September 5, 2024
Dear Columbus City Community,
This summer, the Columbus City Schools Transportation Department made a decision that impacted families of children who attend community and nonpublic schools in our district. The change was necessary, and has improved overall transportation for our students, but we could have made a stronger and more sensitive effort to communicate with the families that have been impacted.
As a Columbus City Schools parent, I understand the challenges families experience getting their children ready to go to school each day. If I learned weeks before the first day of school that the bus I was expecting to transport my child wasn’t coming, I would be upset and I would want answers. In hindsight, our outreach could have been more intentional, and our tone could have better reflected the gravity of the decision. Our efforts fell short in this way, and I apologize for the undue anxiety this has caused families.
As superintendent, I feel a sense of responsibility for the well-being of all the children in our district, whether or not they attend one of our CCS schools. School is where students learn, but also where they develop their sense of self, make friends and navigate social situations. That begins on the bus that takes them to school.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, transportation has been one of our district’s top challenges. For more than three years, we’ve experienced a nationwide shortage of drivers. This has hindered metropolitan transit systems and school districts in every community, including our own. For our district, this has meant fewer drivers picking up more students who live further away from each other and their schools. For too many of our students, it has resulted in earlier pickup times, longer rides and sometimes late arrivals. Our students deserve better than this.
To address this issue, the Transportation Department took a comprehensive approach that included hiring more drivers, but also reviewing our overall transportation practices. What we found is that we were transporting students to community and nonpublic schools who live more than 30 minutes from their school of choice or whose chosen school is too difficult to provide reliable transportation to.
Our new practice, which is consistent with Ohio law, is to serve these students the same way we serve Columbus City Schools students who choose to go to a different school than the one assigned to them. Whether you attend a Columbus district school or a community or nonpublic school, if transportation to that school significantly disrupts the travel time for other students, different transportation arrangements need to be made. The result of this practice has been shorter routes and on-time arrivals for approximately 37,000 students – including almost 9,000 students attending community and nonpublic schools.
However, we recognize that students who are not receiving district transportation still need to get to school, and it is important to me that Columbus City Schools is part of that solution. That’s why I’m leaning into this issue with our team. We cannot return to the previous transportation system that failed too many of our students – district, community and nonpublic alike. But I am committed to working with all partners to find a path forward for the sake of all our students.
Sincerely,
Dr. Angela Chapman
Superintendent/CEO
Columbus City Schools
