The Cincinnati Public School District began its 2025-2026 school year Wednesday, August 20, for all K-12 students, as Superintendent Shauna Murphy emphasizes the district’s commitment to student care and outlines new expectations amid changes, funding challenges at a press conference August 15.
Cincinnati Public Schools is welcoming more than 35,000 students back to classrooms, almost as many students prior to attending CPS school prior to the start of the Covid pandemic which caused huge reductions in enrollments. Black students comprise 84% of the student enrollment, according to Murphy.
“We are entering, as the superintendent will tell you, a new era completely reorganized, restructured and ready to serve our kids,” said Cincinnati Board Education Vice President Eve Bolton.
Murphy said as she shared updates about transportation, five new middle schools and information useful to parents of students.
Murphy said the district is committed to ensuring students are ready socially, academically and emotionally for the upcoming school year as the district faces financial challenges, largely from the loss of federal funding due to President Trump’s anti-DEI policies that withhold those funds to entities that do not comply with his policy. The CPS Board of Education refused to comply and is challenging the administration’s policy in court.
Murphy stressed the importance of being there for students, saying, “We care about the students. That’s why we say we’re here for kids. And we say that first, and we say that every single time.”
Murphy is addressing issues such as unruly behavior by some students at Government Square and Oakley Station, two busy Metro transit centers. With yellow buses no longer available for seventh and eighth graders, the district is paying extra attention to how students commute.
“Sometimes the kids want to hang out just to hang out, just to be with their peers, to be with their friends. And so we are discouraging that. There are, first of all, a lot of after-school programs and opportunities for all of the kids. But if they don’t choose to participate in that this year, the Metro cards will only be operational until about 5 p.m.,” Murphy said.
CPS is also reminding students of the district’s “no cellphone use during the school day” policy. “It’s against the law in Ohio now to have a cellphone in schools,” Murphy said.
She says the Yondr phone pouches will remain in all high schools and will be implemented in middle and junior high schools. Despite some students’ reluctance, Murphy said, “Some of the kids might tell you: ‘Hmm, don’t like it.’ However, overall, because of what we’re seeing around grades, attendance and behaviors, we are going to continue the Yondr pouches.” These secure, magnetic pouches are used to store phones during the school day.
Last school year, the district rolled out centralized enrollment to ease concerns and make transitioning into the school district easier with the east, west and central corridors. The approach allows families to select schools within three corridors without going through a lottery system.
After opening Shroder Middle School last year as the district’s first middle school, CPS is adding five new middle schools at Hartwell Elementary, Pleasant Hill Academy, South Avondale Elementary, Evanston Academy and Ethel M. Taylor Academy. “We are doing this to better address the needs of the middle-age child,” Murphy said.
The district is also adding welcome centers at the Academy of World Languages School, Dater Gilbert A High School and Withrow High School. Additionally, CPS is expanding its Montessori seats, now offering nine Montessori schools/programs.
For the upcoming school year, students in grades K-6 will ride yellow buses, while students in grades 7-12 will take Metro.
Murphy said the district is handling student transportation safety differently, noting a limited number of students will have to transfer at Oakley and Government Square.
“Metro cards will only be operational until about 5 p.m., and for the young people who are participating in extracurricular activities, their cards will look different, and adults will be able to determine who should be where when,” said Murphy.
The district decided school nurses would now be hired by the district itself, with nurses and social workers in every school.
Murphy says changes had to be made to help the district with an approximately $50 million deficit.
Some of the changes include eliminating over 100 positions.
“Where we started with some of the staffing cuts is long-term substitute teachers,” Murphy says. “We are looking to fill the gap first with everything students need directly in their classrooms.”
As CPS works to close the deficit, all seventh- and eighth-grade students will ride the metro bus to school.
The district says this will save it $3 million per year.
Parts of a redistricting plan passed by the CPS school board in December will go into effect this fall. Murphy says many of these changes will help usher in a new era for the district.
The district reported several academic achievements from the previous year:
- The College Credit Plus program saw a 35% increase in participation, with 84% of participants being African American males
- AP access increased 31.1%, with 241 students earning industry-recognized credentials
- 889 students earned industry-recognized credentials and the Ohio Means Job Readiness Seal
- 20 students were named National Merit finalists
- 10 students received the Marian Spencer scholarship for full tuition at the University of Cincinnati
- One Walnut Hills senior received his bachelor’s degree
Don’t get me started with the Cincinnati school district.
Broke with kids riding the public bus system, and where we gonna go from here?
the state will allow school funds to dry up like sand.
50 million dollar deficit is completely insane. The value for education is gone!
My children’s Father Dorian Adams died of cardiac arrest on Covedale School floor 4/26/23. Not one of 8 staff present offered 1 second of basic lifesaving help. One staff refused instructions or help from the 911 operator. They erased the official Cincinnati Public School videotape of his death that was completely recorded because according to a few of Covedale Students present on the scene they were recording him dying with their cellphones and not helping him. At that time because of COVID funds every Cincinnati Public School had a nurse but Covedale School nurse never arrived to help Dorian for over 8 minutes and Cincinnati Public Schools has never answered our question of where the nurse was and why her or another staff did not use the AED machine which was 5 feet away from his pulse less body. Do not trust this Cincinnati School District with your children or families. I can only imagine the danger those children are in with such a cut in funding.