During her State of the Schools address at the School for Creative and Performing Arts Thursday night, Superintendent Iranetta Wright highlighted the district's accomplishments since she took over in 2022.
She touted improvements CPS made to its school bus transportation system and the number of teachers hired this year to fill vacancies in district classrooms.
Wright told the audience how this year, most of the district's approximately 1,200 bus routes were getting students to class on time, and only 12 routes in the entire district were still having issues. Despite the strides made by CPS' transportation system, she says there's still work to do to make it more efficient.
"That's less than one percent," Wright said. "That's a pretty positive return on investment. However, it's not okay for the kids who are on the 10 or 12 buses that are getting them to school late."
To make further progress in transportation and other areas, Wright laid out the district's new strategic plan.
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The plan includes strategies the district will use to guide its decision-making including engaging students and providing teachers with the support they need.
Chronic absenteeism has been a major issue for CPS. This year's Ohio State Report Card shows 46% of students in the district are chronically absent. To tackle this, Wright says the school system needs to optimize its operations to keep students involved by promoting more school activities, streamlining transportation, and increasing the percentage of teachers of color in the classroom.
Despite the issues the district is facing, the superintendent championed the progress CPS has made academically. While Wright says the district's score on the Ohio State Report Card is not where she'd like it to be, there were positive areas where CPS showed minor improvements like its graduation rate and state test scores.
A good chunk of the superintendent's address revolved around celebrating educators and the people who contribute to Cincinnati Schools. Wright individually recognized more than a dozen people at the event and congratulated all of the district's teachers for the work they had done during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Moving forward, she says fixing attendance will be a top priority and she'll look to school leaders and the community to help find solutions.
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Before she could wrap up her address, an audience member stood up and began talking over Wright. The woman was attempting to bring attention to an incident from April of this year when Dorian Adams, an educator at Covedale School had a medical emergency on school grounds. CPS says when the incident occurred, 911 was contacted immediately and an AED was retrieved, but not used on Adams before EMS arrived. Adams died soon after.
"Our heart hurts for her, but there is not anything else for us to do in this particular situation," Wright told reporters following her address.
The woman was escorted out of the school by security as the address came to an end.
