Will Columbus City Schools be ready for school year?
With the start of school less than a month away, how prepared is Columbus City Schools for the return of students?
At Monday’s meeting, members of CCS administration shared with the Board of Education the progress of preparations for day one of classes, touching on transportation, capital projects and teacher staffing.
“We have 21 days, 10 hours and 37 minutes until the first day of school — will we be ready?” Board President Jennifer Adair asked Superintendent Angela Chapman.
“Absolutely, the team is working hard, and we will be ready for day one,” Chapman responded.
Transportation looking to avert headaches and delays from last year’s rocky start
The district addressed preparations for transporting about 38,000 kids to school each day via bus or van. Rodney Stufflebean, interim director for the CCS transportation department, said the district was aiming to avoid some of the troubles from last school year.
“The biggest thing we wanted to focus on this year was reliability,” Stufflebean said.
Last fall, frustration mounted with parents in the district as staffing shortages, compounded with routing issues, caused some students to have hourslong delays in getting to or from school, and again later in January when the district updated all of its bus routes.
This year, CCS currently has 487 active drivers for 535 routes, compared to the 556 for 614 routes at the beginning of the school year last year. According to data presented during the meeting, the district has filled 75% of its hiring capacity for bus drivers.
However, this year, 105 of the routes will be covered by contracted vans and bus services, meaning there will be an approximately 50 driver surplus.
Board Member Carol Beckerle said one of her concerns is that the district should increase communication with parents about delays and the location of buses.
“Being able to tell a parent where their student is, or that the bus is going to be a half-hour late. The communication piece of it is something we need to have a better handle on. For a parent not to know where their child is at 5 o’clock, six o’clock in the evening, that is unacceptable,” Beckerle said.
Stufflebean said the transportation department has hired additional call center dispatching staff to reduce the overall load. Additionally, the department is trying to launch an app service that will show parents in real time where their child’s bus is, as well as using the parent portal notification service to alert when buses are running behind.
The department will have routes finalized by Aug. 6, and mailers will be sent to parents on Aug. 11 with transportation details.
Staffing nearly 100% for teachers, behind in special education
Columbus City Schools is at 96.5% of its goal for certified employees, which includes instructional staff, according to data presented during the meeting. In general education classrooms, 99% of positions are filled. However, the district has only filled 87% of special education classrooms.
As of Aug. 1, the district has hired 330 certified faculty, including 87 special education faculty.
Beckerle noted the shortfalls in special education teacher numbers.
“Obviously the shortfalls are in special ed,” Beckerle said. “And we can’t solve that overnight . ... I want to highlight that is the thing we need information about.”
Chapman said the district is looking at whether some of the positions are “true vacancies,” or whether resources can be reallocated to meet more needs.
“That is an ongoing process to look at our capacity and how we can use our resources differently,” Chapman said. “If the special ed teachers are knocking on our door, then we realize we have to use our resources differently and internally.”
Building improvements nearing completion
Alex Trevino, director of capital improvements for the district, said his department was confident that all work would be completed before the first day of school.
He highlighted renovations that will be completed at Hamilton STEM Academy that incude new paint, flooring and designs aimed to improve the socialemotional experience of students and adults.
Both of the largest air conditioning projects this year, at Columbus Alternative High School and Hubbard Elementary School, are anticipated to be completed after major electrical upgrades. Both projects will be online in the next two weeks.
Mifflin Middle School’s corridor renovations will also be completed, and HVAC work will continue through the year.
The district is also completing 10 roof projects throughout the district and working on completing construction on new playgrounds at 13 sites. @Colebehr_report Cbehrens@dispatch.com