Columbus Board of Education

Columbus City Schools
Location of the district in Franklin County
Columbus, Ohio USA
Coordinates	39°59′N 82°59′W / 39.983°N 82.983°W / 39.983; -82.983Coordinates: 39°59′N 82°59′W / 39.983°N 82.983°W / 39.983; -82.983
District information
Motto	Step up, Make it happen
Established	1845 (1845)
Superintendent	J. Daniel Good, Ph.D.
Students and staff
Students	56,000+ (Aug 2006)
Teachers	4,166 (Oct 2007)
Staff	7,181 FTE (Oct 2007)
Athletic conference	OHSAA
Other information
Website	ccsoh.us

Columbus City Schools, formerly known as Columbus Public Schools, is the official school district for the city of Columbus, Ohio, and serves most of the city (portions of the city are served by suburban school districts). The district has over 56,000 students enrolled, making it the largest school district in the state of Ohio as of August 2006. At its peak during the 1971 school year the district served 110,725 students.

The first school built in the area which is now part of Columbus was a log cabin school-house built in Franklinton, in 1806. It wasn't until 1845 that the state of Ohio Legislature entrusted the management of Columbus schools to a Board of Education. Two years later the school board elected Dr. Asa Lord as the district's first superintendent. Dr. Gene T. Harris served as the 19th superintendent of Columbus City Schools and was succeeded by Dr. Dan Good. For most of its history, the district has been referred to as "Columbus Public Schools". In August 2007, the district decided to begin using its official name of "Columbus City Schools."

Although technically the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case made segregation in schools illegal, some schools were still segregated by the neighborhoods they served. In March 1977 Federal District Court Judge Robert M. Duncan ruled in Penick v. Columbus Board of Education that the school boundary methods used by Columbus Public Schools promoted segregation by sending black students to predominantly black schools and white students to predominantly white schools. The result was forced busing to desegregate all schools in the Columbus Public School district.

Before the 1978-1979 school year the Columbus Public School district petitioned Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist for a stay on the forced busing, and the petition was granted. However, in April 1979 the Supreme Court made their decision and upheld the original Duncan decision.

Before this landmark decision was handed down, the district had a peak of 110,725 students enrolled in 1971 and operated 20 high schools. Many parents moved their children out of the Columbus district to the suburbs to avoid the desegregation. As a result, district enrollment significantly declined, forcing two high schools, Central High School (In 1982) and North High School (In 1979) to be closed, as well as several elementary and middle schools.