Sarah Wilson

CPS is currently facing significant financial challenges, with their declining cash balance and increasing expenditures as they plan their budget for the following years. The board is rushing to finalize a budget that accounts for the increase in funds such as preschool tuitions, salary raises and maintenance of school buildings. 

Last year, the district used Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which were given to schools during the pandemic from the federal government, to relieve some of the expenditures from the budget. However, the ESSER funds were temporary and will no longer be available after September 2024. 

“These kinds of things have to take place and cannot be even delayed 90 or 120 days,” Eve Bolten, CPS board member, said in the audit committee meeting on August 30, 2023. “Things that have to be decided in this board are going to be under a tremendous amount of pressure as is the administration to re-envision this district virtually overnight in order to be able to make that fiscal year 25 [budget].” 

However, some CPS teachers believe that the budget is not in the deficit the board describes it to be in.  

“The important thing that we have seen is that the treasurer consistently lowballs the revenues so they always turn out to be higher than the estimates and then she over inflates the expenses,” Brad Smith, member of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers union, said. “Every year it looks like we’re going to have this budget deficit, and then we don’t.”

Smith is an economics teacher and has been part of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers for 24 years. Through his time in the union, he has become the building and field representative, meaning he represents the teachers at WHHS and conveys their grievances to the board and district.

“We [Cincinnati Federation of Teachers] pay a lot of attention to the budget because that obviously affects students and affects our members,” Smith said.

One of the reasons the board believes the budget is in deficit, is because of the 4% increase in returning teachers’ salaries.

“If we do nothing else our budget goes up by six million dollars simply because of our salary step increases. You [teachers] survived another year, you get more money and so that costs the district funds,” Jennifer Wagner, treasurer and chief financial officer, said in the audit committee meeting on August 30, 2023. “When our dollars per pupil in revenue are shrinking because property taxes don’t go up with enrollment and our state revenues per pupil are going downward because of the wealth factor, with this formula it’s critical to not lose enrollment because that hit in revenue will hit us faster than it used to.”

Smith and a representative of the American Federation of Teachers union, which the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers is under, met with Wagner and her department to look over the budget. During the meeting they found that there were aspects that the treasurer did not acknowledge, which caused them to overshoot the budget significantly. 

“The district had not factored in long term sub salaries which brought down the average teacher salary. The second thing that the district really didn’t factor in is that every year teachers retire,” Smith said. “When that person retires, they’re going to be replaced by somebody who’s making less. ​​When you factor that new number in, it’s [average salary] about $6000 less per teacher.”

If there is a budget deficit in the future, Smith says the Cincinnati Teacher Federation hopes to avoid cuts in classrooms and schools and instead be made in the district’s administration. 

There’s been this really big expansion of the top management. There are a bunch of new directors and managers that have been hired. They’ve gone from four to 20 [new chiefs],” Smith said. 

To learn more about the budget and the finances behind it, the public can access financial reports that are filed to the state called Comprehension Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) that cover finances of the public school system.

“You need to make your voice heard,” Smith said. “Students and parents going to the board meetings and arguing against cuts that affect the classroom is really what puts pressure on the board, which puts pressure on the treasurer to find other ways to balance the budget.”