Columbus City Schools successfully manipulates local legacy media

This article first appeared here

What’s happening right now with Columbus City Schools (CCS), the media, and the Columbus Education Association (teacher’s union) is exactly how the state of public schools perpetuates in Ohio’s largest district.

I posted a video last week sharing what was happening in Columbus City Schools (CCS) and called for “legacy media to try to do their jobs and report on real things that are affecting real people in Columbus, Ohio.”

I did an on-camera interview at the request of 10TV Wednesday, September 23 at 3pm outside of the 270 E. State Street CCS administration building. Two hours later, I attended the Columbus Education Association’s (CEA) press conference at the same location, and afterward, ABC6 and NBC4 also asked for my on-camera remarks, which I gladly provided.

All of the news stations are conveniently leaving out the fact that CCS lost over $40 million dollars due to their negligence and mismanagement, despite me centering it in every single interview. Put succinctly, the Columbus City Schools district administration is at fault for losing the $40 million by mismanaging the employee health insurance program, and CCS Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman and her cabinet are pushing 100 percent of the loss on to the backs of the workers. (Dr. Chapman is pictured above for winning a 2024 Central Ohio Social Justice Award.) 

While frustrating the news stations would cut this out of my interview, the reason is clear for anyone who reads independent political media coverage in central Ohio, because The Rooster broke a telling story the very next day regarding Franklin County Commissioner Erica Crawley.

Crawley was trespassing at a Post Malone concert this past summer and refused to correct her behavior when scolded by Columbus police officers. She then reminded them her political position presides over the Franklin County Jail. When 10TV’s Lacey Crisp started to investigate, political levers were pulled.

From DJ Byrnes at The Rooster:

According to our source, Crisp went to the Board of Commissioners meeting on Thursday to confront Crawley about the footage. Crawley is said to have immediately absconded from the building while claiming an unknown illness that was relegated to her appearance on Zoom.

On 10TV’s 5 p.m. broadcast, Crisp teased another hit at 6 o’clock with a legal ethicist to discuss the optics of a county commissioner receiving free tickets to a concert that her commission funded with $600,000 as part of the diluted America 250 celebration.

That story never ran because 10TV’s editorial team spiked it and removed the original reporting from its website after complaints from the County Commission.

The most exciting part about the billionaire class’s legacy media outlets plummeting credibility is following the reporters who have the guts to quit and venture on their own. One of my favorites is Local News International, driven by Dave Jorgenson, a reporter who worked for The Washington Post, who quit because of the corruption, and now does his own thing. It’s worth the money, but even just a follow on social media is a refreshing delivery of news.

Lacey, if you ever want to partner up and tell the real stories in Central Ohio, I feel like “Crisp and Gray” has a nice ring to it. In the meantime, I’ll keep teaching 9th grade English Language Arts.

About those paychecks, though

In a development seen coming around the world, Columbus City Schools has made deals with every single union/association in the district besides the Columbus Education Association (CEA, the teachers union, of which I am a member).

Because why would they not? The Columbus Schools Employee Association, CSEA, received news last week that some of their plans were increasing by $10-20 per paycheck, and other plans were decreasing.

I’m not part of that union and don’t have the details, but I would assume if the per-paycheck cost is going down, the out-of-pocket expenses and deductibles are going up.

That’s the deal that CCS brought to CEA, anyway, on Wednesday of last week. At the last Joint Insurance Committee meeting, the district brought an offer that increased out of pocket expenses by 260 percent, increased deductibles by 240 percent, and doubled the cost for co-insurance (which we were forced to take on just last year).

In addition to settling with the classified staff, the Columbus Schools Classified Supervisors Association (CSCSA, the bosses of the classified staff) and the Columbus Administrators Association (CAA, the principal’s association) made deals with the district regarding health insurance.

And members of the CAA were told directly to not share their deal with any members of the CEA, the teachers (this message is pictured above and which Shotgun Chelsea obtained from an anonymous source). 

This kind of messaging does exactly what it’s supposed to do: it paints CEA as an unreasonable entity, unwilling to negotiate, and suggests everyone who isn’t in CEA is lucky to not have this burden looming over them with open enrollment just one week away.

In actuality, we’re simply refusing to pay for our employer’s casual loss of $40 million to the tune of $140 - $700 per paycheck. That amount of money will bankrupt our members, particularly those who need life-saving and life-changing ongoing medical treatment.

I spoke with two administrators from suburban school districts this past week who told me they are gearing up to poach CCS teachers as soon as possible. They’re doing everything they can to make their districts the more attractive option, including trying to find ways to honor more years of service for mid-career teachers. They’re already making lists of teachers they know and want in their districts.

And why wouldn’t they? They’d be moronic not to do such a thing, at a time when recruiting and retaining effective educators is more challenging than ever.

The situation is actually quite simple to understand, it should be an easy win in the current climate of living conditions, but the messaging is being fumbled because the people in the positions of power and tasked with communicating are only familiar with tactics utilized in the early 2000s.

And honestly, it’s questionable if they were even effective then, as the profession of public education has been on the decline for several decades now. That’s a shame, but it’s also the reason I started this publication and why I have been sharing information through short videos on social media.

During an emergency union meeting of CEA members on the evening of Sunday, September 27th, members were told CCS has no interest in getting rid of the grandfathered health insurance plan.

The boss doesn’t want to get rid of the greatest division tactic they ever created amongst union members? Huh, who could’ve guessed.

The previous mass member meeting of CEA was 10 days ago, and union leadership had promised the members they would compile an FAQ to address member concerns and questions about the health insurance criss and send it out when it was finished.

At the September 27th meeting, they shared the FAQ was done this past Friday afternoon, yet they had not sent it out or shared it with union representatives. They then presented members with an update of information, answered questions for an hour, and then presented members with a Zoom poll to vote in.

Members had two minutes to digest the information they had just learned and to cast a vote. This tactic reminded me of something a CEA member shared with me this past week. We were chatting about the health insurance crisis, and I said I had read through their contract that was just ratified, as it was posted in the last Board agenda.

The member shared with me that CEA members had a two-hour window, on a Saturday, to drive to 17th Ave (a CCS district administrator building) to vote on their contract. It resulted, understandably, in a 2 percent turnout of the 3,000+ membership.

It would appear union leaders want less member engagement and more agreement with the decisions made for them and about them. I do not want this to be true, but continuous evidence and happenings lead me to that conclusion.

“Shotgun Chelsea” (Kelsey Grey) is a high school English teacher who believes public officials should be held accountable for the state of public education and the general population should know about it.