The slow trickle of local election results Tuesday night was matched by a slow trickle of levy supporters from the watch party, but the margin of victory for Issue 27 didn’t wane in the hours after the polls closed.
By 2:45 a.m., the Akron Public Schools levy passed early Wednesday morning with 57.7 percent of voters supporting it.
More than 63,000 votes were counted across 118 precincts.
Late Tuesday night, a small but dedicated group of levy supporters — including Carla Chapman, the district’s chief diversity officer and leading organizer with the Citizens Committee – Akron Public Schools — followed the trickle of results from Akron Public Schools’ administration building in downtown Akron. After months of planning and a final long day, they celebrated what appeared to be the passage of Issue 27, the first local school levy in 12 years.
“I’m feeling relief, and I’m feeling proud and happy that the citizens of Akron stood up for their school system,” Chapman said. “This is the Akron city school system, and the people spoke.
“They accepted our district and the needs of our district and all that comes with the challenges of running a large urban district, and so I am thankful. I’m extremely thankful.”
Chapman, who has been present at nearly every meeting and canvassing event that Signal Akron witnessed, said this successful levy campaign was a blueprint with its grassroots and community focus.
“This time around, our community was at the forefront of helping us connect with voters,” Chapman said. “… I don’t recall at anytime in my years of supporting levy campaigns for the district that we had this level of deeply, deeply rooted connections to our community.”
The passage of the levies, following months of advocacy and canvassing by the Citizens Committee — Akron Public Schools, will give the district enough revenue to help it avoid major deficit spending for the next few years and build a new North High School.
“This gives us the flexibility that we need, but I also think it gives us an additional responsibility,” Board Member Gregory Harrison said. “We asked the citizens to trust the schools. We asked the citizens to invest in our children, and so what we have to as a result now is sit down and make some decisions. We still have to be fiscally responsible.”
Harrison said he’s relieved the administration isn’t going to be forced to make deep cuts across the district, but that accountability is still the name of the game as far as he’s concerned.
“We don’t look at this lightly and say we’ll keep doing business as usual,” he added. “We have to do better for our children.”
Adam Motter, a member of the Citizens Committee and a social studies learning specialist with APS, said the passage of the levy is a credit to the faculty and administrative staff who volunteered their spare time to build a grassroots network to advocate for Issue 27.
“They have to do their day job, and everything else they have to do is before work, after work, weekends,” Motter said. “… We thank you for your support, we thank you for believing in us. Our most important thing is to have all the care in the world for every child in Akron.”
The district, which has avoided asking taxpayers for a levy for the past 12 years, is now forecasted to avoid spending through cash reserves until fiscal year 2028, according to a Monday night presentation by APS Treasurer Steve Thompson to the Board of Education.
“The main thing it means is that the people of Akron believe in this school [district], believe in this system, believe, more importantly, in our children and our children having the rights and opportunities to be educated properly, accurately, and professionally within this district,” Board Member Barbara Sykes said.
“It reflects more on who Akron is more than anything. It’s not about me or this district, it’s about the Akron citizens and how much they appreciate and understand educating our children and the significance of that.”
The passage of Issue 27 won’t insulate APS from future cuts. In fact, Sykes said Monday night at a school board meeting she wants to see a five-year forecast that includes potential cuts the district can make to show Akron taxpayers that the district is being fiscally responsible.
Sykes has repeatedly told Signal Akron that nothing is off the table with regard to potential cuts, even with passage of the levy.
How levy supports Akron Public Schools
APS will receive the first payment from a passed levy in January. It is expected to bring in $13 million then $26 million annually.
Issue 27 is a combination of a 7.6-mill operating levy and a 1.29-mill construction levy. The operating levy will generate an estimated $26.4 million annually and cost homeowners with an appraised value of $100,000 an estimated $270 yearly.
The construction levy, dedicated to the rebuilding of North High School, will raise $4.4 million annually for 37 years to repay an $85 million bond. It will cost homeowners with a home value of $100,000 about $45 annually.
In total, Issue 27 is expected to cost about $315 a year for Akron homeowners whose homes are valued at $100,000.
“[The passed levy] allows us to maintain what we’re doing, allows us to build North High School,” Thompson said. “We still will be monitoring the budget very closely, but it’ll get us out of deficit spending and put us in a solid financial position.”
In Akron, a new North High School in the works
With Issue 27 passed, the process to build a new North High School will begin.
The construction process, however, is not a quick one, with an open bidding process required for all contracts. Thompson said the district will engage the community for their input into the new school.
“There’s a lot of factors to go through,” Thompson said, “but I would say, from the time you pass a levy, it’s at least three and a half years before that building would be up and occupied.”
North will still need to be repaired. The rundown, 93-year-old building has a litany of issues, including a leaking roof and asbestos in the walls and floor tiles. Thompson said the district is prepared for more leaks and to pay for water damage repairs.
“You know there’s gonna be some problems, but you do the best you can,” he said. “We just continue to Band-Aid it until we tear it down.”