CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Iranetta Wright has been a lightning rod with unions and some parents groups over her perceived failure to communicate effectively with them and respond to their concerns.
Those issues appear to be reflected in Wright's lowest ratings on her first annual evaluation by the CPS Board of Education.
Wright's evaluation for the 2022-23 school year shows her lowest marks — which include the most ratings of 'below expectations' and 'significantly below expectations' — concern the way she communicates with everyone from the Board, the Treasurer, staff and parents of students.
"CPS needs a leader who can improve our broken culture and communicate," Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Julie Sellers wrote in a written statement emailed to the I-Team.
Wright also received lower ratings for recruiting, developing, evaluating and retaining quality staff.
The Board gave Wrighther lowest overall score in the 'culture' category.
The 1.5 rating in that category — halfway between below and significantly below expectations — reinforces some complaints about the way she's running the district.
Based on the point scale, Wright's overall rating was 'satisfactory.'
Wright received her highest ratings — including mostly marks of above and significantly above expectations — on her work at developing the district's 'shared vision', communicating CPS's vision, goals and plan and her advocacy for children and their families.
"I appreciate the Board's feedback and look forward to continued collaboration as we work together to implement our new Strategic Plan," Wright wrote in a statement emailed to the I-Team. "I am committed to serving children and providing Cincinnati families with excellent educational options, while working collaboratively to make CPS a model district across the country."
However, it's clear from the individual scores of unnamed Board members that they rarely agree on Wright's effectiveness as superintendent.
In one category — communicate effectively and openly with the Board, Treasurer and staff — one Board member rated Wright significantly below expectations while another Board member rated her significantly above expectations.
"It appears that the Board does not have consensus on the Superintendent’s performance," Sellers wrote. "CFT/CFOP Local 1520 hopes for improvement by the end of year two."
The I-Team emailed CPS Board President Eve Bolton requesting comment on Wright's evaluation.
She did not respond by our deadline.
Wright's ratings improved over her mid-year evaluation.
But her ratings were still below average compared to the evaluationsof twenty local school superintendents the I-Team reviewed in 2023.
The public records documenting Wright's annual evaluation consists of only three pages and provides little information about the criteria, expectations and targets she achieved.
That's in stark contrast to her mid-year evaluation, which included 40 pages of documents; easy to understand graphs, descriptions of criteria, targets and accomplishments, and written comments by five unnamed Board members.
Some of those comments were extremely critical of Wright.
Some Board members said some of the information shouldn't have been part of the public record.
It's unclear if that prompted the disclosure of less 'public' information from Wright's annual evaluation.
