while I was already in um higher ed or in working um and having various jobs um after high school. And so these are experiences we're we're wanting to shape those experiences so that it guides based on their interest. And they're also um they will also have access to interest inventories where they get
034to learn what their skills are, their natural innate skills and that helps make more informed decisions about the pathways or the types of jobs or careers that would lend themselves well to based on their their talents. So it it will they can certainly change their mind and decide that they would like to be a part of a different academy but um they'll have choice and agency. >> Are there any additional questions before we move forward down there? Oh yes. Yes. Okay. Two people. >> Congratulations. I think we got it right. um the schools that you picked. It's great that you have the teachers on board and the agency there because that's your key factor there to help guide these students through what you know the interest surveys and everything that needs to happen in order
035for this plan to work. So, congratulations. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Oh, okay. You just I thought you had a question as well. >> Uh yes, sir. >> Okay. I just want to come back to the previous question. So, I pick a pathway. I think I like it. 10th grade. Realized by 10th grade, didn't like it. Do you think that's a great learning experience, by the way, because I totally love figuring that out earlier in life. But is there a point at which I might have to switch schools if the school doesn't offer what I'm looking for? >> Well, so for example, there could be a scenario where a student would say, um, I'm at East. I'm in the health science pathway. I would rather be in the engineering pathway. I've learned a lot about medical
036science and this is really not my jam. Right? So, that could be an option because remember that but that freshman experience and that freshman seminar that's going to be one year, no choices, one year of learning about all the pathways. And so, they'll have an opportunity to learn. They're going to be taking their interest inventory. They're going to be learning about more about themselves as a learner. and then they'll have an opportunity to make those decisions. So again, we want to we have to lift up the student agency piece. We have been Columbus City Schools has been very successful with in implementing uh career and technical education, CTE programming. Our students are performing off the charts in CTE. What we've learned is that our students don't want to leave their home school to go to
037another school to participate in CTE. And what we've also learned is that more students, every student wants those work-based learning experiences. And so this is our shift to think about how we provide more experiences for more students, more access in the at the neighborhood school so that they there more students and more families can have access to it. Uh yes ma'am and then I'll go to board member Vera >> maybe. >> Thanks. Uh Dr. Chapman, will you remind us um about how many students are enrolled in CTE programs at in Columbus City Schools at this time? >> About 11,500. >> Okay. So about a quarter about a a fourth between a fourth and a fifth of students. Thank you. >> Um for me >> Thank you. Nicole, um Dr. Tyman, I know um I just
038want to get understanding like I know we have amazing metriculation coaches that monitor um our students and just our traditional programming. Can you talk a little bit about how are we going to monitor the effectiveness once they transition from that first freshman year into sophomore, junior, and senior? Is that then an added marker for the present metriculation coaches or is this a separate process that we are implementing to really assess if these are the right programs? Are the programs being rolled out and like what is our process around monitoring? >> So when we think about the work of our metriculation teams that work will continue to be a central core part of high school success. Every student, whether they're an academy, a CTE program, a center or not, they have to graduate. That's non-negotiable. These
039strategies, the the academy strategy is really another way to keep kids engaged, to keep our kids wanting to come to school every day, to reduce um disruptions to school. Why? because they are choosing a pathway of their choice that they are saying, "Yes, I'm excited about engineering. I'm excited about health science. I want to be a nurse. I want to be a nurse practitioner. I get to work with a nurse practitioner. I got to be at school tomorrow because I'm going on a a experience with my mentor and I'm going to have a job shadowing experience." These are the types of experiences again that we've had a lot of success with with many of our students across the district for years. And so we're providing more work-based learning experience or career connected learning experiences that
040ensure our students have agency. They want to come to school. They stay in school. their learning is more meaningful because it's not just connected to what they're learning as a ninth grader or what they need to learn to graduate, but it's what they want to learn so that they we're continuing to harness their hopes and dreams for where they want to be once they graduate. So, it's it's giving them another more more goals that really sets them up not only for success now, but success later. And so the work of the metriculation teams does it stop? Absolutely not. >> When we think about how we measure success, we will be measuring success again by the number of credentials that our students are earning in addition to credits. Credits don't go away. They still have to
041earn credits as a ninth grader, as a tth grader, as a 11th grader, as a 12th grader in order to be on track to graduate. But our students should also absolutely have every opportunity and access to graduate not only with a diploma but also with credentials. And so when we think about engagement, we think about attendance, we think about um metriculation and the number of students who um we when we start with our freshmanies, the number of those ninth graders who transition to 10th grade, >> it's not automatic that those ninth graders transition to 10th grade because they have to earn the credits. And so we'll immediately at the end of the midy year we'll be able to determine how successful is this freshman academy. Are the kids staying together as as um as a
042cohort and then they're metriculating to 10th grade? They're metriculating to 11th grade. We already have those benchmarks for metriculation from nth grade to 10th grade. And that's an area that we have to work on. And this is a strategy that's going to help us um add more value and more meaningful um opportunities for the students based on their interest. When our students are learn right now typical high school experience, they go to an English class and transition to a math class, a science class, social studies. >> That learning is not connected. It's not based on a theme, a thematic approach. When the students are in the pathway, an engineering pathway, English will be taught through the lens of engineering. Math will be taught through the lens of engineering. They're going into each class saying, I'm
043going to be an engineer. What does now? How does the math support my goal of becoming an engineer? I can talk to an engineer. I can work with the engineer. I can shadow an engineer. I'm gonna I'm going to go onto the job site. I'm gonna have exper the it it really shapes and re-imagines that whole secondary experience in a new and different way that um I believe sets our students up for success um today as well as for tomorrow. >> Thank you. And I only have one quick follow-up question. Um I was looking at the phased approach and you have you know phase right now phase one is four phase two is two additional high schools and then phase three is um four high schools. So am I is this an indication of when
044you think about reimagining the district is this the number of high schools you're hoping to keep us within or do you envision there being more phases? >> So thank you um board member Ver for that question. When we designed this stad strategy, we were thinking about um the future of our district. Right now, we have 21 high schools. We already know as a district that 21 high schools for the number of high school students that we have is too many, >> right? That was that's not something that we stumbled upon yesterday. We have done several facility master planning projects in years past where that has already been determined based on our enrollment. And so when we think about 10 high schools, we are thinking about 10 large comprehensive high schools. This is the type of
045robust programming that we would be able to offer at 10 of our high schools, not at 21. >> This is not a strategy that we'd be able to implement at a high school that has 300 students, >> right? And so this is an opportunity again if we are able to do the work that we need to do. We think when we talk about realignment then we are able to align all of our resources around more more robust programming in fewer schools providing our students with more opportunities for them to be successful in K12 and postsecary as well. >> U hold on just a moment board member Simmons. >> Um thank you President Cole. Um Dr. Chapman, I just had a few questions. Um how were the four schools selected and then how will the six
046schools um subsequently be selected? >> So when we um started this strategy, we were meeting with um the school leaders and really we wanted to make sure that these were campuses that were ready for um adding a new strategy or thinking differently about um the work. And so this was thinking about the capacity of the staff, the interest of the staff. These are schools um anyone knows um Northland has had a strong engineering program for years. This didn't happen overnight. And so they have dedicated, committed staff that are ready to um really lean in, engage fully in um really rethinking about how they provide um instruction for their students. So there's there's a readiness and a willingness to embrace a strategy like this and there's also um already identified commitment to um engage in um
047more professional learning. Um all of the freshman academy teachers have participated in training over the summer so that they could be ready for the launch um this new school year. And so they've shown the willingness they're really their their whole team has come out and said yes, sign us up. We're excited about this. This is going to energize me professionally. It's going to energize me personally and we're excited about that. So, we're really trying to build on the assets um at each one of our schools and um continue to deepen and strengthen those opportunities. >> Thank you. Um and then you mentioned um enrollment was increasing at those four buildings. Are you able to tell us where those students are coming from? Is it intra district transfers? Is it students who are new to the
048district or returning to the district? don't have that data in front of me but we can check. >> Thank you. And then I just had one last technical question on the slides for each school with the um where it lists the different centers. Are those courses the students will be taking or or what do those initial bullet points mean? >> So some of them are courses and experiences but it's through the lens and it's also through the the credentials that they'll have an opportunity to earn. the engineering pathway. We're highlighting the credentials that the students will have an opportunity to earn as well as high health sciences as well. >> Thank you, Dr. Trappy. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Thank you for that question. We'll take one more. >> Um can you speak to
049whether or not um general employability skills are being taught in these programs? And um if so, how is that happening? Um is that like a a separate class? Is it integrated into some of the courses that they're taking? How does that work? >> It's integrated into everything. And so they're absolutely have those experiences like in the freshman academy um and also in all of the the courses as they're earning those credentials. Those are baked into um the credentials that the students earn because when the students earn those credentials whether they're in a um academy course or a CTE program that when they graduate with that credential they can go right into the workforce. And so that credential again, they're earning credentials and skills that I didn't have access to when I was in um high
050school. These were classes that I learned in college like, you know, Adobe um Lean Six Sigma. We have some folks on our staff that are learning that right now, right? And so our high school students are learning these skills and will have these credentials when they graduate. >> Thank you for that question. Um brother Mr. Kennedy. >> Dr. Chapman, just this is a quick question just on accountability. >> Who who drives the success of this? Is it the the administrator, the principal coach, the area superintendent? Who who's ultimately responsible for driving the success of thesemies? >> So, um the technical answer would be leadership, right? Um but the real answer here is our entire Columbus community. This is not a strategy that we can implement without our community >> because otherwise we'd be teaching from
051our own experiences. We don't have engineers that are in our classroom. We are rem we need the entire community, the business community, the health community, the um you know we need them to create open the doors so that our students can learn side by side um business and industry leaders and that's their classroom experience once a week. We need the business community to open their doors so that our students will have those work-based learning experiences. And so it's a shared accountability. Um without those invitations, opportunities, um our students will will not have those experiences that they need to make this learning come to life. And so when I think of it, I think of it as a commitment from our community that says this is absolutely the experience that every student in Columbus City Schools
052deserves and we're going to make it happen. >> Thank you for that question. >> Okay. with themies of Columbus City Schools. How, if at all, will it align with the existing career center programs? >> That's a great question. So, this is not in place of our career center programs. This is in addition to. We can do both. It's both and. And so, um, what we have learned is that there's a significant demand from from our students for career connected learning. They're saying, "I want more. I'm this is awesome. This is amazing. Now I want to come to school. Now I want to stay in school. Now I want to learn more about this career. And so what we are um certainly thinking about is how we provide more of those experiences in our neighborhood schools.
053So I we talked earlier we have 21 high schools. We have two career centers. So essentially if a student was interested in a CTE pathway, they would have to travel. they would have to leave their home school to go to downtown Fort Hayes or Columbus downtown high school to engage in that type of learning. We have slowly been transitioning and migrating the CTE programs to the high school and now we're expanding that. So, it's not just for some students at each high school, it's for all students at the high school. And so, students can continue to metriculate with their peers. They can stay at their home school. they won't have a disruption in their day and they won't have to transition and um travel um for some students it's really it's far it's not in
054their backyard um to travel to another site. So it's both and we absolutely have valuable programming at Fort Hayes that we're going to continue to build on and expand. We have valuable programming that we want to also expand and provide um at more of our neighborhood schools. So, it's both and >> thank you. >> Uh, board member Reyes. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Chapman. Um, can you talk a little bit about where where we've seen success uh with this model and how we stay connected to that success >> where we in CCS have seen success >> uh either within us or is there another district that's doing it where we're modeling this? So I would say so the um there are several other communities that have invested in this strategy and I say communities
055because it's truly a partnership with the community. The districts are communities that have been successful with this strategy. It's they've been successful because everyone they stack hands and they say this is our commitment to our children. It's not singularly or solely a K12 strategy. And so we've looked at models, we've visited and looked at models in Boston, we've looked at models in Nashville, we've looked at models in Indianapolis, we've looked at models in Louisville. They have been implementing these strategies for over a decade. So it's not a strategy that just started yesterday. They have experienced and seen tremendous results from the partnership, the collaboration. again, not just K12, but the entire community has invested in this strategy and they've been very successful. Thank you. >> All right. Uh thank you for these series of questions.
056Let me before we move to the next presentation, it's important to you to understand why we're having this presentation and discussion tonight on this specific issue. You all have are well aware of the $50 million cut that we have uh that we've pushed forward and but what you're getting a deeper sense of is now what what is the direction academically that we're taking that helps us further opportunity for students and not to just to one or two buildings but make it scalable throughout the district. Here's some important facts for you to know. One is that in more than a 2600 graduating cohort of students, I want to say nearly 700 of them were CTE students that earned 15,000 or more micro credentials that made them workforce ready. Here's another fact that's also important to understand
057about this particular investment in this group of students is that they tend to not only show up to school, but show up to school on time. show up to school ready and consistently. This is a graduation cohort of 90% or better. Nine out of every 10 rumps, behinds, butts, buttoxes are in the seat prepared to learn. Forgive me for my use of colloquialism. But I think it's really important to make this relatable in the greatest sense. The other most important in closing community partner stakeholder are our families how much they are aware of this opportunity, aware of its immense potential for students and maybe even some themselves if they're 21 and under because we're compulsory age here in Columbus City Schools of 5 years old to 21 years old. So there's immense opportunity here for
058students. This is a direct course of investment that we want to at this portion of the marathon which is midway through closure where we see the opportunity and potential to make winners continue to make winners out of our kids. Um so I want to take that and move forward to our next presentation which will be by Mr. Treasurer Ryan Cook. >> Why are they loading those slides? >> You want to I've got it. You're good. You think there's pressure that goes into a five-year. I'll tell you when Dr. Chapman has confidence in you to run that slide and and the clicker freezes, that's pressure, let me tell you. >> There you go. >> All right. >> And just so you you know, there'll be opportunity for further questions as we move forward. >> Uh but
059I want to make sure I'm watching the clock as well. >> So if I don't go with you is please charge it to my head and the clock and not my heart. >> Yeah. Thank you. So tonight we're going to do a highlevel overview of the five-year forecast. I presented to committee before on this in the interest of time and how some of these other pieces connect with the $50 million cut. We're going to stick at a high level here tonight. I'll be presenting at our board meeting on Tuesday. We'll have much greater detail, but in the interest of time, I want to make sure we cover what we need to here. It's working all right. Maybe I spoke too soon. There we go. Okay. So, this is our first look at the October 2025
060forecast. Uh, previously we presented on the May 5-year forecast and that was before the board took action on a $50 million budget reduction. With that being said, um, traditionally when you have a budget reduction on a five-year forecast, you integrate that into different lines, salaries, benefits, supplies, etc. We haven't done that yet because the board is still working with Dr. Chapman to finalize and formalize where those cuts are going to go. So, as a treasurer, I didn't want to paint the narrative of putting 75% of it in salaries, 25% of it in supplies. It's important that Dr. Chapman and her team do that critical work to arrive at where they feel those cuts need to be targeted. Once those decisions are made towards December, we will update this forecast again in February per statute and
061it will reflect where those cuts fall within those various buckets. So having level set on that here with the October 25 forecast, our cash balance has shifted to a positive situation through fiscal year 2030. Uh we previously had challenges where that was not going to be the case. That is the result of the $50 million reduction that the board has approved that is sustained and ongoing. I would like to highlight we began deficit spend last year and this this cut does not actually fix that structural deficit. Rather, it begins to close that gap that we've seen between revenue and expenses. So, for example, this line at the bottom is our cash balance. It reflects the $50 million cut and we're going to go from a cash balance of approximately $263 million this year and then
062end in 2030 with 9.3 million in the bank. That's approximately three days of a cash reserve. So I would be remiss if I didn't highlight there is still much more work to be done. I know Dr. Chapman, Auditor Okconor, myself spent a lot of time this afternoon going through this, having discussions. We know that this is really the first bite of the apple. So, we're now beginning to prepare what do then we need to look for in the future after we conclude this summary of changes in revenue. Um, we've seen an uptick since May of $19 million in increases. Again, this reflects a new state budget, changes with interest, income. I know we had a tremendous amount of discussion around the state budget and what it did or didn't do. I simply want to highlight
063for you that we have seen since May a $19 million increase in revenue. We knew the state wasn't going to come through. And again, I think that's reflected by these numbers. We haven't seen a 5060 75 million increase. We can talk again about why that's occurring, but we're we're facing those same inflationary pressures that you have at home. The state is still funding us on those 2022 cost sets. So, we're just not seeing that uptick in revenue. On the expenditure side, we see a reduction of 115 million. So, again, it be mindful here. We've taken out 50 million a year for those three years of the new forecast that the state's talking about. But because of those inflationary pressures, it chips away. And so the 150 isn't a true 150. We see it as it
064caps out. We're projecting inflationary pressure on those. Again, all other revenues, we've got an increase for investment income. There's now discussion the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates. While that's good for the economy and stimulates, while we have $263 million that we can invest and work with, a reduced interest rate environment again just reduces the amount of interest income that we're going to receive. So, we're we're facing challenges from a myriad of angles. Another risk factor we've had a lot of talk around federal government programs. We've got our grants and then we've got Medicaid receipts. There's a lot of discussion on is this program even going to continue in the long run. We've received 7.5 million in the past. We've begun to back that down because of the pressure we're seeing at the federal level.
065So, this forecast includes an approximate $1.6 million decrease due to what we've been navigating and following with challenges on the Medicaid front. The district's done a great job prior to even my arrival of going after those dollars to help increase revenue and now we're seeing that pressure at the federal level where it's being backed down again. Those are dollars that Dr. Chapman and her team won't have available to deploy his resources in the classroom. Summary of changes on our expenditures. We've updated all of our actuals for FY25 and we've projected them forward. Payroll, utilities, supplies, materials. So, we take a look at what did we spend, what is our historical percentage that we need to apply to that to grow it going forward, and we project that out into the future. One of the big
066things we talked about last November was the annual base increase that we're going to project in the forecast. We just settled our contract with labor partners CA and they received a 2.25% increase for fiscal year 26 which is this year. In our forecast as we project forward, we've held that 1% increase. Again, as I've told our partners at the table, we negotiate in good faith, but we have to put something into the forecast that projects going forward. So, we've stayed consistent with that 1% metric in our out years. Non-personnel amounts are revised to agree with our FY26. That's everything but personnel, supplies, materials, uh, consumables, etc. And we're projecting that flat, no increases. I know that Dr. Chapman and her team are having a lot of discussions at cabinet level and down on where do
067we shake the couch cushions? How do we control the things that we can control right now? Non-personnel budget is that I will give them a lot of credit over the last year. We started these discussions in the first of the year and they've done diligent work to draw that budgetary figure down. We've begun to see that pay off. There's not a lot of fat left on the bone that they can trim with respect to non-personnel. And what I mean by that, I can't present to you in the dark. we have bus fuel that we have to buy, things of that nature. So, there's just a certain element that we have to continue to maintain to do business, but they've been diligent in watching that number. And certainly, we will continue to to be diligent and
068viligent on that as we go forward on contracts, etc. Transfers out, we've increased to reflect an anticipated funds into 035 that the board established at the end of the fiscal year. That's for an extra pay, a 27th pay that is going to hit our books in fiscal year 28. So, what we're doing is we're not reserving that cash on our books in the general fund. We're putting that into what I would call a special fund, a savings account, so that those monies are there and we can charge that off without greatly impacting the general fund with an added expense. We're planning ahead for that when it arrives. All other financing uses uses increase to reflect the inclusion of a $50 million annual board approved expenditure. And this is what I opened with. There's no great
069spot to put a rip down on the forecast. Traditionally, you put it in your salaries, your benefits. Again, to defer and allow the superintendent and her team the time necessary to allocate those expenditure reductions appropriately. We placed a single item that makes it easy to view in the forecast right now for October. Again, once those decisions are made and board approved, we will remove it from that line and apply it appropriately throughout the lines in the forecast. But it's important to note it does reflect the $50 million decrease right now. In conclusion, ongoing risks, uh, pending state and federal budgetlitigation. Um, I think there's still a lot of discussion. I know there's a lot of discussion around property tax reform. What does that look like as we go forward? I anticipate continued challenges on school
070funding. There was a lot of discussion around that cash balance policy. I I don't think that's gone away. I don't know what it looks like. Although because of our deficit spend, if the state were to enact that 30% policy, it wouldn't impact us now. I will tell you with where our fiscal picture is going, I wish that was a problem I had to fight. We're not there yet. We're going to work on rebuilding that and getting on that path to fiscal sustainability. Cash balance is a percentage of our expenditures and 26 is is 26% and change. And you can see as we get to 2030, we are just below 1%. Even with that $50 million reduction. So it's critical for me to highlight that is merely a start. We still have options. That could include
071further reductions. That could include attrition as employees choose to leave our district. We just simply don't backfill. Yes, I will acknowledge it's still a reduction, but nobody has to tell anyone you're losing your job. So, it's in my eyes the least painful option. The other option is increasing revenue. So, we have some combinations we can play with here and discussions that we will continue to have at the board table as we go forward. But again, the $50 million reduction is merely a starting point because of our deficit. We're projected again over a hundred million this year and then next year we drop down closer to 50. But because of those inflationary pressures that we face, the deficit spend will continue to grow from that reduced 50 million back up into the 70 71 million and
07229 and 30. So again, it kind of highlights those challenges we saw in the budget bill with updating cost sets. just talked about expenses exceeding revenue and you can see below on that last little bar graph um what our deficit spending actually is. We're north of a hundred million projected this year and again we're we're down next year but then we're back off to the races because of inflationary pressure. Um I I say a lot of times we want to prepare for the storm before it's here. The storm's here, we're preparing. I feel like the $50 million is some of the plywood that's going over the windows so that we can protect academic programs. Now, we have to begin to take a look at what are those next levels of project protections that we have
073to deploy to protect academic programs for our students. I know I moved rapidly through that. The questions, >> the floor is open for questions. Okay. So, I do have a few. All right. Sir, go ahead, please. >> Yeah. One question I had is so you're making the go forward assumption of 1% increase in salary, but have you looked at what happens if it continues to be two two and a half because I mean, understandably people are also looking at home to make sure that they're, you know, not getting hit by inflation, right? >> I have. We we run a myriad of scenarios all the time. Um, I've stuck with the one because that's what the board approved. I don't like to unilaterally just come in. I I I aim for consistency in the forecast and
074I think if the board directed a percentage change like we did um last winter, that's when I'll make that. But yeah, we are constantly analyzing this. One of the slides on Tuesday that I'll talk about at the board meeting, we are bound by what they call the 412 certificate. So there's a maximum that we can certify by law based on what the numbers are in the forecast. And a huge component of that is the salary piece. It's approximately It's north of 80% of our budget spend. So yes, we look at it all the time. Um we model it. I've got spreadsheets, but we have to maintain certification. So when we approve a contract, the board president, the superintendent, and the treasurer have to certify with that 412 certificate. Funds are there. And what that means
075is if we certify a contract where we legally don't have the monies to pay it, we are personally liable with a $10,000 fine each. That's an Ohio revised code. >> So, we're on the hook, so to speak, to make sure that when we conduct business, any any contract over a half a million dollars requires that certification. So, yes, that's a long answer, but we constantly model it. We look at it. It is a massive part of our budget and we like to keep where are we at, where are we going, what are those whatifs that could arise. >> Yeah, makes sense and totally understand. I think one follow-up question too is have we explored any alternatives where we continue to offer the same level of benefits at a reduced cost. So like a couple things
076that come to mind are uh looking to all the other schools in central Ohio to get an even larger uh health care uh conglomerate, right? Um looking to offer maybe uh I know my wife's former employer uh got rid of PPOs and did HSAs but then fully funded people's HSAs so that it wasn't really a difference at home but the premiums on the employer side were there. So, I'm curious like what options like that we've uh explored to try to figure this out. >> Yes, we've had discussions. It was one of one of the opening things I brought up um last fall when I walked into the district when we started to have discussions around what what can we look at as we meet with our labor partners. Much like every other school, we have
077a health insurance committee that works in conjunction with our partners. So, they make those changes. um they are currently and have been flipping over stones um to see what can we do to affect change in that regard. So I know that that committee does a lot of work on benefit structures, co-pays, PO versus fully funded versus HSA. Um one of the things we're doing is allowing employees, we're going to max our flex spending account now at the maximum IRS levels. I know Dr. Chapman and I had a quick discussion on that tonight again because we recognize that there is pressure there on both sides of the equation at the board level and the employee level. So that committee is constantly evaluating that and yes I think there is work that needs to be done but
078it has to be in conjunction with our labor partners. >> Absolutely. Uh thank you for those questions for meas. >> Yes, he actually asked a couple of the questions but and I I thank you uh Treasure Cook. um making sure that people understand that even if we look at any and all options, we do have to have agreement uh with our labor partners before we can move forward because it does have impact on them. Um you talked a little bit about what percentage of our budget goes to salaries. Can you talk a little bit about what um how the rest of our budget is uh allocated so that people can kind of understand um because a lot of times we get well why don't you sell this or why don't you do this or why
079don't you do that and kind of help people understand where our money goes and give us a dollar amount what it might take for us to uh function one year. >> Yeah. So in in terms of our budget scope and size, our general funds approximately $988 million. Let's just say a billion dollars for the sake of argument. 800 million, let's just take it 80% just to keep it simple. 800 million is our salary and benefit cost of that budget. So, the remaining 200 million funds things like supplies, material, curriculum, Chromebooks, our a >> transport, you beat me to it. I think that's on the agenda tonight. Transportation, bus fees. um our electric bill with AE. So when you think about what we can and can't maneuver around to reduce what I call that that large
080Titanic, you don't turn it on a dime because we really have 20% that we're playing with. And again, we have to get students to school. We have to heat our facilities. We have to cool our facilities. We have to have the electric bill on. We have to make sure that our students that are even in any program, not just CTE, have Chromebooks, etc. And those are expensive items. I know I belleaguer the point, but that's why that that budget bill and that fair school funding formula is so critical because I think we would all agree the cost of all of that stuff hasn't gone down. The cost to adequately educate and equip a student is expensive and continues to rise. Yes, I think it's important we try to balance our budget, but we also have
081to educate students and that that takes a village and requires community investment, which they've been generous in the past with our levies. It's why it's frustrating that the state continues to push more and more and more and more on the backs of our local taxpayers by not funding the fair school funding formula. So, it's a billion dollar budget, 800 million salaries and benefits, critical component. We're in the people business. 200 million is the stuff, but it's the stuff that literally makes the wheels go round on that bus that gets our students here. So, I Does that help? >> It does. Can you also talk a little bit about um what we get? What's the dollar amount per student and then how it's impacted on October 1st? >> Yeah. So, count week. So, it's it's um
082students in seats. I'll quote board president Cole a few minutes ago. There we go. students and seats. So again, that's what drives our revenue. Obviously, at the end of the day, we have students here. Um, from the state level, we get approximately 4,000 and change from a student. So, again, I'm going to I'm going to point to that 8020 model. Um, we hear a lot about, oh, Columbus City School spends approximately $25,000 a student. Yeah, it's true. But that's the cost to educate a student and provide the education that Superintendent Chapman and the board says we need to do. Of that, we receive approximately $4,4300 from the state. The rest of that's born a small portion through federal grant programming, but the bulk of that's through the generosity of our community. They support us. They've
083chosen to invest in our community. And while the state likes to throw out that $25,000 expenditure, it is frustrating to me because yes, they do provide us some funding, but it isn't $21,000 worth. That's that's the piece that we never hear about. So hopefully that >> it does. And let my last question just trying to help um the listening audience kind of understand how money moves around in the district. So, if a if a parent and student choose to go to another school other than a Columbus City School, when that student then returns back to Columbus City Schools after October 1st count account count week, um do we receive that money back into the district? >> We get a portion. Um it used to be we were locked in. I'm I'm I'm grayer and baler,
084so I can relate to this. When I first started, it it was count week and that was really it. you didn't get any more money if they were there. So, there was a big push on that. I'm going to call it they are funding us now similar to the the community schools, if you will. If they're here, we get funded, but it's just a portion of that funding. So, again, oftentimes, and Dr. Chapman's better equipped to speak to this, not all students, but a lot of students come back to us from other entities that we're educating and they might be behind. They might not have the tools that they need. So, we as a district invest to bring them up because that's what our mission is and that's an added expense to us. Even though
085we don't get that full revenue from the state, we still make Skippy sure that we're providing an adequate, fair, and appropriate education. >> I love Skippy. >> Thanks. So it's so I I just try to make sure that people understand it's a very complex model. When you move one piece of the model, it impacts greatly the bigger picture of the model. >> It's hard for us to be nimble on a fiscal sense because it does have that cascade domino effect down. Yes, it's easy to say, why don't you get rid of this? Well, that layer may impact six, seven, eight, nine, 10 other things downstream. So it's not that easy. I can promise the community we have these discussions all the time. My team and my office were always looking at this. We took a
086lot of time, the three direct reports today to go through this and talk about how can we do this better? What areas do we need to examine and look at? So, we're constantly having those conversations. >> So, there's fixed cost, there's like one-time cost savings. Like everyone says, "Well, sell a building." That's a one-time cost savings. that's not gonna like you said like you stated and I can you can finish the sentence if you'd like. >> Great point. But I wanted to highlight you just triggered something. So when we sell a facility, it's not money that just rolls into the general fund. We're required by law to place that into permanent improvement. So if we sold every facility tomorrow, got a billion dollars, it goes into PI. We still have deficit spend in the general
087fund. So monetizing our assets doesn't fix the general fund problem that we're facing >> in the sales perspective. >> Correct. >> In the sales perspective. >> Just disposition of real estate. Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Um and thank you so much for those clarifying questions. Um before we transition to the next portion of our conversation, I just want to come uplift a couple of things. Um the first thank you for the question about the 2.25 25 the two and a quarter for the one year. So we're at a space right now where we are planning for that consideration for one year >> that 2.25 right. Um there is reopener opportunity in the years preceding the two years preceding to re-engage that conversation. But where we are continuing to stand is based on what the
088numbers are actually telling us. That we are still in a deficit spending space. That does not mean like we're misusing credit cards. What it means is is that the cost of operations is a certain amount and we don't have but a certain amount at that rate. We're not meeting it. So now that gap is getting wider and wider every year. So I I just wanted to uplift that. Thank you because that to borrow from AJ CrarAel that is a uh a rigorous relationship with reality right the one is a forecast of 1% but the rigorous relationship reality is the two and a quarter so thank you for that uh the other question is of cash on hand in years previous we have always maintained a practice of having between 30 and 60 days cash on
089hand to make sure the bills are paid, folks are paid, lights are on, so on so forth. Is is that 30 or 60day cash on hand piece a a variable considered in this upcoming budget? >> Yes, you'll see that Tuesday night. I highlighted as we spend down our cash at the end of this forecast period in 2030, we're at 9.3 million approximately three days in reserve. Yes, we'll talk about that Tuesday night. >> Thank you. I look forward to it. And the last thing closing before we transition is uh one of those ways in which we actually try to recoup dollars. So Medicaid, as you heard, is one of those instances and where we actually try to get those dollars back. It's only a partial amount. It's only a partial amount. These dollars are used
090for very specific things. So if we have students in the district for example who are sped students, we have students in the district who need physical therapy or some sort of therapy, occupational, um we have the the proceeds to be able to do that. We pay it out, but then we seek reimbursement back from the federal government and you heard that amount at 7.5 million last year and we're projecting a little over five million this year. Um, we don't know how that dynamic is going to change. And the reason being, folks, is because the federal government is backlogged. They they're actually backlogged on on what they're paying, what what's supposed to go out. And I think that's one of the reasons why they're trying to transition dollars back to people in a way that they're
091trying to argue. But we still need that critical investment in Medicaid for our 100% free and reduced lunch students who are economically impacted whether they come from working families or not. Um so I I just wanted to make >> Medicaid. So the Medicaid it's um reimbursement because the individual family is eligible. >> Correct. >> And so remember that they're also considering changes to Medicaid eligibility. Yes. >> And so that's important to watch as well. So we don't just, you know, get to just >> give it to everybody, >> get reimbursement for everyone. >> Correct. >> And the families have to proactively fill out the paperwork with us and um so that we have that information. So just to clarify that a little bit um it's it's um a little bit more complicated, but extremely important
092to watch all of that Medicaid because we've done we have been doing a really great job recouping that, working with our families um to bring that back. and ETRM did look at that um uh this this past year. >> And if I may, I also want to thank um Auditor Okconor for all the great work that he has done in this Medicaid space. Um absolutely two years ago, I think or maybe a year ago now, audit and accountability committee. Um a really robust report around the opportunities that we still had to explore with Medicare. Um so I just want to thank you uh Auditor Okconor for your leadership and work in that space. >> I appreciate that. But Dr. Floyd is very instrumental in the work that gets done. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you all.
093Um, okay. So, as we move forward, we are going into section 3.3. Now, let me preface how we're moving forward. This is a very tense part of the conversation. We got to start off with appreciative inquiry. We got to start off with learning about the great things that are happening in the district and the great potential moving forward that's available and opportunities for kids. We're going to have some tough conversation moving forward. Tough conversation that is not comfortable. Tough conversation where I'm going to ask everybody in the room, anyone who is watching to watch it without a political lens. If you're wearing political glasses, please challenge yourself to take them off and let's have a rigorous relationship with reality in this conversation about what is best for children, what is best for the district moving
094forward in terms of sustainability and what this realignment process should actually seriously take under consideration. We join these committees for a reason, to provide some recommendation and some perspective, added perspective to the work that we as your board of education do. But remember, I really want to challenge each of you to not put those political spectacles on. Take those off and actually let's have a real conversation about what we're facing and the tough challenges that are ahead. So with that, we will walk into the transportation cost models and academic impacts presentation, Mr. Woods. >> So thank you. Thank you for that introduction. I also want to acknowledge the other board members and the committee members and those in the audience. And for those that may not be in the room, my name is Maurice Woods
095and I'm the chief operating officer here, Columbus City Schools. Um, we're the third part of today's conversation, specifically section 3.3. And I do believe that there's a thread that's woven through today's conversation. Um, you're going to hear some comments in our presentation about how we believe we can help support the building of stronger neighborhood schools. Um, you're going to hear a thread in our conversation about how we can we believe that by being more efficient, we can create um, more opportunities to channel funds into the classroom to address our budget deficit. And then last but not least, the comments made by board chair Cole about a tough conversation. Um, we believe and we embrace these tough conversations, especially in the environment that we're in today. So, we're excited to be here to have this conversation
096with you. I want to acknowledge um I do have a co-presenter with me today, um our executive director of transportation, Mr. Rodney Stufflebeam. Um he's been doing an amazing job in acknowledging um and um I just want to want to lift him and support him in the work that he does. I also want to call out a friend that we have in the audience um because we may phone a friend depending on the depth of the questions. Um we have um one of our um our our partners here um Doug Palmer who is formerly of the Ohio School Board Association and I may call him to the to the podium but depending on the types of questions that we get in today's conversation. So if we go to the next slide please. So today we're
097going to talk about uh the past, the present and the future. We're going to spend a little time on the front end just level setting around the cost escalation that we've seen in transportation over the last few years specifically. Um we're going to talk a little bit about the root cause for that cost escalation. Um districts not only in this state but nationally are experiencing some of these same challenges. But we also want to recognize that when you compare us to others, you're going to see that our cost structure is misaligned. And we believe that that's an opportunity for us to to reinvision or reimagine um how we're doing some of our transportation practices to help put our structure more in line with some of our peer districts um uh some of our peers within
098the state of Ohio. Just a quick comment on the present. Um we had a really good 202425 school year. Um and we're off to what appears to be a really solid 25 26 school year, but we still have a ways to go. Um and at the end of this conversation, we're going to spend some time talking about short-term and long-term opportunities. The next few slides um have presented or some of you in the room have seen these. I'm going to go through them relatively quickly, but it does set the tone about how our cost structure compares to national median and Ohio state um periods in our in in in the state of Ohio. So, this slide basically identifies that we spend more on transportation than our national than the national median. You have two bar
099charts there. stacked on the bar charts are different functions within the operations portfolio. I've highlighted um where transportation falls within um that structure and as you can see we spend more than the national median. We also recognize on the next slide that there are some nuances here in the state of Ohio. We are the only state in the nation where we by law have to transport our charter non-public students. So, it's hard to do some national comparisons because we're unique in some aspects, but we can still compare to some of our peers, but we then recognize that we're the largest district. So, we want to make sure that as we're thinking about our peers, we try to identify those that are closest to us. So, we'll call out some comparisons specifically to Cincinnati and Akran.
100Um, I do want to just mention um I'm sorry to Cleveland and Akan. I do want to mention that Cincinnati is it's a little bit challenging or a little bit more challenging to get data and information um from the Cincinnati public schools. So, we leverage what we have. Next slide, please. So, our model is heavily driven by our current practices. You're going to hear us today talk a little bit about state minimums. Um we do some things that are above the state minimums and we're going to pull those out and highlight those today. This slide just basically says that um our expenditures in our current state puts us at the higher end on the right side of this this this bar chart as it compares to our other districts here in the state of Ohio.
101And I call your attention to Akran and Cleveland specifically. Next slide, please. >> So, this slide also highlights that we have more writers, significantly more riders in our bust than our peer districts. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this slide, but the box on the left hand side of the left hand side of the slide identifies what are some of the factors that are influencing the writership counts. We're going to talk about some of those today. The next slide is really um a summary slide that goes a little bit deeper in identifying the impact of our model and practices on some of the key metrics. So if you look at total miles, Cleveland's total miles of 2.1 million miles annually is approximately 22% of our 9.5 million miles. CCS has significantly
102higher miles per assigned bus. Um, and we believe that uh a large portion of that is related to us supporting our school choice in our lottery model. Reducing the number of buses, as you can see, we have 465 versus some of our other peer districts. Reducing the number of buses has a direct correlation in our ability to reduce cost and put money back into the classroom. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Stuffle at this point who's going to talk a little bit about what is the root cause to some of the challenges associated with the cost escalation over the last few years. >> Thank you, Mr. Woods. Transportation service evaluation in 1996. We're going to start with that as our baseline. We had 760 drivers transported nearly 36,000 plus students on over 700
103routes. The critical point was we had more drivers than routes equals built-in flexibility and coverage. Under 50 charter nonpublic schools existed at that time. The 2024 reality check. The driver crisis. Ohio is down 28% in school bus drivers compared to the national average of 15% postcoid. The demand explosion. We now have 167 charter nonpublicans within Franklin County that we are obligated to provide transportation services for. We've actually been able to work that down to where we're only doing 120. the resource mismatch. We had 445 drivers trying to cover 475 routes. So, we're already using three contractors to provide a relief on that part of the process. They were covering 105 CMP routes for us and CCS was covering 370. A simple math problem. In 1996, you had 1.09 drivers per route. In 2024, you have
1040.94. We automatically have a gap. There's a driver shortage just to match the routes of 30 drivers. That is to not including sick days, training, or turnover. The critical question, how sustainable is this model with continued driver shortages? The bottom line, we're trying to provide 1996 service levels with 2,24 resources while serving a dramatically expanded population. This isn't a policy problem. It's a source alloc. It's a resource allocation and priority decision problem. >> Yeah, I'm going to jump back in here on slide nine. I apologize. There's a lot of numbers and information on this chart. Um I will try to help point you in the areas that I think are most relevant. Um this is a snapshot of our annual budget over the last four years. Um and I mentioned cost escalation a couple of
105times in the opening. Um if you look at the purchase service line which is circled in red that line item identifies um the area in which we used outsource purchase services and vendors to provide transportation and buses in those areas where we don't have enough drivers to provide that internally. Um you see the escalation there. I do want to call out in the year 2023 24 we had esser funds that were s um supporting this work those funds went away 2526 and we had to absorb those in the general fund. The other thing I want to call out is under total expenses you can see our annual budget has risen to approximately $75 million. It stabilized over the last year, but we recognize that this is not sustainable given the environment and some of the
106conversations that we just had about our budget and funding situation. I do want to acknowledge that this particular slide does not include our non-compliance penalties um which um are approximately $15 million over the the last couple of years. We don't include them in our general budget. So they're not included in this slide. However, on the next slide, I wanted to take an opportunity to really explain how the non-expendit or the I'm sorry, the non-compliance penalties impact our budget. So if you look at this slide, the state reimbures us approximately $29 million, $28.9 million. However, throughout the year because of non-compliance penalties, and we'll go into detail in that, I'm sure during the Q&A, but basically non-compliance is when we're not meeting the requirements of state law, we get penalties for that, specifically with our charter
107non-public schools. But throughout the year, um, our funds are reduced, for lack of a better word. Um, if you look at what our actual state reimbursement is, which is the green line, are basically for this particular year in general, we're receiving $17 million from the state. And that doesn't include penalties that we anticipate going forward for the remainder of the year. So, if you're thinking about this from a profit and loss statement, our revenues are $17 million. I mentioned in the previous side slide that our expenses are $75 million. So, the hit on the general fund this year is approximately $58 million. Those are funds that some of them could be used to help improve some of the neighborhood schools that the superintendent mentioned. It can help cover some of the funding deficit that the
108superintendent mentioned. However, we're going to have to take a look at some of our practices in order to do that. I'm going to hand it back over to Rodney to talk about state minimums. >> Thank you, sir. State transportation minimums. These are legal mandates, not suggestions. Here's what the state requires. We provide under Ohio Revised Code 3327.01. Two-mile rule. K8 through K through8 students living over two miles from their assigned school get transportation. The career tech transportation. High schoolers must get rides to career technical programs. Non-public coverage. Private and charter schools. Students get transportation when CCS schools are closed. The 30-inute windows. Students cannot arrive more than 30 minutes late to school or early and cannot be picked up more than 30 minutes prior to the end of school day or more than 30 minutes
109after the end of the school day. Special needs mandate. Students with disabilities get transportation regardless of distance. The critical frame that we have to face is notice what's not here. No minimum service quality standards, no maximum ride times, and no comfort requirements. The challenge question we're faced with is we're legally compliant, but are we strategically effective? The data gap to the highlight is how many students fall into each category. What's our actual cost per per mandate? The bottom line is state minimums define the floor, not the ceiling. The real question is what service level we choose above these requirements. Meeting meeting legal minimums does not equal solving transportation problems or serving families well. Throughout the state, we've noticed through our partnerships that several districts have already taken action on this. We're not alone in this.
110Districts across Ohio are making hard choices about transportation scope. The trend right now is six of seven surveyed districts have eliminated or severely limited transportation for grades 9 through 12. The only exception was Toledo and they're providing a limited shuttle service that is not universal. The common driver is all site driver shortages forcing prioritization of K8 students. We >> can't do that. Key examples are Milford, Independence, Northern, Lakota, Poland, Tangi, complete elimination of high school transportation. Cleveland Metro RTA passes only for 9 through 12, shifting responsibility to families. Toledo has a shovel shuttle service that is not door-todoor. It's a partial partial compromise. These aren't anti- high school decisions. their resource allocation decisions under constraint. If comparable districts are prioritizing elementary middle school over high school transportation, what justifies our different approach? Some of the
111ideas that we've come up with and some of the cost-saving options we we have put on the table are as follows. In year one, high school transportation, we've looked at two options, and there's two clear choices within those. Option one, KOD transfer model. High schoolers use KOD with one transfer to CMP one transfer. And for CMP schools and limited yellow bus service. So what that means is CCS would have code of passes. Any charter non-public school that has more than one transfer would have to have yellow bus service, but the one transfer they can use code of passes. The service alone would save approximately $4.7 million, reduce the need for 50 fewer buses, reducing dependency on vendors, but creates transfer complexity for some students. Yellow buses may need to service CMP students that require more
112than one transfer. Barriers to accessing school choice programs for certain students may result in uneven enrollment across high school buildings. Short-term option number two is eliminate high school transportation. No district transportation for 9ines through 12. The savings for this would be approximately $7.2 million. The trade-off is it would require 75 fewer buses and shifts responsibility again to families. Cincinnati Publix is already mo Cincinnati public schools is already moving towards increased metro bus usage projecting a $2 million savings in reduced yellow bus costs. Some other considerations implementing a culture change. High school students access the distant school option access to the distant school options will be parents obligations. Attendance disruptions are expected during extreme weather events and economically disadvantaged families are likely to be disproportionately affected. The equity impact, the reality questions that we are faced
113with. Which families can't adapt to these changes? How does the effect access the specialized programs? Are we creating transportation barriers that compromise student welfare? And the underlying issue is high schoolers have more transportation alternatives than elementary students, but not all families have equal access to those alternatives. Both options force a fundamental question. Is high school transportation a core district responsibility or a family convenience we can no longer afford? Another long-term cost-saving option we've explored is bell times, specifically middle school bell times. Bell schedules work to match wrership with the number of buses available. A hub and spoke allows for one collection in the community versus multiple stops. Smallest middle school, the smallest number of students transporting matching with the CMP bell times or aligning with the CMBB bell times allows us to reduce the number
114of buses trans translating a cost reduction of approximately $5.5 million. Changing all the bell times moves from a two-tier system to a three- tier system, which allows us to better utilize our existing bus fleet. Nope, she's still there. And more runs per bus. Current bell times, high school, middle school, are 7:30 drop off and 2:30 pickup. Elementary is 9:00 a.m. and a 3:30 pickup. The proposed high school bell times would be 9:00 a.m. and 400 pm. Middle school would be 8:30 and 3:30 and elementary school would be 7:45 and 2:15. Other considerations, heightened communication needed to all stakeholders within the district and oversight needed at hub AM and PM student transfers. The long-term cost-saving option builds over time to create multiple tiers. All be bell schedules will need to be adjusted. Starting elementary first allows
115for greater route time in the afternoon, thus reducing the number of buses required to use during that window of transportation. These three tier scenarios would also need to implement a hub and spoke model to reduce the number of buses used in each community during the same time. It would increase the number of shuttle buses between schools. Staff adjustments at the buildings would need to match programming needs. Currently we are matching students to where the programs are located. This creates the cross district transportation problem we are currently facing. Example is long routes in excess of 90 minutes versus short routes in 45 minutes or less. Again the current bell times are high school middle school 7:30 and 2:30. Elementary school 9:30 and 3:30 proposed high school 9:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. Middle school to 8 8:30
116to 3:30. and elementary school 7:45 to 2:15. Some other considerations that we must take into account. Earlier start and dismissal times for elementary schools could inconvenience parents who need afternoon daycare coverage. Missed communications will lead to chaos. And CCS may need to revise programming to match community attendance. And now I'll turn it over to Mr. Woods. >> Thank you, Mr. Stufflebean. So, we've been thinking about these scenarios for quite a while now because we recognized that our current cost structure cannot be long cannot be sustainable long term. We also recognize that with a $50 million deficit that we really have to look at what are some alternatives that we need to bring forth for consideration and discussion. This slide again my apologies for the small font but it basically summarizes the scenarios that we just
117presented and the takeaway is on the right hand side of this slide that says that over time if we were to implement our scenarios that we're bringing forward we could potentially save the district between 21 and $24 million. I also want to just call out that it's not all about cost savings. We believe that by doing this, we could potentially increase our efficiencies and our effectiveness of how we're providing transportation to the majority of our students. So with that, our recommendation, next slide, please. Our recommendation to the board is, you know, after today's conversation and dialogue, there is an aspect in the policy that would need to be modified if we were to move forward specifically on the high school options. We believe that the bell time, the lottery, the school choice, those options are
118going to require significantly more analysis, research, engagement in the community and will take more time to implement. We believe that changing the high school bell time is something that if a decision is made um fairly quickly, we could implement that by the start of the 26 27th school year and realize some savings that we can then direct towards our budget deficit andor back into the classroom. That concludes our presentation. What I would like to propose to the chairs or the chair, not sure how to address the three committees, is that maybe we pause for questions um on this part because there was a lot of information shared um and then we can bring up Katherine Moser to talk about um the impact and the academic aspect if it's the will of of the of the
119board. So, um, we are currently at, uh, 7:40. Um, so what I'd like to do is open the floor up for questions about transportation this presentation. Um, and you know, whatever questions you have relative to the recommendations that were made. I'll start with >> slide. >> Yep. and you you project a little bit so we all can hear you. Yeah. >> Two very quick questions. So um am I to understand or we don't understand that if 9 through 12 transportation is eliminated as compulsory for Columbus City School students then we would also that also eliminates the requirement that Columbus City School transportation takes public or charter private school non- Columbus City school kids to wherever they go every day >> or some of those. There is yeah for 9 through 12 there is a rule
120in the legislation in the statute that says >> it it says in the statute that if there is more than one transferred required to get that student to that school they cannot use kota we would then have to provide yellow bus service. >> Okay. Um, and then for the school systems that were shown that don't do the 9 through 12 and the I saw the savings with that, but do we have any information about what the attendance change for those high school students was? So essentially the concern is are those kids still able to get to school? Is there a significant change in their attendance levels if they are no longer providing uh transportation? We would have to to review that and and see what that impact may look like. >> Yeah. One data point
121that I can speak to and we've had some conversation around this is, you know, as we think specifically about the the school choice and the lottery schools. Um, a lot of those schools where we provide ample transportation, we haven't seen a significant there hasn't been a significant benefit in the level of attendance in those schools and I believe that we've actually seen some decline in attendance those schools. >> Is there and sorry I'm sneaking in a third question real quick. Let um let me try to see if I can also answer that question because I was here before we um when we were only doing K to 8 >> board is acknowledged. >> I'm sorry I apologize for that. Um um I just thought it was a committee meeting. So um so when we prior
122to that we were at about a 73 74% uh attendance rate in Columbus City Schools i.e. why the board at the time made the decision to um add high school busing. So, but uh keeping in mind that um our that's also the same time we were uh talking about whether we would go from neighborhood schools to choice schools and also keeping in mind like he said we had less there was less charter schools at the time. So the impact was a lot less when you're talking about uh making those changes uh to to uh to expand to the to the 9 to 12. So the the numbers were a little bit less but it was at about 76% and we saw the jump uh to attendance within a year and Dr. Klein was here probably
123we were probably got it up to 89% um during that time and then it lowered a little bit because uh of the expansion of the the choice. Is there an option to simply say that parents that engage in school choice or the lottery programs are responsible for taking their kid to their non-comm community school? Is that an option the board has considered or can consider? >> Absolutely. >> That is Thank you for that question. That is an option that we will also be discussing. We'll begin that conversation tonight and then we'll also continue that conversation at our joint committee meeting next month. >> Thank y'all. Thank you for the questions. >> Yes, Mr. >> Yeah, Mr. Woods, I'm glad you're here with budgets because my son says I need to do a better job with
124the budget at my house. >> Me, too. >> But having said that, I can add, we have a two, you said a billion dollar budget. 800 million is gone. 200 million is left over. 75 million for transportation. >> Too much. >> There's no way we can get there without you reducing buses. 465 buses. That's too many. That's way too many. I continue to hear about efficiencies and effectiveness and I'd like to hear more about in transportation how we're going to get there because right now the only thing I'm hearing is we're going to put that responsibility on families. And I continue to tell the families in Lynon, you're responsible for your child's education. And here we are again. I am concerned about the least of them in this district. We have too many poor people
125in our district inlet and family afford $50,000 and now I need you to get your child to school. It might just be enough to break up that family. >> So if I can ask what what's your question too? >> Uh how are you going to reduce the buses 465? Where is the effectiveness and the efficiency coming in transportation other than on the backs of families in this district who are impoverished? So I I appreciate your question. I'm sorry. Through the chair, were you gonna say something? >> Yeah, please go ahead. >> So So thank you for the question, and it's something that we're very sensitive to. Um what we do recognize though is that the root cause of us having the budget of $75 million is something that we can't directly control, which is a
126driver shortage. That's the root cause of that. What the team has done over the last year, two years, we've worked hard to squeeze inefficiencies out of transportation. The budget has stabilized this year. We will continue to do that, but in order to make any um material changes to the cost of our budget, we really have to look at some of the practices that we've discussed today. It's just it's one of those tough conversations that we have and again we also called out some other districts that have had these tough conversations. Um and you know it does involve asking um for in this situation high schoolers potentially to carry some of the brunt of the cost of transporting at that level >> conditionally. >> But thank you for the question Mr. Robinson. We're sensitive to that.
127>> Thank you, >> Mrs. Barnes. >> My question is on the KOD part of it. Uh or if we if we shift the KOD, who pays for we're paying COD to transport the students or how does that work? I'm not real clear on that. >> No, we we will provide the C the CCS students with the passes and Dr. Klein's office already does that for the 9th through 12th grade students. do that. >> Um, the only addition we would have is those charter non-public students that would be transferred to COTA, we'd be obligated to pay for their their passes. >> So, we would still have to pay for charter and non-public students. >> What's the cost of a cost? >> 1150, >> but it's considerably less because we're not dealing with bus and gas maybe.
128>> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Can you say what the amount is per student again? >> 1150 per student per semester and we pay for two semesters. If I can just call out >> very inexpensive. >> Thank you. I'm sorry. If I can just call out, you know, we've been under the the guidance of the superintendent. We've been working hard to establish partnerships um throughout the city. Um we have an amazing relationship with Kota. Um we've been meeting with them quite frequently. Um we know that they're expanding their services throughout the city, so that's something that we can line up with. Um, but we have been engaging them in these conversations and they have been at the table trying to help us resolve some of them as well. So, I just want to acknowledge
129that partner. >> I have a question. >> Any additional Mr. Simmons and Oh, well, let me go to Did you have your hand raised? >> Yes, he did. >> Yes. >> Oh, yes. >> Did you? I'll go with you and then Mr. Simmons >> and >> the gentleman. Okay. >> I just haven't heard from her all night. So, yes. So for our parents that may have the income issue, they may be impoverished. What kind of penalties are going to be put into place or what are they facing if they can't get their kid to school? >> I can't answer that one. >> You're asking like truency. >> Yeah. So the um there are truency rules um in the state of Ohio for all families and certainly we know there are a variety of reasons why
130students don't come to school and um we certainly there's lots of opportunities lots of touch points to work with families to correct and intervene when we establish a pattern of non-attendance with our students. um there's lots of opportunities to you know work with them and talk with them about what their needs are and how we can best support them. Um I just also think it's worth highlighting that um in s in in CCS the majority of our students do not attend a neighborhood school. >> Majority of our students I think it's high as a 60% of our students do not attend a neighborhood school. So the challenges that we're talking about, we're right now we're talking about just transportation, but it's also about families making different choices because the complexity of transporting students from the
131west side to the northwest side, from the south side to far northwest. What we're saying is we may have been able to do that, you know, years ago when we had 200 additional drivers, but this is a different day. >> And so we can't continue to provide that service to our families at the detriment of our core business, which is educating children. We don't have a budget for 100 million to focus on curriculum and instruction. We have a budget for 100 million to transport children. And I would argue that that's not our primary line of business in Columbus City Schools. And so we have to think differently. We have to surface this conversation and we have to be willing to make some some really tough decisions. That doesn't mean that the student will not have
132access to a neighborhood school. It means that the family our families will have to make some tough choices about where because it's it's one thing to say that you want your child to go to school at this school and it's you know it takes me 40 minutes to get there during rush hour in my car without making a stop when imagine how long it takes a child to get to that school on a yellow bus with 60 students making multiple stops during rush hour traffic. I don't know about you but moving around Columbus now has has changed. It's not easy. A 20-minut ride has turned into a 45 minute ride or more. So, and then that adds to the complex complexity. It adds to the cost. It serves as a disruption to our students, right?
133Their day is going to be disrupted if you're sitting on a bus for over an hour. When you get to school, you're exhausted. That takes a lot out of you. And so I just want to us to be mindful of the fact that the system that we've designed with transportation is an antiquated system. This we have to think differently about the services that we provide today based on all the factors that we presented to you. >> I thank you for that. Dr. Chapman, um, Vice President, do you have any thoughts or comments you'd like to to make as we before we transition? I just think it's important. I know that it's hard. Um, and it these are, as President Kohl's started out, very difficult conversations. I mean, you know, I myself am a lottery parent.
134My child transports across the city every day to and from school because we did not choose our neighborhood school. Um, so I understand. Um, but I think it's important like as we sit here as a community to try to figure out this challenge that we are keeping all of the pieces in mind and that's really what these joint committee sessions are designed to do and and why we set up the work we did. We've taken deep dives into a lot of these topics as committees um over the course of the year. So considering you know first we hear the vision that Dr. Chapman is bringing forward and this realignment of what is our academic um priorities and delivery and learn and understanding that we are trying to get it back down into areas where there
135is more access um for all families across the city where we you don't need to feel like got to go across the city, right? Um but then also considering when we're looking at u you know these choices as we hear the treasurer say you know the board has made a 50 million uh dollar commitment to cutting our budget so that we really we're not choosing to come back to the voters like let's be real about what that choice was. Um and in in uh a couple months Dr. Chapman is going to come back to this group of people and let us know what is on her list that could be cut. And so we're having these proactive discussions about cost savings, where could we look at places in our district. And so transportation is one
136of them. We're going to hear a little bit about lottery uh in a second about the how those two things actually kind of work together. We might need to make some changes there. Um, and then we'll talk about realignment and facilities in our next meeting. So, you kind of have to put all the pieces together. Um, and realize that really there's a a path through this. Um, and it's keeping in mind that it's a very holistic picture. So, at some point we as a board and as this community um are going to have to decide, is it more important for us to uh use the money that we have available to transport kids above the state minimum considering all the things or is it more important to have services and staff in our classrooms? That
137is literally the question we are driving to. And so, uh, like President Cole said, we kind of got to take the glasses off, whether that be political, whether that be, you know, uh, personal or neighborhood, and kind of help us think about it from the highest level. and that's why you are all so important and critical to this discussion and dialogue. Um, so that's all I really have to say is kind of just level setting back down to what we're driving to to the ne through the next uh uh meetings. We'll be coming back in three months like next month in November together. There'll be joint meetings so we can continue this dialogue and help the board um as we uh you know figure out the best answers um to to to you know make
138sure we have a sustainable district to get to that vision that Dr. Chapman outlined. >> Um thank you for that thought. Just before I get to you because I definitely want to make sure we have the time to continue with Dr. with with Mrs. Moer um if I can. The other priority again beyond the numbers, beyond the the the math of finance is ensuring that our children have the level up opportunity still to get to school, get to school in a timely way. Right? So, you heard us mention and we'll talk a little bit more about it. You heard us mention the change of bell time as one of those options. And there's a district here in the state of Ohio, smaller one significantly, but they did make a bell time change and it actually
139is something that is working for them. But we're at the same time we're dealing with this fiscal side of it. We're also even more drilling down on where we continue the opportunity to provide high quality education for children in a way that will give them every opportunity post us. So, we'll go right on into uh Mrs. Moer's portion of this presentation, the academic impacts. Thank you for joining us this evening. Just keep your questions in the parking lot. We will get an opportunity to get to them. >> Good evening. Thank you. >> Dr. Kleiner, are you running the slides there? Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Um and thanks my colleagues on the operations team. I'm Katherine Moser and I serve as the deputy superintendent. Um I do want to name that no matter what decisions are
140ultimately made um regarding transportation, we will continue to follow, as you see on this slide, um the Ohio law, which requires that we transport eligible students with disabilities. Not all students with an IEP are eligible for transportation, but if the student's IEP identifies transportation, we will continue to support to um transport that student. The transportation efficiencies that have been presented would allow the district to invest more directly in the supports our students need to meet the board goals in literacy, math, and graduation and provide the opportunity to strengthen our neighborhood schools. This is a slide. some of you may be uh familiar with, but um I think it's important that we bring it back out in this conversation. Um while we prioritize instruction as a district, CCS spends a slightly lower proportion of total dollars
141on instruction at 49% compared to national comparison districts at 51%. So, let me say that again. As a total spend, we spend less on instruction. As you previously heard a couple of minutes ago, the amount we are able to spend on instruction is directly impacted by our transportation costs. Recall that you saw the slide showing our purchase service for transportation has increased from 3.4 million to 21.4 4 million since 2223. This is not true of our classroom resource budget, which has been essentially flat for four years. We are spending approximately $1,300 per student to sustain the current transportation model. And for every $3 we spend on transportation, we are spending just one on classroom resources. We go back. So there's that slide again. Um again, you can see how the overall cost for our current
142model has grown and is impacting our ability to properly resource the academic needs of our students. With changes to transportation services, we do anticipate that more families will choose a school closer to home, as Dr. Chapman mentioned. And while it may go without saying, strengthening neighborhood schools has a positive impact on students in the school and in that community. Um, I want you to again think about the careermies that we heard about at the beginning of the um, meeting and that vision for what all students should have with access to strong schools closer to home. Neighborhood schools can provide a broader range of services that help create a vibrant school community where students feel pride, ownership, and belonging. We expect to see improved academic outcomes when students are able to participate in afterchool tutoring activities
143or clubs because they're offered closer to home. We expect that students would also um attend school at a higher rate. I do want to mention that currently with the robust transportation offerings that we have uh the attendance for students who are eligible for transportation and those who are not eligible at the high school level currently is about the same. Uh we know that when schools are closer to home, families are more likely to be involved attending workshops, volunteering or seeking help and that these activities can build trust between schools and families. I do want to at this time um invite Dr. Klene to share some um an highlevel overview about um our school choice lottery system. Certainly, we have made some decisions as the system over the years, such as school choice and lottery, that
144exacerbate our transportation challenges and have created our current reality where many students just do not attend the school closest to home. So, we're going to tee up a short conversation about lottery. Um, just the facts. We said just the facts and then we will certainly come back next month. um at next month's joint committee meeting for a more robust conversation about school choice and lottery. Dr. Klein, >> thank you so much, Miss Moer. I appreciate it. Good evening, everyone. This evening >> this evening, Tanya Freeman, our director of enrollment, and I will give you some quick statistics of our school choice lottery and share some definitions with you. As you have heard this evening, school choice lottery is one of the contributing factors in the expense incurred for transportation. We think it is important to
145share some statistics with you to help you understand the number of families who utilize the school choice process each year. Here's our director Freeman to share those statistics from the 2024 school year as a teaser to next month's meeting. Director Freeman. >> Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Columbus City Schools School Choice Lottery opportunities are widely popular with our families. The general school choice lottery offers students a variety of highquality educational options by giving families a chance to submit a lottery application for available seats at up to three schools that are not assigned to their address. These selections each have equal weight as each school and each grade level have their own lottery. This opportunity is open to all families who reside within the Columbus City School boundaries and are wishing to apply to
146to attend a school other than the school assigned by address. For the 2024 2025 school year, we received 20,976 school choice applications representing 7,633 students as three applications can be submitted for each student. 7,382 offers were extended to 5,78 students. 3,652 students accepted their offer. Remember, by accepting an offer, all other offers and applications are automatically declined. Therefore, often multiple offers are made for the same seat until that seat is filled. While the general school choice lottery impacts the greatest number of our students, CCS offers several other school choice opportunities that are also available under specific conditions. We'll explore all the types of school choice applications in greater detail during next month's meeting. >> Thank you so much. Thank you uh for this information. Okay, so now the floor is open again for questions. Now
147what I'd like to do again is uh make sure that we're asking the question as best we can. Your feedback with, you know, some context is always helpful, but I want to make sure that we're asking a question directly. The other piece that I will ask of you all is that when we adjourn, when you have the time prior to the next joint committee meeting, this these meetings will continue through November. I would love it if you all took the opportunity to do the homework as homework through these presentations. If you have additional questions and or concerns, please feel free to direct them to your committee chairs. those committee chairs then I will direct those questions to the superintendent or respective direct report and work from that perspective. Um is everybody okay and clear and
148comfortable with that? Okay, awesome. All right, let's open the floor for questions. I will start with you Mr. Simmons and then you Mr. Gentleman at the edge. >> Thank you President Cole. Um I had two questions. One for Dr. Klein and one for Mr. Woods. Dr. declined the COD of passes we're already paying for. Exactly what does that get our students currently? >> Chair Cole, to board member Simmons question, it allows 247 access for our students during the two semester time period and there are no blackouts. >> Thank you. Um and there's no trip limitation. So we wouldn't be if we did make that decision, we wouldn't incur an additional cost. We're already this is something we're already >> sir. It is a maximum cost per semester and we do not get charged extra if
149a student uses it a lot. >> Thank you. Um and then if we could go back to the recommendation slide please, that would be helpful. Um Mr. Woods, I didn't quite understand what your recommendation to the committee um is. Um I see the first bullet point, you know, change high school transportation service recommend or bring forth high school bring forth change high school transportation services recommendation, but in the presentation there's, you know, you evaluated multiple options. So, could you just kind of explain to me exactly what each of these three bullet points mean? >> Absolutely. And thank you for the question. I think it provides me an opportunity to um really highlight what we're asking the board to do and it's really around the policy. So, in our current policy 8600 as it relates specifically
150to high school transportation, policy stipulates that we would we will be transporting grades 9 through 12. So, that's in our policy. So, if we were going to move forward with what we're recommending as a short-term solution, which is only the scenario that affects high school students, we would need the board to change the policy first to allow us to implement that. >> And which scenario is that? >> That's scenario one where we talked about high school transportation either providing code of passes or providing no high school transportation at all. So you're asking for the option to then choose between each of those. You're not asking you're not making a specific recommendation for one or the other. >> You know, I want I want to >> process. >> Is that page 12? >> Yeah. I'm I'm
151trying to be cautious. >> Just be as thoughtful as you can. >> Yeah. So I I think it has to do with the level of um reductions that we want to make in transportation s being sensitive to the impact on the families. >> So if we do scenario two under or option one scenario D I think it is we provide no transportation to no high school students that has more of an impact on the families. >> The other option is we would provide code of passes. So part of this conversation is what is the appetite of this committee and the board in regards to the impact on the families. So your recommendation is you know we we say we change the policy and then what would happen next >> more discussion >> I under your
152recommendation >> yeah we would have a discussion around which of the two um scenarios that we would want to implement either a code of passes to the fam to the high school students or no transportation to high high school at all. And we we would have that conversation respectfully under if >> we have um a policy committee and we would then decide you know which option to make the modification and change to our board policy. >> So you're just recommending one of the two options. Is is that a better way to say it? >> I'm recommending that we take a look at the policy. >> Okay. >> Right. And eliminate or strike through. >> So you aren't recommending one of the options. We would have to have a discussion. >> Okay. >> It sounds as
153if both Yes. It sounds as if both options still strike the opportunity to fund high school transportation. One just affords the opportunity to pay for bus passes. >> Yes, >> that's what it is. But it's we still have to consider the policy 8600 to eliminate altogether 9th through 12th grade. >> So the recommendation is just that we eliminate the requirement and then we examine additional solutions. Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That's correct. Thank you for allowing the clarification. >> I'm sorry, I didn't hear what my colleagues were saying >> as as modifying the policy to not require us to transport 9 through 12. >> Allows for the flexibility. >> Yeah. or allows for the flexibility. But at the end of the day, further conversation on that, we look forward to coming back with some
154additional and and again the floor is open >> post this meeting for you all to share, submit your thoughts, concerns, and you know, forward them to your chairs so that I can get them to the superintendent or respective direct report. Um, there was someone else, Mr. Gentleman, >> Mr. Davis. Thank you. I'm sorry. I can't see. >> It's okay. Yeah, I know. And it's a long table now. So, uh I first just want to open by saying Rodney, I know how hard you work and thank you for that because when I learned how complex this is this summer, I definitely my mind. Um also I want to say please don't apologize for showing numbers. In fact, can we go back to the numbers because there's one thing I want to get some clarification on. Now
155I'm a numbers person so I love numbers but >> I don't know which slides you want. >> It was the one that had the 75 million. It was like the deep dive that showed us a massive jump >> I believe. eight or nine. >> Yeah. So, while we're pulling that slide up, can you help us understand that kind of blew us away? We all were talking to each other as you you presented that. What happened here that we go from 3 to 9 to 20 in three years? Like what what is that driving? >> You want me to take it? >> So, the major thing was we we continued to lose drivers. At one point, we had 600 drivers when we started the 22 23 school year. By the end of that school year, we
156were less than 500. Therefore, the following year, we had to rely solely on contractors to bring in and cover the shortage and ESSER funds was used to cover that shortage. So, it's not accounted for in that. And then the ending of the ESRE funds in the 24 23 24 school year, those funds were transferred to general fund to continue that service. >> Okay. So, if I understand this correctly, that's what we're paying third party contractors to help move kids >> in part. in part and in fact if I can add to that colleagues um we also wanted to ensure to attract quality employees as bus drivers we increase the rate of pay. >> Yeah. >> So we increased the hourly pay rate for drivers as well. We did that under a few different circumstances. One
157for the idea of getting more competitive in the space to attract drivers. The other was a systemic level up of our classified employees across the board, but definitely in that space as well. >> Yeah, makes sense. Sorry, I do have a couple more questions. I I'm I'm going to yield the floor in a minute, I promise. Okay, so I just want to point out too for everyone in case you miss this because we miss this the first time that 75 million does not include the $50 million fine that we estimate, right? So that would mean that we're actually pulling 90 million >> from kids instead of 75 million. And that was something that took us a while to um figure out. But one of the thing I'm really curious about on that end is um
158I know what's currently happening from some of the other subcommittee hearings that we've had is that uh the charter schools are waiting until the end of the school year when we no longer have the data available and then going back and and we can't prove that we did or did not deliver the kids on time. Right. >> Correct. And so one thing I'm curious about is have we explored an option this year for backing up that data so that when that happens because we know it's going to happen again we can get back the evidence and prove I'm sure there are times we were late. We're not perfect but I'm sure that more often than not we were not late. Right. And so I'm curious what avenues we've explored for that. >> So I'm going
159to ask Mr. stuff bean for those who may not be um privy to the question being asked if you can just provide a little background around the non-compliance fees and the timing of those this year. >> Okay. >> To give some context to the audience then I think there's a question there. >> Yes. So, in relation to last year, um, we were set the first off, I'd like to say last year we ended the 25 20 the 2425 school year one driver more than we ended we started the school year with. That's the first time in the four years that I've been here that we've done that. Usually, we're facing a 30 to 40 driver deficit um from where we ended to where we started. Um, to to speak to the non-compliance complaints um those
160those Each one of those are levied against us through the district or through the uh Department of Education and Workforce. We're notified of a complaint. When we're notified of a complaint, we have 5 days to investigate that complaint, respond to it to be unfounded or founded and and return that that response back to the Department of Education and Workforce. As of last for last year's totals in April, we were sitting on Ryan, I believe it was 1.4. um we were set to have our very best year ever. So all of the practices we put in place to mitigate any of the complaints, to investigate them, to ensure that they were our contractors are doing what they needed to do, we were very successful with that. And then the end of April hit and there was
161I believe it was three to four charter non public schools that had withheld all of their complaints >> from August up through April and they were all brought at the same time knowing that we have no way to go back and back up the data to see what had actually taken place. So we couldn't dispute it, we couldn't investigate it. We could not find if it was fact or if it was unfounded, any of that. So, we had no obligation at that point but to take the complaints. >> Um, we are working to set up a backup with that. The problem we run in with is the contractors. They're not technically our equipment. They don't have the same equipment we do. So, there is a little bit of a a problem with that. But what
162I would like to say is we just recently trans trans we just recently migrated to Traversa. Um, and within Traverso, there's rollout sheets and things of that nature that we can track the buses, even if they have a different GPS website. We have to upload those up. And right now, we're working through the the little bit of the hiccups that we're having with the process to make sure everything's flowing smoothly. That's our very next goal is to get those all within line and make sure that the system's working correctly and then add those into the mix >> so that we will have a backup for it. If I can add to that too, one of the key issues that's a part of this whole complaint piece is communication. It's imperative that those in the education
163system who are charter nonpubs that they can that they communicate with us um on a regular that we strengthen that space so that we know whether there's a situation with the student or not um and enrolled in our system. I want to now go to Mr. Granger. >> Thank you. Um I want to quickly revisit two important points that I heard earlier to set up a question. Um the I really appreciated the comments about the feedback loop between strengthening academics and addressing transportation and how maybe that relieves some of the pressure to feel the need to use those transportation services being offered and and tie that into another I think really important comment about community partnership the importance of that. So my question is is I guess directed to any of the speakers who care
164to comment on this and maybe also a maybe a challenge to all of us as our homework assignment to think about this. What does a strong community partnership look like? Like really in detail >> across different categories I've got written down here, families, nonprofits, city, county, employers, chambers, economic developers, industry sector partnerships, things of that sort. like the more specific that we can be, the more that we can then go to those partners to ask what could be helpful. And I I'll I this is a question, I promise. I'm just kind of throwing some thoughts out there to to help spur discussion. I mean, up in Northeast Ohio, there was an initiative uh a few years ago called the Paradox Prize. This was for more for adult transportation. The paradox was no car, no job,
165no job, no car. What do you do? And so they went out and got funding and they came up with some creative community-based solutions. It's that sort of community ga coming together that maybe is needed here. And I mean I know just what yesterday Columbus Forward was announced by the council. I mean I'm personally still digesting that but maybe there's something there. So put simply the question is like what what does a good community partnership look like like now like this year and then in future years? >> If I can chime in on that just very quickly. Um just from my experience uh throughout my tenure on the board, this is something that we have continually began, you know, developed over time. Uh at the time that uh one of our employees was Alicia Gillison,
166Alicia Gillison created a paradigm, a kind of model of engagement that specified very clearly what good partnership, what a partner actually entails. At this point in time, we're in a good space of very clearly understanding what that is based on student need, based on building need and opportunity, based on relationships and all sectors. First sector is private, second sector is public, third sector sector is nonprofit. There's plenty of rich space where we have actually taken that work. one of the reasons you're here, one of the reasons at not only at the table, but even working with Northland High School. You understand? So, I'll pass the ball to Dr. Chapman to further elaborate. It looked like you wanted to say something. >> Um, certainly I always have a comment. Um and certainly we think about partnerships
167and I think the question if I'm not mistaken is thinking about if we make significant system systematic and systemic changes to how we operate then what type of partnerships will we need to then stand up to ensure that we are supporting all of our students all of our families so that they will have what they need so that their students can be successful. And so that's a question that I think we should all be thinking about. Um certainly we want to continue to make um have dialogue about these strategies, have dialogue about how our priorities where our priorities need to lie with respect to the budget, with respect to the programming, with respect to what we want to offer our students. Because I know our treasurer, we have had lots of conversations. there's no new
168revenue that's coming in, right? And so we want to continue to provide opportunities, experiences for our students, whether they're in preK, 9th grade, or 12th grade. There are some tough decisions that we're going to have to make at the table, at this table, at the board table, in order to ensure that happens. It will not happen by osmosis. In fact, the opposite will happen. We will have to start cutting programs, resources, services that have a direct impact on the experiences of our four-year-olds, on the experiences of our 12y olds, on the experience of every child in Columbus City Schools. And so the question for us is, are we willing to make the tough decision so we can protect what's most important to us? Right now, we're protecting transportation. a hundred million dollar budget to support
169transportation. And I would argue that our priorities need to shift, right? As our funding, our resources, how we allocate our resources, the the whole map has changed, right? We're having this conversation today. We don't know. Tomorrow we may be back at this same table talking about we have another challenge before us with a decrease in federal funds. So now the the gap is not 50, the gap is higher, right? We have to be thinking about how we can continue to have this conversation and come back to this table to ensure that our number one priority in this school district is ensuring that we're educating our students and not just doing an okay job of that, >> but doing an excellent superior job of that. And if our failure to do that and make these tough
170decisions as adults to ensure that our students can not only graduate, but graduate with the skills that they need to be successful in the workforce, then the failure is on us. >> And so that's why we're here. We're continue to have these conversations. We're having this conversation tonight. We're talking about one area, transportation. Next month, we'll be talking about lottery and uh open enrollment. Well, we talking about realignment, how we again allocate our resources. We have resources and we are allocating them, but are they in the right areas that we know we need the support and resources to ensure that our students are successful. So, this is an opportunity for us to redirect those resources to where it matters today. >> I thank you so much for that, Dr. Chapman. I still want to get
171some additional feedback. I'll go to Mrs. Barnes and board member Reyes. Well, I just want to say thank you to you all. Um, you're asking for community support. At least in the Mid East, there are 13 schools. We are in every one of those schools. We have we have gotten grants for every one of those schools u and set up partnerships. So, it can be done. It can be done. And that leads me to the comment of switching the hours. You know, we're we're in these schools and we know that elementary school kids are 7:45. They're popping. They're ready to roll. High school kids not so much. They need nine o'clock. They need that much. Uh and if it's a problem of having to uh to make sure that there's somebody for the elementary schools
172and we maybe we could increase latch key, >> you know, and make it free >> and then Yeah. I don't know. >> She said we're suggestions, but yes, >> but then you would have to >> and I get it. But yeah, >> it's a thought. >> There's trade-offs with that. >> It's a trade-off increase here. we have to decrease somewhere else, >> but it's possible your community is ready to do something. We're waiting on that plan. We really are and not just our commission, but the commissions across the city. So, just want to let you know. >> Thank you for that, Mrs. Barnes. Mrs. Reyes, >> thank you. Uh so my questions are uh things that you might want to come back with because I know there might well you probably have them at top
173of your head but it's rather uh just come back for if you can uh give us a calculation of the number of high school students that we have in the district and what that equates to from a transportation cost. then the number of students not choosing a neighborhood school divi um and then split that up between K8 and then 912 and add a cost to that because I think having those numbers um PE people will see that we're spending a lot of money yes >> between 9 to 12 at the possible detriment of the K through eight >> well I think >> possibly yes ma'am I thank you for So those are questions or requests. >> Yep. So a portion of what you're in fact a significant portion of what you're asking for is what
174the slide deck identified in terms of savings the possibility of >> right. But I think I'm asking you know what I'm asking for Treasure Cook. It's a little bit more of a because if I if we're if we're going to make a decision of uh uh let's say that they make the recommendation of what we used to do which was not transport uh 9 to 12. I think it's important for us to see that price tag and back to what Dr. Chapman was saying what that's price tag is costing the 8-year-old and the 12-year-old and those other folks and and back to what everyone else is saying, you have to look at all the pieces. You won't need to transport the 9 to 12 if they go back to the neighborhood schools. Your 9 to
175your 9th graders and 12th graders are more uh capable of walking to their neighborhood school than your K to8. So when you're we we got to back to what a lot of folks we got to separate these things. We're not uh we're not uh taking the suggestion is not to take transportation completely from everybody. the most vulnerable folks are the K through eights. But if you go back to neighborhood schools, the likelihood as a person who who's um who had to walk to school all the way from K to 12, if I choose my neighborhood school, I'm more likely to go to school because it's next door versus it's not going to be Yes, you're not going to be able to go uh you know, if I live on the west side and I want
176to go to Northland, I'm not going to be able to go to Northland. But maybe that means that that goes back to us. Make a really good school, you know, you know, that that provides if I want to be a musician because I want to go to Northland. Well, maybe we have a very good band at at West and I don't have to go to Northland or to Lynden uh McKenley or one of those others. So, so there's different pieces as we look at it. The committee think it's not one or the other. You we're going to have to probably do it all together. Like sometimes they say just rip the band-aid off uh so that we can get it. So so it's not really what what's up there. I think there's there's little pieces
177if we break them out so people can see the bigger picture and understand the impact of that would be I think I get knots over there. So I think you understand what I'm asking. I I do I do I get you're what you're asking for just to distill is a bigger picture look at the ramification of moving towards a community school a neighborhood a neighborhood school model >> and what the kind of cascading >> cost impact of that actually is got you want to move to our next uh person with a question because I do want to end on time I do >> can we go back to the recommendation slide >> recommendation slide slides It's 12 through 14, I think. >> My question is >> because I know that we're ending kind of >>
178our time tonight and we need to make a recommendation. >> Yes. >> Can I get some clarification please on this? We need to make a decision or the board needs to make a decision by October. Does that mean that you all we need to make a recommendation so that you all can discuss and have it done on Tuesday or does that mean by October's board meeting? >> No. >> Well, we have another committee meeting before >> Yes, we we'll have a series of committee meetings. So, again, what >> is it? I think the next board meeting correct is just the policy. >> So, watch. So, >> so there's a couple of things that we have to consider. First and foremost, tonight we'd like to move forward with a recommendation, an acceptance of the recommendation that
179was given to us. It could still be either option. You could say we're willing to have the board move forward with either option, but if there's a consideration to move forward, we'd like to know that tonight. Now, subsequent to that, what will happen is this. We will deliberate, but we will also engage the community around what what what additional feedback and perspective can be added to this conversation. >> Yes. >> At the end of the day, what we're looking to do with the superintendent and collaboration is by the second meeting of November know exactly what it is that we're looking at. So by our first meeting in December, we're ready to take action ideally. Yes, ma'am. >> Um, I have a couple additional questions then. If we are going to be moving that fast, I'm
180going to be asking for a lot of information. Um, but some of that information includes, have we considered things like our regions? I know that we have transportation regions and then we have regions regions that we talk about in an academic sense. Have we talked about what those look like and how that may apply here? Um, if we are doing a transportation policy change that requires us to look at where kids are going to school and look at the lottery, there could be lots of ways that you shape that language and you shape that policy. So perhaps if you're going to a lottery school within your same region, I don't even know if the regions make sense, but in theory, let's say they do. Uh, if you go to a school that's within your same
181region, maybe you're still qualified. And if you choose to send your child or you choose to go to a school that is not within the region, that is an option. Um, I think that there are lots of other factors and considerations that we should look at. Specifically, if we are doing bus passes, what is the bus availability of the area of the region? Um, what is the safety aspects of the region? We know that busing in this city is not the same depending upon where you live. And while Kota is doing incredible work and this link us work is incredible work and I'm fully supportive of that um it's we still have a lot to work on um in our region and in our city and I think those are all really really complicated decisions
182that we can't totally slow down the work on. Um but those are things that I would like to see and think about because a blanket we're going to remove bus transportation for grades 9 through 12. Well, there's a lot of steps in between and perhaps the steps in between are not good enough, but I would like to have that information to to fully >> know what I'm making the decision on. >> And go ahead. >> Can I just clarify? I just want to make sure what uh what the intention is >> everything that board member just said and that's so the so what we need to do as a committee is make the recommendation for the board to consider this deeper and part of that is that the policy needs to be looked at and
183examined in all of the aspects that she just mentioned. Um we also have a process at the board level of changing policy which this is one of them which includes a first and second reading and community engagement and all of that. So basically this recommendation is to for the board to do that to take and start the process uh to make these considerations and and do it deeper and um this committee would get updates on that in terms of community engagement and we would be having report outs from the board and as president uh Cole said the idea would be that this would be voted on in December. So, we still have many, many months to continue to talk about this as a community and balance it again with information that you are all going
184to continue to get in the next couple months and culminating in November when we hear from the superintendent about what is part of that $50 million budget cut. So, it's a it's a way for us to start the conversation. And the check here of this committee is it's it's that community gut check. like is this do you think that the board should really look at this in earnest as a as a way to um you know take that deeper dive, do the community engagement, look at the policy, start drafting it and have these conversations um so that we can begin to uh work on this as we're building up the other pieces towards uh November. >> Well, we will definitely take the policy recommendation under consideration regardless. Yeah, >> we have to have that conversation.
185Um, >> board member Vera. >> Thank you. >> Call you president of Mmeritus. >> Thank you, Chair Cole. Um, I so I just want to kind of echo my colleague, board member Engel's sentiments. I think for me, um, in recognizing the timeline that we're discussing tonight, um, I we keep saying community engagement. I want to know exactly what does that mean? like if we're talking about how are we really going to engage our community around these big changes. So is that town halls, is that surveys, is that com like just really wanting to get an understanding as to what is our community engagement strategy? Um, and then I also just want to echo my concern with Kota and recognizing that, you know, I would like to get a better understanding what would be their game
186plan, right? because I I still think about the student experience and ultimately we can continue to invest and create more opportunities within community schools or neighborhood schools, but if our kids can't get there or and then it becomes a third-party issue and we've already done away with this, do we really know what the plan that Kota has to be able to now transport our kids, >> you know, what does that plan look like on top of their daily operations. So, I think it's important that we see some level of a framework as to what this could really look like. Um, what is their contingency plan because that's a public transportation. And so, I'm not against it. I just want to get a better understanding as to what is Kota prepared to do and how we
187can start having some of those upfront conversations because once it's done, it's done and then it becomes >> a KOD thing and that's not okay for our families either. >> Thank you for that board member Simmons and then Mr. Kennedy. >> Yes. regarding the state minimums for transportation. Um, is the does the board have the ability to say, you know, I think about some of our high schools, some like West Broad are right off of a bus line, but others like Briggs are, you know, maybe a 105 minute walk away. U Mifflin, yes. Um, is the board able to say we will provide yellow bus service for this school because it's on, you know, it's not on a bus line, but for this school, we are going to go with the code of bus passes,
188or is it are we stuck with a one-sizefits-all? You can use both. There is no stipulation. It's it's either you transport 9 through 12 through the legal options that you have, which is yellow bus, eight passenger vans, um commercial vehicles, meaning like our contractors, Kota, um and taxi cabs. Those are all legally approved transportation modes within the state. >> So I I didn't quite understand. So could the board say for example or the administration could the district say you know we we will provide yellow bus service for students at high school A but for high school B we will not. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Then we have to supply it all bus but it then >> anything you do you have to supply all busing for >> charter non Columbus city schools. So if
189you provide one bus for one school 9 through 12, you got to provide busing for all non Columbus city schools. So So that's what you guys got to think. It's not it's it's a it's big it's a big picture. Whatever you do for Columbus City Schools, you got to do for everybody, >> right? And I'd be interested in in learning about from this the charter nonpublic students we do route what that actual how many of them would run into the one transfer issue because when I think about you know as I review board agenda you know frequently there's you know the charter on public's experienced the same thing where students come from all across the the city and so I I wonder you know what if we could get not today not right now but
190if we could please have additional information Dr. Chapman as to um exactly how many what percent of charter nonpublic students we currently transport would we anticipate would require a transfer um which would mean we would still have to continue transporting them. Um and then I just wanted if we could just go back to the recommendation slide one more time please. Um, in that first bullet point, I it says at the next board meeting, I just want to get a better understanding of what exactly the administration's recommendation to the board is or to the committee that we recommend to the board and then the board does it at I will just it says you know for board action during the next board meeting. >> Yeah. So, so I can take that. You know, our conversation is
191really around the sense of urgency because we have to understand that once a decision is made, we need a runway to implement that decision. So, if we're looking to implement anything by August of 2627, we can't have that decision in February or March of next year, >> right? because we will not be able to implement and it involves the notification, the communication, the rerouting. >> We haven't, let's pause for a moment, but we haven't selected one of the options. So, what's the timeline between now and October for us to select option >> the time? So, >> then how are we going to >> Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. It's great. What we're seeing here is that thought energy and it's all driven by concern. It's it's okay. Our timeline, our timeline period, Buento
192is December 2025. >> That's our timeline. >> December 20. >> My my last question. So, you're just asking the board to you're open the policy. >> Correct. >> Okay. And then >> Yes. Yes. >> Correct. I'm I guess I'm I guess I I just am skeptical as to or concerned as to why we would strike the requirement to transport 9 to 12 students before we decide what our solution is. I guess that that to me that process is >> hold on wait a minute. the two options that were provided >> that would give us savings between 55 million and that well that 20 that would that would have us at a a $21 million reduction >> nothing got it's got nothing to do so so respectfully uh President all all >> when we changed this
193policy was to force the district to transport everyone from 9 to 12. There was at the time there was a consideration to not transport stu high school students. The board at the time decided we this is what the will of the people at the time the will of the board again we had the money. We want all of them transported. Now for us to say that that is not a requirement. It does not say that that we don't transport them. It says that now we as a board, as a district, have the option not to have to. This says you have to. This is we're saying we're saying to the administration, you we don't know what you're doing, but you better shift money and you better transport everybody from 9 to 12. What they're asking
194us to do is go back to what we were before, which was you have the option. That does not mean that we do option one or two. That's another discussion. So again, we got to separate those things. It does. It just eliminates the requirement of the administration to have to transport 9 to 12. If they make any other suggestion, that's a discussion. >> Thank you for the point of clarification. Now, what I'd like to do because we are post we are beyond our time. >> We are beyond our time and I thank you all for your patience. Please, I thank you all for your patience. We want to get feedback from you all. right now about a recommendation moving forward. Is it the interest of our joint committee to move forward either option one and
195two for board consideration or for option one or two? Oh, okay. Hold on then. >> What are we making a recommendation to the board of education? >> Just to change the policy policy. >> So, we're just with the policy at this point in time. >> Thank you. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. It's late for me. >> All right. So, is it the will of the committee? Is it the will of the committee to move forward with a recommendation of a policy change that being 8600 to transport or excuse me, not make it mandatory to transport 9th through 12th grade high school students? >> Yes, >> I was going to say >> the motion's on the floor. Is there a second? motion and second it. Motion by myself, seconded by what's >> it was somebody
196down there said, >> please say your name. >> A second. >> The motion is to your motion. I believe if I understand you correctly, the motion is to >> um to ask the board to look at revision of policy 8600 such that they would rem the board would remove the requirement that requires the transportation of students grades 9 through 12. >> And then what comes after that removal would be up for discussion for the kids and the board. >> And you say just one to ask the board to do what? to ask the board to revise policy 8600 to remove the requirement that transportation be provided to all students grades 9 through 12. >> Thank you, President Cole. I have a question. >> One moment. Can we second I would like >> That's a committee,
197not a board vote. Correct. Correct. >> Right. This is committee. This is not board. This is committee. And that's I asked the question to the committee. >> What's down there? >> So, I'd like to use that language if we can use that language specifically. Is there a second for that language? >> It is motioned and seconded. >> For now. >> Who is the second? Say your name loud. >> I'll second. Martin Davis. >> Martin Davis. >> Oh, you. >> All right. >> We got Martin Davis. All right. Okay. Now, it has been motioned and second. Here's the floor open for a very quick decision. What is your question? is the and at our last joint committee meeting we discussed um you know we had a conversation around the realignment policy and I think the consensus
198was that we would just suspend that policy at the time we made further realignment decisions. So I guess I'm confused why we're approaching this policy differently than the other policy. Why wouldn't we just change do the policy change at the time we identify if we want to go with option number one or two? >> So thank you for the question. The question at this point is the recommendation made to us by the administration to look specifically at this policy. At this point in time, the whole realignment aspect of this is still under considerable discussion. I promise you there's some other things that'll be revealed to you that will >> I think illuminate you in a way that helps give you clarity to better equip you in the future as a board member to make a
199decision about realignment as a whole. But at this point in time, we're prepared to make a decision as a committee about moving forward with policy 86 in the manner in which it was motioned. Is >> 8600. Thank you. Now, if there are no other further questions or discussion, >> let's call the role. Let's call the role. >> Call. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis. >> Yes. >> Singles. >> Yes. M. >> Yes. >> Miss Pope. >> Yes. >> Miss Price. >> Yes. >> M church. >> Yes. >> Mel. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> M. >> Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kennedy. >> Yes. >> Miss Council Turner. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robinson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Simmons. >> Yes. >> Dr. Miranda. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Thank you. All right. Uh what we
200will do now is we will motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjourn. >> All right. If there are no nays, clap it up everybody. Good job tonight. Good job.