CCS Can’t Talk Budget Cuts While Ignoring Basic Responsibilities

By Ronda Watson Barber
OhioMBE Publisher

For months, I have raised concerns about the Columbus City Schools Vendor Services website being severely outdated. On November 11, the issue surfaced publicly at the district’s first outreach session in two years. Vendors were being handed old, outdated materials — information that should have been corrected long ago.

The Superintendent was notified. Her response? “Contact Maurice Woods, the COO.” No action. No accountability. Just another handoff.

Then, on November 18, I spoke before the elected board of education. I notified them directly that the Vendor Services website is still outdated and that incorrect information is being distributed to the community. The LEDE application posted online contains errors, and yet it remains in place. How do you claim to support supplier diversity while giving vendors wrong, outdated, or incomplete guidance?

This should alarm anyone watching the district’s finances. Columbus City Schools is discussing budget cuts while basic administrative responsibilities remain undone. How do you cut spending when foundational work isn’t being completed? How do high-salary positions continue without delivering results? CCS is paying folks — and they aren’t doing their highly paid jobs. Outdated, inaccurate information is still circulating with no urgency to fix it, and that is a clear misuse of taxpayer dollars.

And while all of this is happening, CCS is proposing cuts to bussing for high school students, teachers, and other services that directly touch students — yet the highly paid administrative staff responsible for LEDE failures remain untouched. How does that make sense? How do you take away essential supports for children while ignoring the adults who aren’t meeting basic performance expectations?

Leadership matters.

The LEDE application still lacks an affidavit — a requirement that historically existed and one that every other regional certification program enforces. How is it that I, a community advocate and publisher, seem to know more about the structure, requirements, and purpose of the LEDE program than the multiple highly paid staff assigned to manage it?

The community sees this dysfunction. They ask me regularly if I’ve received a response from the board or the administration. One subscriber captured the sentiment perfectly:

“Did you receive a reply? ’Scuse me while I slap myself for asking. We ALL know this is beyond criminal how they treat the Black community. But they do it because they get away with it. PERIOD.”

This isn’t an exaggeration — it’s a reflection of repeated experiences. When a district charged with educating our children cannot maintain its own systems, won’t correct its own errors, and refuses to take responsibility for basic operational tasks, it sends a painful message: we are not a priority.

That is unacceptable.

The community deserves accuracy, transparency, and leaders who will step up and correct long-standing problems. We cannot continue normalizing delay, neglect, and silence — not when these systems directly impact access to opportunity.

Just my thoughts…rwb