Moving pest control in-house. Switching to LED lighting. Not buying Chromebooks this year.
These are some of the operational changes Akron Public Schools officials are considering to help trim $11 million from their 2026-2027 budget. The district’s 2025-2026 general operating budget is $386 million.
Superintendent Mary Outley proposed efforts to reduce costs by up to $12.4 million during the Feb. 23 Board of Education meeting. Those suggestions include reductions in staffing, program changes and operational efficiencies.
Since personnel costs make up about 80% of the district’s budget, staffing reductions typically generate the largest savings. About $6.4 million in reductions could come from a combination of personnel changes, officials said. Those include job cuts, attrition through retirements and other means and internal transfers.
District leaders plan to move staff into existing openings when possible to avoid layoffs.
Another $4.2 million in potential savings would come from operational changes, including improving energy efficiency and bringing some outside services in-house. A 6.5% cut to most departmental budgets would save nearly $2 million, although some departments would not see a reduction, including Athletic Transportation, Environmental Management (which includes utilities) and the Transportation and Maintenance departments.
Reducing some textbook costs and moving standardized testing, like the ACT, PSAT and cognitive ability assessments, online are among the programming adjustments that could generate up to $1.85 million in savings.
Outley asked school board members to vote on the proposed reductions at the Monday meeting. That way, staff whose positions are affected will be able to see which positions are available for them to transfer into. If approved, the reductions would take effect July 1 as district leaders continue monitoring the financial forecast.
The pressures involved in school finances
District administrators say the reductions are needed to delay a potential deficit in 2028 and keep spending in line with projected revenues.
Rising costs and limited revenue growth have put increasing pressure on the district’s finances, said Wayne Bowers, the district’s treasurer and chief financial officer. He said if those trends continue, the gap between costs and revenue will widen each year.
Inflation adds about $10 million in expenses annually.
At the same time, the district loses roughly $10,000 in funding for each student who leaves the district, adding up to about $2 million per year, Outley said.
For the time being, the district is able to dip into its reserves to cover the gap. But the combination of rising expenses and shrinking funding could mean that without bringing in more money or cutting expenses, by 2029, the district will have overspent its reserves by more than $37 million.
Many school districts are facing similar financial pressures as costs rise and state and federal funding remains relatively flat. Outley said the district is trying to manage rising costs while continuing to provide the same services to students.
“To fund a school district on numbers from the past — that’s not reality,” Outley said during the State of the Akron Public Schools address Tuesday. “We’re responding with careful spending and difficult decisions.”
Despite the proposed cuts, class sizes will remain unchanged, Outley said. Under the district’s collective bargaining agreement, elementary classrooms must not have more than 30 students per teacher, while middle and high school teachers cannot be assigned more than 170 students across their schedules.
Administrators have been surveying families who choose not to go to APS to better understand their decisions and identify ways to attract them.
“We want to understand why families are opting out and what we can change,” Outley said.
In addition to losses from students choosing other schools, Ohio law requires districts to provide transportation for all students who live more than two miles from their neighborhood school. Transporting students to non-APS schools will cost the district more than $3 million this year, Outley said. Bringing more students back to APS could also help reduce those costs.
Future levies under discussion
District leaders began to review APS’ spending last June after financial projections showed the district could face a shortfall of about $10.5 million by the end of the fiscal year, the following summer.
Since then, department leaders have reviewed budgets and identified areas where spending could be reduced or adjusted.
The current plan is expected to have only a minimal effect on students, but continuing financial pressures and additional reductions could change that in the future, Bowers said.
“If we have to continue to tighten the belt, it will begin to affect the classroom more and more,” he said.
As part of the district’s long-term planning, leaders have also begun to consider asking voters to increase taxes.
The district’s most recent operating levy, approved by voters in 2024, generates about $26 million annually.
School districts across Ohio typically return to voters for new levies every three to eight years, Bowers said. That’s because rising costs and revenue pressures mean the financial benefits of existing levies aren’t enough to keep up with costs after several years.
