As Columbus City Schools looks at consolidating the district's 113 schools, attendance data showed some buildings are being underused, while others are filled past capacity.
Data from the district showed 10 schools are over capacity.
Seibert K-6, a smaller building on the city’s south side designed to hold about 275 students, is the most overpopulated at 120% utilization.
Clinton Elementary School is also packed tight. The building, meant to hold about 375 students, has had an average enrollment of 440 over the last four years, leaving it at about 117% utilization.
Liberty and Easthaven Elementary Schools and Centennial High School are all over 110% capacity, according to CCS data.
On the other end of the spectrum, eight CCS school buildings are less than half full.
Columbus City Preparatory School for Boys in the Franklin Park neighborhood and Scioto K-6 in the Far South are each at about one quarter of total capacity.
With the lowest utilization in the district at about 23%, the Preparatory School for Boys had an average four-year enrollment of 100 students in a building meant to hold 430 students.
Scioto K-6 had just 87 students enrolled in October 2023 in a building meant to hold about 350 students.
East, Marion-Franklin and Downtown High Schools, as well as Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls and Columbus Gifted Academy, all have under 50% utilization.
The volunteer Superintendent’s Community Facilities Task Force will review the building utilization numbers, along with other data, before eventually making recommendations to the district on which buildings should be closed, renovated or expanded.
The 28-member group includes students and parents, along with community, faith and business leaders. The group first met in late February and will continue to have twice-monthly meetings through June.
Jim Negron, co-chair of the task force, said it’s too soon to say whether buildings with low utilization will be on a list for closure. He said “every option is on the table.”
“What we're trying to do is be very open minded as we are looking at objective data,” Negron said. “But we're also thinking long term about the future of our students at Columbus City Schools.”
Task force co-chair Al Edmondson said consolidating the buildings will change Columbus City Schools for generations to come.
“We’re going to do what’s best for the kids and for the city of Columbus schools,” Edmonson said.
Columbus City Schools last formed a task force to consider the best uses for its schools in 2018. Negron served on that task force, too, and said it made recommendations, but the pandemic soon swept in.
“We're taught by yesterday, but this is where we are today. So, I'm really focusing on what we're doing today, looking in the future,” Negron said.
The current task force is expected to produce this year’s recommendations by no later than June, with implementation slated to start after August 2025.
The Facilities Task Force is scheduled to have its next meeting Tuesday.
