Dublin City Schools Apparently May Torch Common Sense At the Alter of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Why must Coffman families pay the entire price for Jerome’s overcrowding versus having some of the Jerome families sharing the burden so fewer Coffman families get hit? Or none do.

***For those interested, I will be talking about this issue tomorrow (Thursday the 2nd) during my weekly radio interview on 98.9FM The Answer at 12:05PM. You can stream the interview live at this link or listen to it later at this link.***

Who would have thought a suburban school district would out gerrymander politicians? Who would have thought a suburban school district would reimplement a 1970s busing program in 2025? Based on apparent outrage and legal threats focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by folks south of Rings Road, Dublin City Schools (DCS) may ditch a common sense approach and map (Map 1) to appease the Left’s DEI zealotry via Map 3. For those poor unfortunate souls in the Bailey Elementary School (BES) neighborhoods* who voted Left by electing a hard left school board majority and who may become the victims of Map 3, I guess you live by DEI politics, your kids suffer by DEI politics.

*Bailey Elementary School neighborhoods at risk under Map 3 are Brandon, Bellepoint Place, Bristol Commons, The Woods of Dublin, Donegal Cliffs, River Forest, Amberleigh South, and Amberleigh North. Oddly, the at risk neighborhoods DON’T include the small neighborhoods of Dublin Estates, Dublin Manor, or Galway Estates, nor the larger neighborhoods of Killilea, Coventry Woods, Sheffield Place, Wellington Place, or Wellington Reserve. Buses will have to DRIVE BY all of those neighborhoods to pick off the kids in the BES neighborhoods listed above. Why skip over those other neighborhoods for two miles that are closer to Scioto to cherry pick ones farther away from Scioto? I’ll explain my theory on that below.

Let’s look at the maps.

Map 1 is based on common sense. It simply looks right, doesn’t it? All neighborhoods east of the Scioto River go to the high school (Scioto) that is also east of the Scioto River. All Neighborhoods within the I-270 Outerbelt also go to the high school mostly populated by other neighborhoods within the I-270 Outerbelt. Conversely, all neighborhoods outside of the I-270 Outerbelt and west of the Scioto River that comprise the right number of students go to the high school (Coffman) just outside of the I-270 Outerbelt. The rest of the neighborhoods north of those neighborhoods go to the high school (Jerome) in the northern part of the school district. There are no cases in Map 1 in which a kid within walking distance of a high school doesn’t go to that high school. The only “losers” in Map 1 are some of the Muirfield neighborhoods that get moved from Jerome to Coffman. Yes, Jerome is better than Coffman, but the delta between the schools is far less than the delta between Coffman and Scioto, so I’m not sure the Muirfield losses quite compare to the BES losses under Map 3.

Again: Simple. Geographically sensible. Common Sense.

Map 2 is simply absurd. It not only engages in busing aimed at the BES neighborhoods as it ignores neighborhoods closer to Scioto, but it also adopts an Illinois-level of gerrymandering by grabbing a neighborhood for Coffman waaaaaaaay over by Ohio State Airport totally disconnected to any other Coffman neighborhood. One HAS to wonder why the swap from Map 1 occurred in which the BES neighborhoods get thrown over to Scioto for the Ohio State Airport neighborhood other than to satisfy DEI politics. It makes no sense otherwise. Map 2, as noted in the table above, violates most of the standards set out by DCS Superintendent John Marschhausen.

Map 3 is the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” map aimed at appeasing the lawyered-up DEI card throwing neighborhoods south of Rings Road. In Map 3, those folks magically get pushed back to Coffman along with a solid chuck of neighborhoods east of the Scioto River except oddly the Ohio State Airport neighborhood that is now disconnected to any other Scioto neighborhood. This map also grabs the BES neighborhoods after skipping neighborhoods closer to Scioto. The most ridiculous aspect of this gerrymandered map is that the kids living in the two neighborhoods literally across the street from Jerome who can walk to Jerome in under two minutes now get sent down to Coffman. How does that make any sense to anyone? If DCS can do that to those kids, why not do that to neighborhoods closer to Scioto instead of the BES neighborhoods?

For those itching to throw the anti-DEI card at me for raising DEI, I merely say “stop itching.” DCS raised the DEI card when it included racial and economic tables for each map and used a red-yellow-green rating system to indicate good versus bad numbers, thereby indicting DEI was THE driving force to the high school redistricting decision. Similarly, the DEI card throwing neighborhoods south of Rings Road made DEI front-and-center. Thus, given the gerrymandered nature of Maps 2 and 3, as well as the jumping two miles to grab BES neighborhoods when there are other neighborhoods closer to Scioto buses must pass by to get to the BES kids, DEI is the ONLY factor at play right now.

Look at the demographic numbers for each map. First, ask yourself, who decided which percentage level of each race made a particular number bad versus acceptable? As in: 33% Asian today and 37% Asian in map 1 at Jerome is bad, but 28% in Map 3 is perfectly fine. Or, 67% white in Map 1 at Coffman is bad, but 59% white in Map 3 at Jerome is fine. Or, Hispanics and Blacks in all maps at whatever level in each school is fine, yet bumping just Hispanics up by 1% and doing nothing for Black diversity at Jerome between Map 1 and Map 3, while increasing the former by 5% and the latter by 2% at Coffman answers the mail for the DEI crowd. Or, 20% Hispanic today at Scioto is an issue, but 19% Hispanic in Map 1 is fine. So, making Jerome 4% whiter from today to Map 3, no more black, 1% more Hispanic, and 5% less Asian is a job well done. Why do these numbers matter? Are we educating kids, or making a United Colors of Benetton ad?

In terms of the poverty metric, once again Jerome seems to get a pass like it does on having more Black and Hispanic kids, as the poverty metric actually goes DOWN from today to Map 3 (remains the same for Map 1). It seems Coffman takes the full brunt of the DEI punch to make Scioto less poor.

So, why is DCS skipping neighborhoods closer to Scioto to grab BES neighborhoods? My theory is that those neighborhoods give DCS the biggest DEI demographic bang because Amberleigh North has the most expensive homes ($1,000,000+) currently in the Coffman area, with Amberleigh South, River Forest, and The Woods of Dublin not far behind. By throwing those neighborhoods over to Scioto, the good DEI numbers dramatically rise for Coffman and the bad DEI numbers decline for Scioto. The reverse reasoning also is why the Ohio State Airport neighborhood gets thrown to Coffman—its very low home value numbers and good DEI demographics help bring Coffman up and its exclusion from Scioto help bring its numbers down.

As to the issue of overcrowding, in all three proposed maps, Coffman remains underutilized now and in the future. Why not just leave the BES neighborhoods at Coffman and, if needed, add on to Coffman in the coming years? Walk around Coffman and notice how much land remains that could be used to build more classrooms. Dublin taxpayers got hit hard to pay for the corporate level building that houses the palatial administrative offices and the Emerald Campus, as well as additions at Jerome and Scioto. Why not use some funds to add on to Coffman so BES neighborhoods can remain with their neighbors and get some benefit to their tax dollars?

More pointedly, why are no Jerome neighborhoods forced to go to Scioto under any map? If a bus is going to drive up Dublin Road to grab BES neighborhoods, it can just as easily keep driving to grab some Muirfield neighborhood kids then pop over Glick Road Bridge to get to Scioto. Those Muirfield neighborhoods will improve Scioto’s numbers across the board even better than the BES neighborhoods. Similarly, if DCS is going to engage in 1970s style busing, why not bus neighborhoods like the Ohio State Airport ones to Jerome and shift current Jerome neighborhoods to Coffman and Scioto? Wouldn’t that approach satisfy DEI concerns even more? Why must Coffman families pay the entire price for Jerome’s overcrowding versus having some of the Jerome families share the burden so fewer Coffman families get hit? Jerome neighborhoods getting a Scioto-free pass seems pretty unfair.

Finally, if you aren’t annoyed by this column yet, you will be now. Sorry, but I do have to inject politics into the discussion because it is what is driving the issue. Currently, of the five Dublin School Board members, three are hard left Democrats (Amy Messick, Tiffany Chanel DeSilva, and Lindsay Gillis) and two are Republicans (Chris Valentine and Diana Rigby—how far Right doesn’t matter because they are in the minority). One of the Democrats is involved in DEI issues. Two of the three Democrats live on the east side of the Scioto River, so have a very vested interest in seeing Scioto’s appeal improve. Three seats are up for election in November. Gillis and Rigby are not seeking reelection, while DeSilva is running for reelection joined by Elizabeth McClain, Tara Seward, and Kristy Venne. All three newcomers are Democrats, so going forward the board will have a 4-1 Democrat majority regardless of November’s results. If you thought DCS was drifting Left with the adoption of DEI policies, social-emotional learning segments, and the proliferation of left-wing counselors, just wait until the new school board gets going. Had Dublin voters elected Cheri Striker in 2021 or Darbie Everhart in 2023 instead of DeSilva, Gillis, or Messick, DCS would have a Republican majority board that wouldn’t be pushing DEI metrics over common sense when redistricting high schools.

Thus, let me say to my fellow BES neighbors negatively impacted if Map 3 is adopted, if you voted Left, including for Messick, DeSilva, and Gillis, you brought this result on yourself. The Left has been very loud and clear about how wedded it and its politicians are to policies like open borders, soft on crime, and DEI. You may have thought by living in wealthy Dublin and putting up a colorful sign with trite slogans you were safe from the criminal illegal immigrants who came over that open border, the recidivist criminals allowed on the streets too easily, and the DEI policies that hurt lower-to-middle class white, Asian, and Asian-Indian folks, but you weren’t. From townships trustees to school boards, from county commissions to state legislatures, from Congress to the presidency, the Left aims to enact its far left unpopular agenda everywhere, so if you live by the DEI sword when you vote, you must accept that you might die by that DEI sword should those you elected do exactly what they say they were going to do.

If you think it is coincidental that the FINAL decision on the high school map isn’t happening until Saturday, November 10, which is four days AFTER we vote for new school board members, then you need to get a clue (the November 10 date was set before DCS knew who was running, so the fact that no Republicans opted to run is irrelevant—they wanted to kick the can to help incumbent school board members).

P.S. While DCS stated it doesn’t give two whits about the drop in housing prices for neighborhoods pushed to Scioto, a real estate expert told me she expects prices in BES neighborhoods to drop by $50,000+ should Map 3 be adopted. That ain’t chump change, especially for those families who squeezed into their homes in order to have their kids attend Coffman. Map 3 would be a sucker punch followed by an uppercut. For you BES neighborhood folks with kids who haven’t reached school-age yet, this issue may seem remote to you. I get it. It seems like just yesterday that my oldest started kindergarten. I blinked and she is now almost 24-years-old. You must trust your neighbors that being pushed over to Scioto will negatively impact your kids’ educations and attractiveness to select colleges, so you need to add your voices over the coming weeks to the “keep BES neighborhoods at Coffman” crowd. All BES neighbors should sign this petition in support of Map 1 NOW!!!!