The role and function of the Akron Board of Education is often misinterpreted by community members and elected officials alike, said new Board President Diana Autry Monday as she took up the gavel.
Autry, who won the role in a 5-2 vote, said board members are policy makers and the chief advisers on community attitudes. Planting a flag for her new role, Autry spoke firmly about her vision for the board, saying the community could invest in children today or repair broken adults tomorrow.
“The children belong to us all,” she said. “Let’s reset and recommit to our children.”
Referencing discord on previous iterations of the board that led to acrimony between members and the premature exit of the last superintendent, Autry said board members have to “be proud and nurture and cultivate what’s ours.”
“We have to be our own best cheerleaders and constructive critics without vilifying and tearing down our own district,” she said. “We have to face our challenges together while building up what is ours.”
Those challenges are many: redistricting plans, low academic achievement, discipline issues, a probable levy and persistent mental health issues coming out of the coronavirus pandemic among them, Autry said.
She praised the board’s new strategic plan, including the thread of equity that extends throughout. While she said equity is not always about race, it’s important to consider that more than half of Akron Public Schools’ students are brown and Black. Noting the racial differences, and the need for equity, makes some people uncomfortable, Autry said.
“I’m here to tell you there’s no growth in the comfort zone,” she said. “We can’t be comfortable with only a few of our schools flourishing while others are not, because we’re only as strong as our weakest link.”
She placed her phone in a Yondr bag, given to students to keep them from accessing their own devices in the classroom, and said she was doing so in solidarity with students. She expressed concerns about how some teachers treat students and said the teachers needed to practice better self-care so they could bring their best selves to the classroom, especially since students are still suffering the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
“COVID and its effects are still here,” she said. “Not only the physical illness, but the effects that manifest in behaviors such as fear, anger and anxiety.”
A lack of social skills should be met with support, she said, not punishment, particularly for young learners who began their educational experiences online. And she asked for empathy for those students’ parents, many of whom, she said, suffered through the crack epidemic as children and did not then receive sufficient support.
“There is no fast track to relationship building, so let’s get to work,” she concluded.
Autry, who was previously the board’s vice president, won the role after no one seconded the nomination for Job Perry, who was serving as president pro tem after the previous board president’s term ended in December. Carla Jackson, who moved for Perry to be president, was unanimously elected as vice president of the board. Both Jackson and Perry voted against Autry’s appointment.
Autry was first appointed to the board in 2019 before winning reelection. A registered nurse at Akron Children’s Hospital, she had two children go through the city’s public schools and was involved in the PTA.
The board also heard more details about the district’s financial woes. Stephen Thompson, the district’s treasurer and chief financial officer, said APS “can’t maintain the same staffing level” and that he expects to cut 4% of staff.
“It’s not going to be an easy process; it’s a difficult process, of course,” he said. “We have to right-size our district.”
Superintendent Michael Robinson said he was looking at positions in schools and the central office as well as possible program cuts. The new strategic plan will guide personnel decisions, he said, and any additional positions will be offset.
Robinson also said he wants to find room in the budget for all-day pre-Kindergarten beginning next year, but he acknowledged it would be a challenge.
“We have to be very mindful as a district in the decisions that we make,” he said. “We didn’t get here overnight, and we’re not going to improve overnight.”
In her first meeting, newly elected board member Barbara Sykes suggested the board could improve trust with residents by sending more items to committee meetings, where they could see more public discussion before a vote.
Sykes said residents don’t feel as though they have timely access to information, and that feeling colors their perception of the district.
“We are asking our community to trust us by closing schools, we are asking our community to trust us by moving children from one school to another, we are asking our community to trust us by building schools, maybe more than one school,” she said. “If we don’t have a level of trust in this community, then they won’t trust us.”
The board also voted to approve the hiring of Michael Defibaugh as the new labor relations director at a salary of nearly $167,000. Defibaugh comes to the district from Akron’s law department, where he was most recently the senior counsel for labor and employment for the city.
In announcing his hiring, Robinson said the district is “ready and waiting for you.”
“Let’s get past this, all get together and forge relationships,” Defibaugh said.
