Amid financial woes, Columbus school board says superintendent needs to improve

The Columbus City Schools Board of Education said Superintendent Angela Chapman must improve key areas of leadership amid financial challenges.

The board’s annual evaluation, finalized in late December, described several “significant areas for improvement” that Chapman needs to address to better align her performance with board expectations, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

The assessment revealed that Chapman demonstrated only “partial effectiveness” in several critical domains, including articulating a clear vision for the district and communicating consistently with both the board and the broader community, adding that Chapman “occasionally references her vision but rarely communicates it with substance or consistency to the board or community.”

The review highlighted ongoing gaps in how the superintendent explains student performance data, stating that her “explanations for student outcome data have been inconsistent.”

It also underscored challenges in collaborating and communicating with internal leadership — including the board itself — as Chapman acknowledged her strengths in external stakeholder relationships.

Board President Michael Cole emphasized that the evaluation was not meant as an indictment, but as constructive feedback.

“It was shared in a way to ensure that communication to the board, communication to the community, communication in a way that everyone is on the same page,” he told The Columbus Dispatch. “It’s important that you come with a clear vision and that you work with your board to be able to do that.”

The superintendent’s evaluation comes amid a severe budget crisis at Columbus City Schools, with the board deciding in early December to eliminate more than $50.4 million from the district’s budget, including plans to close four schools and reduce staff.

“We know that we are talking about jobs, we are talking about the livelihood of our employees, we are talking about reducing supports to our schools at a time when we know our students need more,” Chapman said.

After making the decision, Chapman said those cuts represent only the first stage of a broader downsizing effort unless state lawmakers increase school funding.

“This is round one of the cuts,” she told WOSU. “Will we have to come back next year with more cuts and more cuts and more cuts to truly make sure that our revenue keeps up with our expenditures?”

Financial pressure on the school district intensified after a county audit revealed that it lost more than $84 million in 2025 due to tax breaks granted to developers. Despite these losses, the district spent nearly $98,000 on consultants.

To preserve jobs and educational programs while confronting structural budget deficits, the board began considering adopting a “green school” policy to reduce utility expenses through energy-efficient upgrades and renewable energy use.