During their Monday night meeting, Cincinnati Public Schools' Board of Education approved close to $30 million in cost reductions for the upcoming school year.
The school board has been working over the past several months to reduce what was once a $50 million budget gap. District leaders attribute that projected funding gap to the loss of federal pandemic relief funding, which was exhausted earlier this year, and the possibility of receiving less funding from the state government, which is currently formulating its biennial budget in Columbus.
The board on Monday approved all the cuts proposed by CPS administrators, including eliminating some maintenance and security worker positions, central office personnel, program managers, and classroom staff.
The district is expected to lay off about 40 elementary school educators before the start of the academic year. Additionally, CPS will reduce the number of social workers on staff by a small handful.
Following the vote, board member Brandon Craig said the decision to reduce staff was painful, but necessary.
"I want to commend the board for making some hard decisions today that not all of us are going to feel great about, and not all of the community is going to feel great about, but we have an obligation to pass a budget, and we've done a substancial step toward that," he said.
Even with massive spending reduction Monday night, the school board says it will still need to cut at least $4 million to balance the district's budget, and potentially much more.
The school board also passed a temporary appropriation resolution Monday, allowing the school district to operate on its current budget for the first 30 days of the upcoming fiscal year in July, while Ohio lawmakers iron out the state's biennial budget.
Ohio public school advocates say the budget proposals currently being considered by lawmakers would slash funding for public schools. CPS board members say the district may lose millions more, forcing them to make additional steep cuts next month.
The Board meets next July 9 for a special budget meeting.
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