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- It has come to light rather suddenly (IMO) that Cincinnati City Schools is facing a $50 million budget hole and its leaders are trying almost everything to solve the problem as quickly as possible. I say “almost” because we learned a couple weeks ago that the elected school board declined to let any teachers go when they had the chance…despite direct evidence that “next year’s projected student enrollment would require about 75 fewer teachers on staff”. But this week we learned that more middle schoolers will be switched from yellow bus service to riding public transit to school next fall in order to save about $3 million…despite those aforementioned enrollment losses which should, theoretically, make transportation easier. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 6/19/25)
- Enrollment in South-Western City Schools has been growing a tiny bit each of the last few years, which should mean a steady amount of money in the coffers, and they are not reporting any looming deficits. Yet they are also in the process of cutting bus routes for next school year—starting with private and charter school students—leaving some families to feel “targeted” and forcing them to reach out to TV news for help. School Choice Ohio spokesperson Beth Lawson tells NBC4 News in Columbus: “Some (districts) are following the law and transporting students as they have received the funding to do. Unfortunately, others have found creative ways to avoid providing this transportation, which essentially denies school choice for families who rely on it to access the best education fit for their children.” Indeed. (NBC4 News, Columbus, 6/20/25)
- OH! AI! Following Ohio State University’s announcement that they will require “AI training” for all incoming students in the fall, the elected school board of Columbus City Schools announced that they too will be looking into the artificial intelligence crystal ball and will “consider creating or adopting” a new AI use policy for students, staff, and faculty. The district’s Chief Information Officer seems very confident about all of this, telling the elected board that he already knows what components need to be in such a policy and that they shouldn’t be looking to write one that is too restrictive: “I don’t want to create a situation where we’re handcuffing ourselves and losing that competitive edge with other school districts, because our school board policy says that we cannot do certain things using AI.” Yep. Sounds like HAL’s got this covered. (WOSU-FM, Columbus, 6/20/25)
- The administrators that run Medina City Schools will spend (a small part of) their summer drafting a new strategic plan, even though every quote in this piece indicates they haven’t actually achieved many of the goals from the previous one. For example: “We are not looking in new directions,” the supe told elected school board members earlier this week, “We have the same goal, but we are looking at a pathway to continue to reach and exceed those goals we have in place.” If I were a taxpayer in that city, I might want my schools to actually achieve the old goals—with receipts—before they decide to “move beyond” them. But that’s probably just me. (Cleveland.com, 6/20/25)
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