Pause the vote on school closures and work with your community!
Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman and the Columbus Board of Education
.png)
The Columbus Board of Education and Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman are making critical decisions about school closures, transportation cuts, and staff reductions — decisions that will deeply affect our students, families, and neighborhoods for years to come.
On September 17, 2026, the school board's joint committee announced proposed school closings and "realignment" that includes closing Siebert Elementary School, Highland Elementary School, creating a "South Side High" by combining South HS and Marion-Franklin HS at Marion-Franklin, moving Buckeye Middle students and to the South High building while combining with the current South middle schoolers to create a "South Side Middle," closing Mifflin High School and moving Mifflin Middle and additional 6-8th graders at area STEM schools to the Mifflin HS building to create a "North Side Middle," merging Duxberry Park Arts Impact with Sullivant Elementary, and more.
Once again our community has not been meaningfully included in these decisions. While the superintendent holds town hall meetings and the committees hold presentations, families, students, and educators are continuously left out of conversations, actual two-way dialogue, that shape the future of our schools.
Anticipating budget cuts and proposed state laws, the Columbus Education Justice Coalition (CEJC) submitted a proposed Budget Shortfall Policy to the Board of Education in 2025 that went ignored! Instead of addressing their own flawed school closure policy and process, the Board voted to ignore their own policy and vote to close additional schools in 2025 - leaving the community out of the decision-making altogether!
Currently, there is absolutely no good proof that the district has exhausted all other “cost-saving” measures and no evidence of the actual savings that the district has seen from school closings since 2024.
📩 SIGN THE PETITION TODAY!
Tell the Columbus Board of Education to IMMEDIATELY PAUSE THE VOTE and WORK WITH COLUMBUS FAMILIES, STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS!
If we MUST close our schools, we MUST do it together as a last resort.
Every email counts. Every voice matters. Together, we can make sure our students, families, and educators are at the center of district decisions — not left behind by them.
Sponsored by
.png)
To:
Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman and the Columbus Board of Education
From:
[Your Name]
Pause on School Closures and Work With Your Community
We, the undersigned, urge the Columbus Board of Education to IMMEDIATELY PAUSE any vote on the proposed school closure and consolidation recommendations presented in the September 17th Joint Committee report and any and all subsequent presentations by the District. Since 2024, we have urged you to commit to deeper and more comprehensive engagement and two-way discussion with individual school communities and the public.
We anticipate that the Columbus Board of Education will plan to vote in December to close at least 6 schools based on the recommendation of the Joint Committee, including realignment decisions that would impact South and Marion-Franklin High Schools. While Superintendent Chapman and Board President Miranda continue to use Senate Bill 311, which would require districts to sell or lease school buildings below 60% capacity to other districts, charter schools, or nonpublic schools, as an excuse to fast track school closures, the bill has not yet passed. Capitulating to the legislature is not the answer. If we MUST close our schools, we MUST do it together as a final resort.
There is absolutely no good proof that the district has exhausted all other “cost-saving” measures and no evidence of the actual savings that the district has seen from school closings since 2024. We urge the Columbus Board of Education to IMMEDIATELY PAUSE THE VOTE for the following reasons:
- A rushed decision to close schools will further erode trust between the community and the Columbus Board of Education. It will likely lead to thousands of families leaving CCS for good.
- Since the closure announcement in 2024, CCS has seen nearly a 2% drop in Kindergarten enrollment, Fifth grade student enrollment has decreased by 8.35% - the largest change of all indicating that parents are making alternative education choices, and Ninth grade enrollment dropped by over 5%.
- Instead of acting hastily, the board should initiate building and neighborhood-level engagement and decision-making to ensure actual two-way dialogue and inform future building-use. Nothing less will restore community trust.
- The Joint Committee is operating with incomplete data which fails to take into account the rate of students who have followed the past realignments plans, that could inform the likelihood of future enrollment with the proposed realignment plans.
- Less than one month of public presentations during the busiest time of year for parents is not nearly enough community engagement for decisions as consequential as closing schools.
- After the family and community pushback in 2024, the Board voted to rescind its own flawed policy in 2025, rather than fix it or address the Budget Shortfall Draft Policy that they were given, in order to fast-track closings, again eroding trust and setting a precedent of top-down decision making and authoritarianism that is reflective of the current federal and state governments.
Columbus families deserve safe, equitable, fully-resourced, and engaging schools. These decisions cannot be reduced to buildings, budgets and spreadsheets; they are about the shared future of our students’, our families, our educators, and our neighborhoods, and they are decisions that must be made TOGETHER.