Christina Vera elected as new Columbus school board president

Christina Vera is the new president of the Columbus City Schools Board of Education, the first Latina to hold that position.

Vera promised more community engagement after a tumultuous few years for the state's largest school district, which endured COVID-19 and a three-day teacher's strike in 2022 and is now heading into 2024 with new levy revenues to address struggling schools.

The board voted 7-0 on Tuesday at its first meeting of 2024 to name Vera as president. Board member Tina Pierce was elected vice president.

"There's a lot of work to do," Vera, 38, said after the vote.

A board member for two years, Vera said after she was elected in November 2021 that improving the district's school buildings were a priority.

"We are proud of the work we have put into facilities," Vera said.

The district will have more money to do so. In November, Columbus City school district voters passed a 7.7-mill levy that will raise close to $100 million a year for operating and building expenses.

Vera had been the board's vice president. She replaces Jennifer Adair, who was reelected in November and remains on the school board, but said in December that she was stepping down as president.

Adair said after Tuesday's meeting that she believes Vera will provide strong leadership, focusing on establishing strong relationships with the community.

Adair also talked about the stress of being president.

"I made a lot of professional and personal sacrifices to be the spokesperson for the board. In that role, because you are the spokesperson, you are not allowed to have your voice all of the time," she said.

Adair said she was excited that people will have the opportunity to hear from her as a board member.

Two new members also joined the seven-member board at Tuesday's meeting, as Brandon Simmons and Sarah Ingles were sworn in.

Simmons said he voted for Vera as president because he believes she is committed to hearing all members' perspectives.

"We have confidence in Christina's leadership. She knows how things work; she's not stuck in the minutia of things," he said.

Simmons said one of his priorities is closing school buildings so the quality of services can go up instead of being spread too thin as they are now.

In December, the board approved a $506,520 contract with a Connecticut company that will evaluate conditions at the district's more than 100 buildings to help school officials decide which buildings might close, which ones to repair, and which ones to upgrade.

While Columbus City Schools is the state's largest school district, enrollment peaked at 110,173 during the 1971-72 school year, and is now about 46,000 students.

Ingles said she wants to bring more accountability and transparency to the schools.

"We have a real opportunity to grow the district," she said.

During the regular board meeting, Simmons offered an amendment to a resolution that the board passed giving authority to Superintendent Angela Chapman over hiring and other personnel actions, and the treasurer/chief financial officer authorization to make payments.

The original resolution proposed giving Chapman hiring authority for a two-year period. Simmons' amendment was to make the term 90 days. He said that will give board members time to discuss whether the superintendent should be given that authority for two years.

The resolution states: "Personnel actions such as hiring, return from leaves of absences, promotions, demotions, payment of stipends, payment of inservices, payment of extended time for employees and other personnel actions typically require approval by the Board of Education." But it says the administration will needs to process personnel actions "in a timely manner" between baord meetings to maintain operations.

Before the meeting the Columbus Education Association — the teachers' union — and the Columbus Education Justice Coalition — representing some students, educators and community members— issued a joint statement calling Adair's decision to relinquish the presidency and the election of two new board members "as the latest in a series of changes brought about by difficult but necessary struggles for the soul of the state’s largest district."

"For decades, community members and educators have watched our School Board be content with managing the district’s slow enrollment decline, closing schools with a ‘shrink to success’ model, as CCS families and entire neighborhoods were left behind by indifferent political and business leaders," the statement said.

"Now that our physical infrastructure is finally getting overdue reinvestment, it’s time to focus on offering every CCS student in every neighborhood a world-class education, bringing our students home to Columbus City Schools, and growing our district," it said.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Christina Vera elected as new Columbus school board president