At Woodward High School, City Council members and the Cincinnati Public School Board held a joint meeting to discuss a variety of topics related to the city and school district.
School safety, workforce development, and student homelessness were among the issues discussed between the two groups and the public.
When it comes to the issue of providing students with consistent transportation to and from school, the CPS board may finally be getting the help it's been asking for.
"Our problem is with the Metro piece and not having the extra routes any longer that were devoted in part to our students," Board member Eve Bolton said. "It's a safety issue."
The Cincinnati School District has been grappling with students arriving late or not at all due to problems with Metro buses for over a year and has yet to find a feasible solution.
After hearing the concerns, Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney said she intends to start fixing the issue right away.
"The first thing that we're going to have to do Monday morning is pull together our task force. We're going to have to jump on this," Kearney said. "This is a solvable problem."
This was the first time the Vice Mayor had announced the creation of the task force.
While most of the details of the group remain unknown, Kearney says leadership from Metro will be a part of the city's task force to find answers to the consistent problem for the district.
Board members appeared pleased to hear news of the task force's creation, but Superintendent Iranetta Wright says Metro buses are just a part of the widespread transportation issues facing the district and she does not expect things to change overnight.
Cincinnati Schools have recently run into issues with its contractors hiring and retaining enough bus drivers to accommodate all the students in the district.
"We are dealing with a comedy of situations. A variety of challenges that make it difficult for us to mitigate the concerns we have around transportation," Wright said. "This is an issue that we will experience at least through the rest of the school year."
