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CPS opens new middle schools; district reports smoother start and big transportation push
Summary
Cincinnati Public Schools opened five new middle/junior high schools and reported strong early enrollment and transportation performance; officials said GPS tracking reached 94% on day two and late-route incidents declined during the opening days.
Cincinnati Public Schools told the board on Aug. 25 that the district's new middle/junior high school openings and the first days of the academic year went largely as planned, with high early enrollment, energized school openings and improved transportation performance compared with recent years.
Superintendent Murphy and operations staff said principals had been hired in February and worked through the summer on staffing, scheduling and community outreach. The district ran open houses and professional development sessions for principals and their teams; principals took part in a joint kickoff at the Hamilton County Educational Service Center the Friday before school began.
On transportation, Chief Operations staff reported that all students had been routed by Aug. 1 and that routing teams added more than 1,200 transportation assignments between Aug. 1 and the first two weeks of school. The district said GPS tracking on buses reached 94% on the second day of school and that late-route incidents of 30 minutes or more (the state's penalty threshold) dropped from 24 routes on opening day to five by day three. Metro officials worked with CPS on outreach; Metro staff held open houses at junior highs and transit centers and supported parents and students learning to use transit apps.
Board members commended staff and partners for the apparent improvement. Trustees asked for continued monitoring and requested a first-week follow up on Sept. 8 and quarterly updates on middle school enrollment and progress. Several trustees asked staff to analyze barriers to arts and athletics participation and to identify whether transportation, scheduling or program availability were factors in any gaps.
Board members also raised parental concerns about siblings who ride different modalities (yellow bus versus Metro) and asked staff for school-by-school cost and routing analyses to understand whether targeted adjustments could be made. Administration replied that full yellow-bus service for all students currently not on yellow bus would have significant fiscal implications while noting routing optimizations will be reviewed after the initial two-week stabilization period.
Why this matters: Routing and transportation are critical to students' daily attendance and equity of access to programs; early indicators showed fewer catastrophic service failures than recent years but board members asked for continued review and data-driven adjustments.
Sources: Superintendent and operations presentation during Aug. 25 board meeting; Chief Operations staff statements; Metro partnership notes.
