Photo by Devyn Glista
When Shauna Murphy was a girl, she often played school with her sister and cousins on Garden Lane in Bond Hill. During those hours of make-believe, she was always the teacher, creating lesson plans or monitoring lunch activities.
“I enjoyed school, and I loved every single teacher I had,” says Murphy, naming each of them, grade by grade, on a recent afternoon in the administrative offices of Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). “I can recall what every one of my classrooms looked like, what every school I attended was like. All of it. I knew from day one I wanted to be a teacher.”
Murphy officially became superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools—the region’s largest school district and the state’s second largest—in November. She’s responsible for the education of more than 35,000 students in 66 schools, almost the same size as the region’s second and third largest districts combined, Boone County Public Schools (20,200) and Lakota Local School District (17,700).
She served as interim superintendent for six months after Iranetta Wright resigned in May 2024 following a no-confidence vote by all six CPS unions. The district was facing a $26 million budget deficit at the time.
Murphy’s appointment to the permanent role was contentious, splitting the elected Board of Education 4–3. Several board members had wanted to conduct a national search for the superintendent position, but a slim majority gave her and Interim Deputy Superintendent Alesia Smith two-year contracts at the meeting.
And so the education veteran finds herself in charge of a $637 million budget this year, more than the combined annual budgets of the cities of Dayton, Ohio ($576.5 million); Norwood ($29.3 million); and Newport ($28.2 million). She leads a workforce of 6,000 full- and part-time employees and faces a sea of challenges, including another brutal budget season, union contract renegotiations, legislative and transportation hurdles, and a massive restructuring plan.
The CPS Growth Plan involves creating an East/Central/West corridor system that district leaders say will save money and improve student outcomes. The plan, which has been unpopular with various stakeholders, including parents and teachers, involves the creation of middle and junior high schools, redraws many elementary school boundary lines, and shifts the locations of or shutters some schools and programs based on under-enrollment or overcrowding. Phase 2 of the plan begins next school year, while the final phase is currently taking shape.
While her start was a bit bumpy, Murphy says her 26 years at Cincinnati Public Schools have prepared her to lead. She has many supporters, including former CPS Superintendent Mary Ronan—currently superintendent of Norwood City Schools—who worked with Murphy for many years. “I truly believe she has the heart and the tenacity to lead Cincinnati Public Schools forward,” says Ronan. “I know she had the respect of the principals when she was an assistant superintendent, and she had great rapport with parents and staff.”
Murphy says her leadership style hinges on collaboration, community, and a focus on student outcomes. Her motto, “Here for Kids,” is always on her lips.
“Truly, even in the toughest situations, I have a lot of people who are supporting me in this work,” she says. “People who want to see our kids do well and want to support families in a community that’s happy and pleased with the public education school system. This is what I love. This is what I was built for. When you’re passionate about something, it isn’t work.”
Photo courtesy Shauna Murphy
One of Murphy’s clearest childhood memories involves sitting on her front porch reading to her mother. Her mother, Doris Tucker, was a supervisor at the U.S. Post Office on Dalton Avenue, and she demanded that each of her four daughters read to her on her days off. “We’d have to summarize what we read, so we weren’t just reciting words but comprehending what we were reading,” says Murphy, the second youngest of her sisters. “It was my mother who taught me to have a strong work ethic, and our education was no joke.”
Murphy’s biological father was not around, she says, but she grew up with “an amazing stepfather” who did things like teach her how to drive.
Her younger sister, Angela Winkfield, says Murphy was a natural leader, never demanding attention but sliding instinctively into leadership roles as head cheerleader on a youth squad for their neighborhood baseball team or in youth ministry at Southern Baptist Church in Avondale. “She’s always upbeat and positive about whatever it is,” says Winkfield. “She’s dedicated. She’s loyal. Willing to listen and offer good advice. A good mentor.”
Murphy attended CPS elementary schools before switching to Catholic middle and high schools. She was a cheerleader at Purcell Marian High School, where she excelled in English and writing. Her mother would watch the news and tell Murphy she’d be the next Al Schottelkotte, a beloved local television anchor.
“I was a kid,” Murphy recalls. “You don’t say no to your mother. So I said, That’s what I’m going to do then.”
Murphy was accepted to Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism, earned a degree in broadcast journalism, and returned to Cincinnati. After writing for Applause Magazine for a short stint, Murphy determined that she actually wanted to be a teacher, so she enrolled in graduate school at Xavier University, earning a master’s degree in secondary education and a teaching certificate. Her first job was substitute teaching for Cincinnati Public Schools.
“That was quite an experience,” Murphy says, “where you learn a lot about different ways people run their schools and run their classrooms.” Her first full-time position was teaching English, journalism, and African American studies at her alma mater, Purcell Marian. Within a few years, she was promoted to academic dean and enrolled in a master’s program in education administration at the University of Cincinnati, which earned her a license to become a principal.
With that, Murphy interviewed for and was selected to become an assistant principal in CPS at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, where she worked for two years before serving as principal at Hyde Park Elementary School and then principal of (now closed) Quebec Heights Elementary School.
When district leaders approached her in 2008 to be principal at Woodward Career and Technical High School, Murphy says she jumped at the opportunity to work again with high schoolers, with whom she’d always felt the most connected. “I saw that as an honor,” she says. “And I think, quite frankly, all these things were building me to what I have before me today. The experiences in elementary, in high school, in our neighborhood schools, and in our magnet schools put me in a place where I could be the leader of this school district.”
Carmen Gaines worked under Murphy for a decade at Woodward High School as career and technical education program specialist. They developed a strategy to improve employment opportunities for students around advanced manufacturing, construction, and health care and graduated more than 5,000 students. Murphy grew the number of external partners—like General Electric, Messer Construction, and TriHealth—from zero to 40 or so. Both women then moved to administrative roles at the CPS Central Office and were asked to roll out the career tech pathway at other district high schools.
That move wasn’t easy, Murphy says. She loved the classroom and relished leading a school. “But a mentor explained to me, Shauna, you don’t work with kids anymore. You work for kids, and that keeps me going,” she says. “What I say to my staff, and I don’t care about their role or position, is, I appreciate you being here today. I need you here today. Because if you don’t do what you’re doing today, that rolls down to the schoolhouse, rolls down to the classroom, and rolls down to the kid .”
During her time in Central Office, Murphy has been both assistant superintendent and chief of student, family, and community engagement. In 2015, she completed her superintendent licensure at the University of Dayton.
Catherine Kemme is team leader and teaches English and math courses at the Zoo Academy, a CPS career technical program housed within the Cincinnati Zoo where students explore interests in horticulture, veterinary science, animal science, and environmental science while doing hands-on service learning. She’s always appreciated Murphy’s dedication to career and technical programs like the Zoo Academy.
“She seems to value students, parents, teachers, and partnerships and not only listens to feedback but takes action,” says Kemme. “The teachers I know like her and feel heard and supported. I do, too. She seems organized, thoughtful, and proactive.”
Gaines says that Murphy should get credit for forecasting the opportunity for public schools to engage with community partners and private companies and for being a team player and a huge advocate of others. “I’m excited to see the work she does for the school district,” says Gaines. “She’s going to give everyone a sense of stability, and it’s been a very long time since they felt that.”
Murphy is the fourth CPS superintendent in the eight years since Ronan departed in 2017. The others were and are experienced executives: Laura Mitchell is now CEO of Beech Acres, Tianay Amat is now CEO of Cincinnati Works, and Wright came to Cincinnati after school district leadership roles in Florida and Michigan. Running an urban public school district with dwindling state and federal funding (and possibly a gutted U.S. Department of Education) while still recovering from COVID disruptions is the very definition of “tough job.”
Photo by Devyn Glista
Murphy’s goal for each Cincinnati Public Schools student is to become one of the “Three Es”: employed; enlisted (in some sort of service, military or otherwise); or enrolled in college or a post-graduate trade program. “With this job, I have a direct opportunity to develop good citizens in our community,” she says.
To achieve that vision, CPS—which is rated 2.5 out of 5 stars on the state report card and has one of the top-rated high schools in Ohio (Walnut Hills)—is tackling a host of goals set by the Board of Education such as:
- Increasing the percentage of third-graders who are proficient in reading on the Ohio State Test from 47.5 percent in June 2023 to 61 percent by June 2027;
- Increasing the percentage of proficient scores for first-time Algebra I test takers from 30 percent in June 2023 to 50 percent by June 2027; and
- Improving the percentage of students who meet the requirements for graduation from 81.4 percent in June 2023 to 94 percent by June 2027.
Kareem Moncree-Moffett was elected to the Board of Education in 2021 and recently became president of the board, but she was a self-described helicopter parent when she first met Murphy. She’d been co-president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Withrow High School and a constant attendee at board meetings. “Ms. Murphy has heard my mouth for a long time,” she says, laughing.
Moncree-Moffett was one of four board members who voted to give Murphy the permanent role. “Looking back, I wish we had begun the process a little earlier to engage the community more,” she says. “But our district was suffering at that moment and needed some consistency.”
The vote came near the end of a three-hour long board meeting on November 18, during what was listed on the agenda as a routine update on the ongoing superintendent search. To the surprise of some board members and Murphy herself, member Jim Crossett made a motion to forgo the search and offer Murphy and Alesia Smith the permanent positions.
“I think we’ve been very lucky to have a strong interim superintendent and interim deputy superintendent and management team,” Crossett said before making the motion. “I’ve been visiting schools and gotten a lot of positive feedback from teachers and principals and from community members and retirees.”
Board member Brandon Craig countered. “This is not to take away from the hard work that both the interim superintendent and the deputy interim superintendent have done,” he said. “But the process we used to select them—the time and effort we took to meet with them, which speaks more to what we did as what they did—was very minimal…. We spent 10 minutes with both candidates. I couldn’t support that process.”
Board member Ben Lindy also couldn’t either, despite Murphy and Smith doing a “remarkable job” with some of the challenges they’d faced. The board must conduct a job search, he said.
Moncree-Moffett supported the motion but asked for a two-year term. “Our district is hemorrhaging,” she said. “We’ve had to close a huge gap and made some significant changes. I would like to give our community, our students, our staff some semblance of stability.”
Longtime board member Eve Bolton said she didn’t like the process either or selecting a superintendent without unanimous support, but “the reality is we have to negotiate six [union] contracts. We have to change the way we’re doing business. There is trust in the district with who we have.”
Lindy says he ultimately voted against the motion because the board missed an important opportunity to strengthen public trust. “We owe it to the public and to our employees to have an open, transparent process that’s announced in advance and then followed,” he says.
Bolton calls Murphy a straight shooter and is excited about the district’s future under her leadership. “I think she’s really done more in the last six months than we’ve had done at the district for six years,” says Bolton. “She’s at the helm of implementing the biggest reorganization effort in the district in more than 25 years.”
The reorganization Bolton describes is officially called the District Performance, Redesign, Sustainability, and Growth Plan. It was created by the Board of Education’s Ad Hoc Committee in 2023 and 2024 with three goals: improving operational efficiency, removing barriers so that every student can access everything CPS offers, and focusing on initiatives to equip students to become one of the “Three Es” after graduation (employed, enlisted, or enrolled).
The plan calls for reorganizing the district into East, Central, and West corridors so that each provides a similar variety of school and educational options such as magnet, Montessori, and neighborhood schools. Schools of choice with district-wide open enrollment (School for Creative and Performing Arts, Walnut Hills, Zoo Academy) would be located in the Central corridor.
“We had community input, staff input, parent input,” says Moncree-Moffett. “One thing that came out really early was the request to get seventh and eighth graders out of the high schools because the data showed they were suffering in a high school environment.”
So the plan also includes the creation of grades 6–8 middle schools and grades 7–8 junior highs and redraws elementary school boundary lines to deal with overcrowding and under-enrollment. All CPS high schools will continue to offer open enrollment.
The district’s finances are commanding these changes, says Moncree-Moffett. A large number of students switch corridors within the 91-square-mile district each year, and CPS is required by law to provide transportation to every qualifying student in the district, including private and charter school students. CPS has stopped receiving Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds awarded by the federal government to help students and schools rebound after COVID. Those funds added $112.8 million to the CPS budget in 2024.
Over time, the Growth Plan should help CPS assume a more neighborhood-like model, Murphy and Moncree-Moffett say, saving money and better serving students, their families, and neighborhoods. All enrollment procedures will be done at Central Office away from individual schools.
The plan is being conducted in three phases. Phase 1 was implemented this school year with the creation of Shroder Junior High in Madisonville, the phased dissolution of Riverview East Academy due to declining enrollment, and the move of the Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students into the former Riverview East Academy building, where that program would have room to grow. The district also changed Mt. Washington Elementary School into a Pre-K to eighth grade school, reflecting a long-time request from the community.
“Next year we’ll have more junior highs and more middle schools by repurposing some of our high schools and some of our elementary schools,” Murphy says. “Pleasant Hill will be a middle school. South Avondale will be a middle school. Evanston will be a junior high school. Hartwell will be a middle school.”
Phase 2 involves drawing new boundary lines for almost every CPS elementary school, which the Board of Education approved during a seven-hour meeting in December. Before the vote, roughly 50 public speakers offered input, most of them unsupportive of the plan for reasons ranging from increased class sizes to ruining the fabric of an existing school community to dismantling a system that was working.
For those with questions or wanting to talk specifics about the district’s direction, Murphy hosts monthly “Sundae with Shauna” events on Sunday afternoons at a rotating school. She occasionally hosts “Open Office,” a web-based meeting where she takes questions from viewers.
Lindy says he has every hope that Murphy and Smith will lead the district out of many of its predicaments. One of the most pressing challenges will be next school year’s budget deliberations, which he expects to be more painful than the last.
Uncomfortable conversations are coming, says Murphy, and they won’t be easy. She often considers something her mother told her when she thinks about her approach to each CPS student, employee, parent, and critic. “When my mom got ill, I asked her, Tell me your greatest life lesson,” she says. “I thought she was going to say something about being independent or something about the importance of education. She said, Treat people the way you want to be treated.”
The Rev. Dan Larkin Jr., pastor of Southern Baptist Church, has known Murphy for 40 years or so, meeting her when he was about 12 and she was 17 or 18. He remembers her being kind and counseling him and other young members of the congregation. The two became friends over the decades and work together often, as Murphy is also superintendent of the church’s educational programs and helps keep men’s and women’s groups, Sunday School, and more on track.
“She’s a ball of energy, always with that rah rah team spirit,” says Larkin. “When she became the interim, I was like, They’re going to know that they have their next superintendent. There may be people who perceive her as an enemy, but she’s not seeing them as confrontational. She’s going to get to the crux of how much this has to do with making our students better.”
Moncree-Moffett says she knows one thing about Murphy: She looks at each student as if they were her own. “I think people don’t know that she really is a human person behind these decisions, good or bad,” she says. “And she’s not making those decisions in a silo.”
Murphy stresses a team approach. “There’s no problem that can’t be solved,” she says. “Might be hard to get there, but if you have the right people you can do anything you put your mind to.”
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