Cincinnati school board needs to cut $20 million more. Are yellow buses next?

Transportation, safety and staffing are top of mind as Cincinnati Public Schools' Board of Education considers how to cut another $20 million − at least − from its 2025 budget.

So far this year, the board has voted to cut nearly $60 million in summer programming, full-time substitute teachers, take-home laptop or tablet devices for young learners, contracts and other resources.

Why? The federal government provided billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds to schools for the past several years, and that money runs out in September.

The district got more than $200 million in the last round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, called ESSER, funds. The district needs to adjust for the 2025 fiscal year, when those relief dollars are no more.

The board has through April to make necessary cuts, board president Eve Bolton said, so the district can submit its balanced budget to the state on time.

One option the board won't consider, Bolton said, is cutting any teachers, counselors or social workers.

But that commitment hasn't left all teachers with a sense of security.

"This same bloated administration has now spun the district into a demoralizing, disruptive and chaotic situation that will harm student achievement and staff attraction and retention," Michelle Dunn, an organizer for the teachers union, said at Monday's school board meeting.

Cincinnati Federation of Teachers representatives say the board's long, drawn-out budget debates have slowed schools' processes for recruiting and hiring new staff because individual buildings don't yet have their personalized budgets − which were due in late December.

The union has allowed for several extensions since then, but Dunn said schools still don't have their budgets. Union president Julie Sellers said this is the latest timeline for hiring she's seen in 35 years of this work.

"Imagine being asked to plan an entire academic year with no budget," Sellers said to the school board. "How are we going to recruit the best talent for our kids when other districts are already hiring?"

Superintendent recommends reducing yellow school bus coverage

Bolton recognizes the board's delay has kept school budgets from being developed.

"I won't say we were stalling, but we were rejecting the choices we had," she said.

A $5.5 million cut that would require students in grades 7 and 8 to use Metro got a "no" from the board. Superintendent Iranetta Wright also suggested consolidating elementary schools − merging Evanston and Frederick Douglass into one building and South Avondale and Rockdale into one building − alongside phasing out Riverview East Academy to save money, and was met with fierce opposition from the community. The board didn't support plans to consolidate, either.

Another Wright recommendation, this time to reduce yellow bus coverage, is giving the board pause now. Wright recommended changing the walking radius from 1 mile to 1.5 miles, which would save the district $1.2 million.

Wright said it could impact about 2,500 young students − none of them in high school, since those kids use Metro.

"I think that we all are concerned about balancing the budget, but it's also about safety for me," board member Kareem Moffett said during Monday's meeting.

The board tabled its discussion on yellow buses Monday evening, but after the meeting Bolton told The Enquirer she's against increasing the walking radius.

"I do not want to do that to our little people," she said.

Wright will come back to the board with other options later in March, Bolton said, and it's likely board members themselves will present budget cut proposals in the weeks to come.

What's already been cut?

The school board has approved several Wright-recommended cuts already this year, totaling nearly $60 million.

Estimated vacancies and attrition make up $15 million of the approved cuts, according to district documents. The district is also able to move some expenses to other funding sources in order to balance the budget.

Starting next school year, students in preschool through sixth grade will no longer receive tablets or laptops to take home and will instead share devices while at school. This was controversial at Monday's school board meeting − board members Moffett, Kendra Mapp and Mike Moroski voted against it.

Students in grades 7-12 will still be issued laptops.

Other major budget cuts already approved by the board include:

• Eliminating Summer Scholars ($4 million).

• Removing full-time substitute teachers and reverting to daily subs only ($4.3 million).

• Reducing central office expenditures ($5 million).

• Eliminating contracts ($5.2 million).

Bolton said she expects more decisions will be made at the next board business meeting, which is March 18 at 5:30 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Public Schools has more than $20 million still to cut