With the first day of school upon Columbus City Schools students, Superintendent Angela Chapman says the district is ready to make steps forward on academic progress.
In an interview with The Dispatch, Chapman said she was excited for the first day of the school year, and highlighted $60 million in capital improvements at schools across the district.
"Our number one goal is to make sure that we're not only providing the supports that our students need but the best education and experiences that our students need," Chapman said.
With the state's latest school report card just months out, she said she was hoping to see academic growth "in all areas," and make sure students are demonstrating growth.
"No matter where they start and how they come to
us, we want to make sure we're continuing to demonstrate that all of our students are growing in reading and math," Chapman said.
In 2025, Columbus City Schools earned two out of five stars on the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce report card, maintaining the same score as the previous year but notching a win in career readiness reporting. The Dispatch reported last year that literacy and graduation rates have improved in the district, but more work was needed to improve math skills.
Board President Antoinette Miranda told The Dispatch in an interview that while the district would like to see the district notch a higher score on the ODEW report card, it is more important to see individual schools starting to trend upward.
"To see the whole district move, you have to have a lot of schools move," Miranda said. "What I'm looking for is improvement, not backsliding."
Chapman also addressed what she said have been harmful moves at the state and federal level, including the state legislature not upholding their end of what proponents call the "fair school funding plan." Volatile funding, she said, leads to unpredictability.
Chapman said that for education leaders across the state, "this is a really difficult time to be in leadership because there's little stability around the factors we rely on most."
"I just wish there was a commitment from the state to provide us with the supports we need so we didn't have to advocate for that so hard," Chapman said. "I'd rather focus on leading the internal work, the school improvement work, the work of leading the district."
Chapman addresses immigrant students
Chapman also addressed recent federal-level decisions torevoke protected status from groups like Haitians and Somalis, who have had their protected status revoked by the Trump administration. Columbus is home to large populations of both groups.
"It is troubling times when some of our community members and some of our students are being discriminated against and we won't be silent about that," Chapman said. "It makes me feel uncomfortable, and I can't imagine how our students and families feel, but we want them to know that we welcome them."
Chapman also spoke on the district's situation with its health benefits program after The Dispatch reported last month that the district was expecting to overspend $40 million following a bad insurance deal with its former consultant Aon.
Chapman said the situation was the result of "members taking advantage of our robust health insurance plans and programs that they really needed." Chapman noted that because the district had a substantial reserve fund, nobody lost any benefits or services.
"We want to make sure that we're having conversations with our employees and members about, as we're continuing to see a rise in health care costs, that means we're going to have to adjust what we pay," Chapman said. "It's an ongoing conversation."
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What Angela Chapman's looking at as Columbus Schools starts a new year
