Bean Counting With Columbus City Schools

I went to the much-publicized Empower Your Voice Town Hall hosted by Superintendent Angela Chapman and several CCS board members on Oct. 12. There's a lot to unpack from the evening. But bean counting - literal bean counting - is the thing I can't get out of my head.

After getting completely lost in Fort Hayes' labyrinth of a parking lot (that old military base design is wild!), I arrived just in time to hear State Representative Latyna Humphrey setting the context for the event.

"I wanted to stop by to let you all know that the Ohio legislature funds our schools. And so when you see $50 million cuts in the budget and $50 million cuts to Columbus City Schools, I need you to understand that that is the Ohio legislature," she said, noting that her "colleagues on the other side have never been inside of Columbus City Schools."

Likely true, that.

But the school board is there to make choices about what to do with the funding that we do have, however unconstitutional the process that got us here. (The state's school funding decisions, including, as of today, EdChoice vouchers, just keep being ruled unconstitutional!)

The board's choices come down, apparently, to beans. Yes, there were many meaty issues raised during the town hall: school closing and consolidation plans and proposals; potential transportation cuts for high school students; and Senate Bill 311. The latter is currently working its way through the Ohio legislature and, if passed, would require school districts to sell or lease underutilized buildings - those enrolling less than 60% of the building's capacity - to charter or private schools. (According to a slide shown at the town hall, "schools would be sold at an 'appraised market value as an educational facility' rather than market value, potentially costing the district millions.")

Topics not addressed in the presentation - and which I suspect others in the room wanted to know more about - include rising health insurance costs for CCS employees and the lack of accountability over a mismanaged process that the CEA alleges contributed to the problem. (The person who was suspended over the issue just received a recommendation for reinstatement with back pay.)

I also wondered, after hearing speakers explain that local tax dollars fund our schools, how our city's long history of tax abatements contributes to the funding crisis, and whether there's a plan to change the policy now that such drastic cuts need to be made.

Yet at the end of the night, instead of a meaningful Q&A session that the term "town hall" implies, Board Member Jennifer Adair invited the room - which, I will emphasize, was filled with fully grown adults - to put dried beans into cups.

"The beans represent our operating levy dollars," Adair explained (see minute 1:03:00 of the town hall recording). "That is your property taxes in your hands, and we want to know how you want us to spend those resources."

After stipulating that everyone would receive 10 beans, seven of which were mandated to go into a "must fund" bucket, attendees were tasked with putting their three remaining beans in the jars representing initiatives that they personally wanted the district to invest in.

What a lesson: Let's ask parents to choose between pre-k and college readiness, even when you can draw a straight line from one to the other. Or maybe you put your beans in those jars and then cross your fingers that arts, athletics and clubs don't get completely cut because other community members dropped some legumes in support of them.

I get that it's an exercise. I get that it's supposed to help us understand how hard it is to make these decisions. But decisions are best made with meaningful input. And a robust Q&A session, one that allowed parents to state their thinking behind where they want to put their magical money frijoles, would provide information that can't be found counting beans in a jar.

(Several board members were available to talk to attendees during and after the bean counting activity. However, those offline conversations don't capture input the way a discussion could.)

On Wednesday, Dr. Chapman sent an email to district families with information from the evening including the full town hall, a presentation on school realignment from the district's Chief of Strategy & Performance Dr. Russell Brown, and a community survey. The survey, you'll be delighted to hear, includes a section that is, basically, the bean activity done digitally. I'd encourage everyone to fill it out.

And also, please, vote with something more meaningful than a bean, and get to the polls. Early voting is open now, and as we've heard, the legislature makes a lot of choices about our schools.

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Wait a minute? Where did you go?

If you're still reading this: #1: Thank you and #2 I owe you an apology. About six months after starting EdInk, I accepted a position at Columbus Monthly which - while great for my writing portfolio - sapped all the energy I had to work on this newsletter.

And then, like all good things, that came to an end.

I am considering this the very softest of relaunches as I work through what's next.

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