Columbus schools union calls for board accountability amid health insurance costs

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The union representing thousands of Columbus City Schools teachers and staff members is calling for accountability from the district's school board.

A crowd of more than 100 people expressed their concerns Tuesday the district's governing body during a Columbus City Schools board meeting.

The Columbus Education Association said the district is in a financial crisis and there has been a lack of accountability, transparency and leadership from the board.

CEA's Legislative Assembly declared a vote of no confidence in the Columbus City Schools Board of Education last week.

CEA spokesperson Regina Fuentes said the union has ongoing concerns with the board's actions, decisions, leadership, communication and governance practices.

"We would like the board of education to admit to responsibility for this," Fuentes said. "We would like the board of education to openly be transparent about their role in this $40 million loss. We would also look forward for the district to take responsibility to set out guard rails and ways in which to avoid anything like this from happening again."

The CEA Joint Insurance Committee unanimously approved health plan design changes last week, resulting in participating union members seeing an 8% increase in premiums.

"Teachers understand that insurance rates are hiking all over the country right now," Fuentes said. "However, it's not fair that teachers should have to pay for something that wasn't our fault."

This comes after healthcare costs for 2025-2026 exceeded forecasts by an estimated $40 million. Columbus City Schools Board President Dr. Antoinette Miranda said there is a lot of misinformation about this money amount and where it went.

"People keep saying it was lost," Miranda said. "It was not lost; it paid for the employees' medical benefits and doctor visits, hospital visits, all of those things."

CEA has a set of five demands for the board, including explaining why no action has been taken to recover allegedly misspent funds and publicly acknowledging the board's role in the current health care crisis.

Miranda said rising healthcare costs are, in part, to blame.

"Our premiums as well as our costs are increasing," she said. "That's just simply because healthcare costs are expensive. If it had not been for AON, the premiums would've went up and we would've had to make insurance plans changes."

Open enrollment for district employees began on Monday.

Distributed by Newsbank, inc.