CINCINNATI — Angry parents, community leaders and teachers have repeatedly directed their frustration over about $90 million in Cincinnati Public Schools budget cuts at the superintendent making the recommendations and the board members making the final decision on what and who gets cut.
"I voted for you and I feel sorry that I voted for you," Pastor Sil Watkins told the board during their Feb. 5 public meeting. "I'm just really sad about what I see."
At that time, the board was considering closing some schools in an attempt to save money, but the board voted to not close schools for the 2024-25 school year.
CPS, like many school district districts across the country, received millions of dollars in annual federal government COVID relief funding.
That funding — around $90 million a year for CPS — has ended, which means cuts are required to balance the budget.
"The public should be upset with us," Board President Eve Bolton told the WCPO 9 I-Team. "The public should demand better of us. I think we're trying to get there."
The longtime elected board member who became president in January said the board has looked "indecisive" and late in addressing the projected budget shortfall.
She said CPS' treasurer had first warned the board two years ago that the district was approaching a financial cliff with the loss in COVID-related funding.
"I think people are disgusted with the fact that we didn't do as much action as we should," Bolton said.
CPS records show transportation, athletics and education support positions have all been cut. Many vacant positions are going unfilled or have been eliminated.
Recently, three board members — Bolton, Lindy and Dr. Kareem Moncree-Moffett — agreed to sit down on our timetable for in-depth interviews on a variety of issues.
Board President Eve Bolton
Bolton has served on the CPS Board of Education since 2008.
According to her CPS profile page, she was also president in 2014, 2012, 2011 and 2008.
Bolton told the I-Team that under Lindy's leadership in 2022 and 2023 the board "increased the power of the superintendent."
Now, she said, the board is more "activist."
Bolton insisted that at times it's appropriate for board members to get "deep into the weeds" because the elected board is accountable to the public for overseeing the district.
She also defended not voting for many of Superintendent Wright's initial recommendations to cut the budget.
"We are not a rubber stamp for the superintendent," Bolton told the I-Team. "We don't get elected just to monitor."
Bolon said she expects the board will cut administrators.
"We're not going to cut teachers," she said.
Bolton said Wright brought "fresh eyes and a new attitude" as a superintendent who hadn't worked in the district.
"I think she's been a very good superintendent," Bolton said.
But Bolton said Wright hasn't collaborated enough with staff and the community and that has left some people feeling their input isn't valued.
"Those are weaknesses that we probably should have addressed more so than we did," Bolton said.
Bolton said Wright is a "strong leader" who has a "strong centralization management style."
And that, according to Bolton, made it tougher for her to lead a district with a long history of collaboration with the community.
In the board's 2023 mid-year evaluation of Wright, she received her lowest marks for collaboration and for recruiting, developing and retaining employees. Her overall rating was slightly lower than meeting expectations.
The board gave her a 'satisfactory' rating.
That evaluation was never acknowledged publicly by the board until after the I-Team requested it and reported the results.
At the next public board meeting, Lindy — the board president at the time — put a positive spin on that evaluation. He mentioned that Wright had exceeded the board's expectations in key areas.
Then, Lindy asked the board to vote on a motion that expressed the Board's 'confidence' in Wright.
Four Board members; Lindy, Moroski, Craig and Carolyn Jones voted for it.
Bolton and Moffett abstained.
"It was inappropriate," Bolton said.
She said that won't happen while she's board president.
Instead of showing the board's support for Wright, Bolton said Lindy's actions revealed division and made the board look weaker.
"I think it goes to the heart of why some people have lost respect for the board," Bolton said.
Board Member Ben Lindy
Ben Lindy is in his fifth year on the CPS Board of Education.
Under his leadership, the board hired Wright as superintendent and focused heavily on a strategic plan and roles of the board and superintendent.
Bolton criticized the Board's reluctance to address the budget shortfall sooner under Lindy's leadership.
Lindy suggested that the criticism about not cutting sooner is unfair.
"I have not noticed an appetite from many people to cut these items earlier than we need to," Lindy said.
Lindy credited Wright with being "proactive" in identifying areas for cuts and bringing them to the board.
"I have never seen a budget process that has been this clear and this inviting of feedback," Lindy said.
He said no cuts are off the table for him, but "cutting teachers is a last resort."
Lindy is widely seen as Wright's strongest supporter at public board meetings.
During a recent meeting, he mentioned a national study by Harvard and Stanford that compared CPS with 43 other large school districts across the country.
According to the study, CPS had the second-highest improvement in math scores since COVID.
"Superintendent Wright has done such an important job in the progress that we've made," Lindy said.
Lindy didn't mention that the same study showed CPS had hardly increased reading scores since COVID, and was ranked fifth out of eight Ohio districts in that category.
He acknowledged delays in completing Wright's mid-year and annual evaluations in 2023 but defended the process.
"The process we followed for the superintendent's evaluation is the best and most rigorous that we have used since I joined the school board," Lindy said.
Lindy said he discussed Wright's mid-term evaluation at a public meeting because she had received so many positive ratings, especially on academics and meeting deadlines.
"It felt important to make sure that headline got through," he said.
The board completed Wright's annual evaluation late last fall, according to the evaluation requested and received by the I-Team.
Lindy didn't acknowledge Wright's annual evaluation at a public meeting.
That evaluation showed Wright received another satisfactory rating.
It's clear from some of Lindy's comments at recent board meetings that he believes some members are getting too involved in district business.
Board Member Dr. Kareem Moncree-Moffett
Dr. Kareem Moncree-Moffett has been on the CPS Board since 2022.
During board meetings and in emails to Wright, Moffett has repeatedly emphasized the need for the district — and Wright — to be more collaborative with the community, staff and the board.
"I'm not her favorite person," Moffett told the I-Team. "I think we can engage a heck of a lot more and we can do better with communication."
But, Moffett said, Wright "has great skills in some areas and she's done well in those areas."
Moffett said even though the district has held public meetings on budget cuts, many people believe their concerns aren't being heard by Wright and the Board.
"That hurts," she said when discussing how local community leaders and parents confronted the Board at recent meetings.
Moffett said she won't vote to cut classroom teachers, but she does support cutting Wright's executive leadership team.
"If she's cutting other positions, then she should look at her executive leadership team, too," Moffett said.
Moffett said she's also concerned about ongoing complaints from teachers.
"I have concerns that our staff are not happy," she said.
Like Bolton, Moffett said Lindy was wrong to push a confidence vote for Wright at a public meeting. She said he should have included her evaluations on the public agenda.
"To me, I think it's something you should be happy to release," she said. "I think we have a lot of questions about them from the community and they wanted answers."
Moffett said the remaining cuts that need to happen before July will be very tough.
"I think the community will give us grace if they know in real-time," she said.
On Feb. 5, 1,000 people attended the board meeting in-person and online, according to CPS.
Bolton said that turnout shows how much the community cares about the district.
"That's what we need and that's what we want because the public owns the schools," Bolton said.
Wright provided the following statement to WCPO about her role and investment in the success of Cincinnati Public Schools:
As Superintendent and CEO of Cincinnati Public Schools, I am committed to improving student outcomes while fostering collaborative efforts with the Board to implement our Strategic Plan, in accordance with the Board's Goals and Guardrails and the District's mission to work together with our community to provide high-quality learning and equitable opportunities. Through regular updates, I ensure transparency by providing the Board and community with monthly progress reports on our Goals and Guardrails that tracks and demonstrates our current work. Notwithstanding the current budgetary challenges, we are on track to meet our set academic, behavior and culture targets for the 2023-24 school year.
Moreover, I am deeply invested in engaging with our community through various opportunities, including monthly Be Present! Town Halls, the annual State of the Schools address and our newest initiative Coffee with the Supt. I visit schools weekly and engage with students and staff including monthly Student Leadership Council meetings and Central Office Town Halls. From November 2023 to January 2024, we held 17 budget roundtables to collaborate with staff, union leads and the community to jointly develop creative solutions to reduce the budget gap. We have broadened our outreach through community student enrollment events like the CPS Back to School Festival and All-Schools Expo. There has been a strong focus and response to the national teacher shortage by hosting recruitment events such as The CPS-Cincy Experience and Midwest Black Male Educator Summit. These engagement opportunities serve as vital platforms for dialogue and collaboration, ensuring that the voices of our community members are heard and valued as we work together to support our students.
I want to honor the voices of stakeholders through increased engagement, and Cincinnati Public Schools' history of good service, while elevating our efforts and focus on raising student achievement from good to exceptional. As one of the first leaders in two decades not originating from CPS, I acknowledge the unique challenges inherent in this position. However, I came to Cincinnati dedicated to continuing a tradition of excellence, while bringing best practices, a diverse perspective and experience in transformational work. I recognize the importance of building new connections and am committed to strengthening relationships to effectively serve this community.
I will continue to review all feedback provided and update when necessary as we chart our course forward.
