Mary Outley took a surgical approach to the Akron Public Schools’ budget, lopping off $1 million by requiring the district to use the Chromebooks it has before buying new ones and suggesting the district would save $200,000 if athletes traveled on school buses instead of charter buses.
The proposed cuts amount to $11 million in savings, more than the $10.5 million in deficit spending the district projected for the 2026-2027 school year — and there are no large-scale employee cuts as part of the plan.
But from now on, the superintendent said, the reductions are likely to dig deeper.
APS anticipates cutting $35 million from its budget a year from now and an additional $55 million the year after that.
“From this point on, everything is going to be harder,” Outley said after a Monday school board meeting in which she presented this year’s proposed cuts to board members. “Almost all the low-hanging fruit is gone. It’s getting to the nuts and bolts.”
That could mean school consolidations, like those that have been proposed in Cleveland, Outley said. An audit, expected in August, “may lead us naturally in that direction,” she said.
“These are big deficits we have to cover,” she said. “We want to have a solid plan. We want to bring the community along with us.”
Some cuts to personnel part of proposed reductions
The Akron Board of Education is expected to vote on the proposed $11 million in reductions at its March 23 meeting. Barbara Sykes, the school board president, said she thought the proposal board members saw Monday was “thoughtful and intentional and very sensitive to all parts of this district.”
“She’s making some very sensible reductions,” Sykes said. “I know she and her staff, the treasurer, they’ve all struggled with this for months.”
The most difficult move, Outley said, was the decision to eliminate six dean positions — five at the elementary school level and one in the middle school at East Community Learning Center. The jobs are similar to an assistant principal, Outley said, and it’s a position she advocated for previously.
With the change, some deans will split their time between two schools, working 2.5 days at each location. Outley said 10 schools would be affected, but she did not yet know which ones. On the days a dean is not on campus, schools with only a principal on site will be able to call another school for support.
East CLC will continue to operate with two assistant principals at the middle school level (though one is on leave) and three at the high school level.
The move will save the district $844,000.
Other personnel cuts include a $500,000 reduction to the administrative specialist budget; Outley said that leaves about $400,000 in that budget. The administrative specialists, many of whom are retirees who have returned to work, will no longer be able to be full-time employees but will be used as substitutes when they are needed.
Two vacant special education coordinator positions won’t be filled; neither will four technology support specialists. One art therapist who was brought in when a legally required art teacher wasn’t available will be cut.
And the district will cut 10.5 paraprofessional jobs at the high school level. Outley said, though, with 50 vacant paraprofessional jobs in the district, any affected employees in those roles are likely to be able to find other positions.
In addition to the planned cuts, by adjusting the source of funding or compensation and title for other jobs, the district is able to save $3.4 million on personnel.
School board members worried about who principals would rely on if there was no one else to support them in the building, whether the unique skills of an art therapist would be lost or whether more would be asked of teachers if their support staff was cut.
“A lot of due diligence was done,” said Phil Montgomery, a member of the school board. “Really, I think what it boils down to here when it comes to people is the number has gotten smaller. In reality, for anyone who wants a position, it sounds like there’s one there.”
How can Outley get more students back in Akron Public Schools?
In addition to the reductions, the district also expects to save $4.3 million by bringing pest control in-house, upgrading two schools to LED lighting, requiring operational budget reductions of 6.5% and taking fire alarms off copper lines. The district will also reduce overtime for bus mechanics and maintenance workers.
And an additional $3.1 million in savings will come from changes to standardized tests and delaying the purchase of new math textbooks.
“We want to make these decisions before the state comes in and starts slashing,” Outley said of what could happen if APS doesn’t make the reductions itself. “We want to make these decisions on our own, without any fear of penalties or state takeover.”
At the same time, Outley said, she’s not content to simply cut. She’s also looking for ways to bring students back to the district or to bring new students in.
The Cuyahoga Falls City School District recently said it would stop open enrollment, so Outley said APS employees are planning to knock on the doors of more than 200 Cuyahoga Falls students who live in Akron this weekend, bringing them information about why they might want to consider APS. Already, she said, four have agreed to return.
The district is looking at exit surveys from families who left to use EdChoice vouchers to see if there’s a throughline that could help APS keep students.
Outley also said the district was seeking homeschool families to see if they might consider using APS Online. And it’s possible that vacant seats in the district’s well-regarded College and Career Academies could be offered to suburban students, for a fee, if they aren’t filled by APS students.
It’s also possible if buildings are consolidated that empty schools could be used to expand APS’ pre-K program.
The loss of students — and the funding they bring with them — has had an effect on the district’s bottom line. In her presentation to the board, Outley said EdChoice vouchers cost APS about $33 million a year. The district must also transport non-APS students at a cost of $3 million a year. District officials also blame state officials for between $6 million and $10 million of their shortfall; they say the state funding formula hasn’t kept up with inflation.
“That could have been two years of cuts for us, right there,” Rene Molenaur, the school board vice president, said of the shortfalls. “This is not an us problem, this is not an urban problem, this is not an Akron problem.”
Outley’s presentation showed more than a dozen school districts, locally and across the state, that are contending with their own shortfalls.
Will Akron Public Schools ask voters to pass another levy?
Still, she said, it’s too soon to say when the district will next ask voters for more money in the form of a levy.
A citizen committee, which supported the district as it successfully sought its last $26.6 million levy in November 2024, is meeting quarterly and will meet Tuesday. Sykes said the district updates committee members on APS’ finances, but “they’ve got to tell us” when they again have an appetite to raise taxes with another levy. On average, districts seek new levies every three to eight years, Outley said, but APS hadn’t asked for a levy for 12 years before 2024.
Sykes also said a lawsuit that APS was party to regarding the constitutionality of the state’s voucher funding is in appeals; the schools were victorious at the lower court level. Continued victories could improve the likelihood of more money coming back to the district.
But until then, APS will continue to make reductions. Sykes said almost as soon as this round is approved, officials will begin thinking about what to cut next.
Her main goal in doing so, Outley said, is to protect the sanctity of the classroom and ensure the district isn’t undoing the work it’s already done to improve student outcomes.
This round of cuts does that, she said. The next one?
“This is what, sincerely, keeps you up at night — trying to figure out how to move the district forward without losing our gains,” she said. “The next [round of cuts] makes me nervous.”
