Board clears first wave of budget actions; public speakers urge protecting school social workers and paraprofessionals

Cincinnati school leaders presented a multi-part budget package June 2 and the board approved initial steps that administration said are needed to close a fiscal gap. The meeting drew sustained public comment pleading for preservation of school social workers and paraprofessionals.

Administration presentation: Treasurer Brayden Wagner and Superintendent Murphy led a review of district contracts and staffing proposals. Wagner said the district reviewed roughly 1,044 vendor contracts issued in fiscal 2025 and focused the current balancing effort on general-fund contracts, which totaled roughly $93 million in fiscal 2025. Administration recommended lowering the general‑fund contract level to about $77.6 million for fiscal 2026—about $15 million in reductions—and flagged another $6.9 million in recommendations tied to contracts split between general and grant funds.

"All 1,044 contracts went through this process," administration said during the presentation. Officials said some cuts are deep and that many contracts are still pending because federal grant allocations have not been finalized.

Transportation and phase 2 growth: Chief Operations Officer Burkhart briefed the board on a separate, but related, cost item: student transportation. He said the district spends an average of about $3,085 per student per year on yellow‑bus transport; by contrast, a Metro transit pass costs about $364 plus the cost of printing the pass. Burkhart said moving seventh through twelfth graders to Metro service could affect about 1,260 students; he stressed students with IEPs or special transportation requirements would remain on yellow buses.

Burkhart also summarized phase‑2 facilities and staffing changes tied to the district's right‑sizing plan: infrastructure costs for building moves and furniture were estimated at about $3.0 million, while projected staffing savings under the current plan were about $7.36 million—yielding a net savings in the current presentation of roughly $4.2 million.

Public comment: More than 30 speakers used hearing-of-the-public time to urge the board to preserve counseling and frontline supports. School social workers, paraprofessionals, teachers and parents gave specific examples they said demonstrate the services’ impact: suicide screenings, threat assessments, home visits, crisis intervention, and weekly counseling that educators say turned students' attendance and behavior around.

"Without school social workers, we're asking students to focus on math and reading while their world feels like it's falling apart," said school social worker Naomi Maderas, the district lead school social worker. "The national recommended student‑to‑social‑worker ratio is 1 to 250; students with intensive needs are recommended to have ratios closer to 1 to 50. Cutting FTEs will take away direct student support."

Teachers and parents described classroom examples. A Sands Montessori teacher said weekly social‑work support transformed a child who had been withdrawn and afraid after exposure to gun violence into a child who could participate and learn; other speakers described paraprofessionals who provide daily, individualized help and coaching that parents credit with high test performance.

Board and administration decisions: After discussion, the board approved a package of initial actions (motion language summarized by the board during the meeting). The package authorized administration to proceed with the district's "Tier 1" fixed/obligated budget base; to pursue or explore sale of selected district property; to apply targeted reductions in vendor contracts (the board directed that contract reductions for the general‑fund contract pool would be no less than about 16.2% of fiscal‑year‑2025 general‑fund contract spending); and to move forward administratively to use vacant positions and other non‑personnel actions (the board limited reductions to vacant positions at this stage, and the board asked administration to freeze three identified school‑social‑worker vacancies while the district develops a plan to protect or prioritize social‑work and curriculum‑implementation supports).

Board President Moffatt summarized the action after a recorded roll call: all voting members present supported the package.

Union and staff comments: Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Sellers used a longer allotment granted under the board’s public‑comment rules to emphasize that any reduction‑in‑force (RIF) process must include union involvement and accurate seniority accounting. She asked the administration to provide full information about potential RIFs, including numbers and classifications.

What this means: The board approved an initial, narrowly focused set of budget actions intended to limit personnel reductions to vacant slots while preserving the district’s ability to negotiate additional savings from contracts and other sources. Public testimony showcased strong community concern about cuts to social workers, paraprofessionals and other student‑facing positions; the administration said those positions and the overall RIF plan remain under active review.

Next steps and follow‑up: The board asked administration to (a) return with granular contract‑reduction specifics and a schedule, (b) provide final enrollment and staffing projections to refine the RIF calculus (administration described a planned spring‑tack process to realign positions to enrollment), (c) provide updated counts and licensure details for school social‑work positions and (d) bring a plan for a targeted investment in classroom curriculum implementation (board members asked administration to propose options for a roughly $1 million targeted professional‑development or curriculum‑implementation investment). The board scheduled further budget decisions at upcoming meetings leading into the fiscal year 2026 budget adoption.

Speakers quoted in this article are drawn verbatim from the June 2 meeting transcript and include Treasurer Wagner, Chief Operations Officer Burkhart, school social workers and multiple public commenters.