Shifting populations, aging buildings and the end of a lease that will displace a high school are among the reasons members of the Akron Board of Education are slated to vote today on a slew of changes that will shift some students’ school boundaries and relocate some to different buildings.
The Akron Public Schools’ redistricting and restructuring plan has gone through several changes since December as Superintendent Michael Robinson listened to concerns from parents and others about transportation and other issues. The plan to be voted on later today differs from the last one presented to board members — the Stewart and Essex early learning centers, which were slated to close, would remain open in the latest iteration of the proposal.
Diana Autry, the school board president, said the change was made to accommodate the possibility of expanding the district’s preschool options. As part of the APS strategic plan, Robinson wants to have full-day preschool available for all students.
Autry said the district still wants to have at least one classroom for 3- to 5-year-olds available in each APS cluster, but more room may be needed in the buildings that were previously earmarked for closure. The move to a scattered preschool model is what prompted the original recommendation that Stewart and Essex be closed.
“That’s going to leave us the flexibility,” Autry said of keeping the buildings open. “I’m really excited about the potential for us to implement the full-day preschool. That’s going to help our children in the long run.”
Autry said she expected both full-day and half-day preschool to be available in the fall, though she didn’t have more details about how many classes or where they would be. The district hasn’t made available any cost estimates for what it would take to make classrooms at existing community learning centers appropriate for younger children.
Robinson declined a request for comment Friday about whether there would be any other changes to the existing proposal. But preservationists and community members alike have been agitating for additional updates.
The future of Firestone Park Elementary
The proposed closure of the more than 100-year-old Firestone Park Elementary School has galvanized residents who don’t want to see the historic building mothballed. Ward 7 City Council Member Donnie Kammer said the issue was “very important to the community.” Taking a neighborhood school out of the neighborhood would hurt, he said.
Under the most recent proposal, Firestone Park students would move to Glover, McEbright and Voris CLCs. For now, the district says it would use Firestone Park for storage.
“I’d rather have students in there, I’d rather have some kind of future,” Kammer said. “I just think it’s really going to hurt the community.”
Closing the school wouldn’t just mean an empty building, Kammer said. It would also mean less business for nearby businesses such as A Walk in the Park Cafe and Goodman’s Service Center, an auto repair shop frequented by teachers.
Kammer said he’s talked to Robinson about his concerns, but the future is “still kind of cloudy.” If the school has to close, he said, perhaps it could be turned into senior housing or be used for a purpose other than storage.
“I just think it’s a building that still has life in it,” he said.
The building, built by Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. founder Harvey Firestone, “is a really historic place,” said Aaron Uhl, a Progress Through Preservation advocacy committee member who is also studying history and education at the University of Akron. Uhl said he’s worried about what will happen to the building if it closes.
“APS does not have a good track record with keeping historic buildings …. I’m concerned it’s not going to be maintained,” he said.
While he understands the redistricting will move students to newer buildings, Firestone Park is more than just a school, Uhl said. It’s in good shape and an integral part of the community. David James, the executive director of the Summit Education Initiative and a former district superintendent, said he thought it might be nice to turn it into an education museum.
Jennifer Benak, 39, attended Firestone Park from first through fifth grade — and said she continued to return each year for the carnival until she was 19, participating in the cake walk or hoping to win a goldfish. She called the building “iconic.”
Benak, a social worker, was last at Firestone Park in the fall to work with a foster child who’s at school there. She said it looked much the same as when she was a student, down to a piano she learned to play on. But Firestone Park isn’t all in the past: Benak said students she works with are still requesting to go there.
If it closes, “it would just be sitting there being an unused historic building, which is a shame,” she said. “Tearing it down, that would hurt my soul.”
Redistricting, restructuring moves
Firestone Park isn’t the only school students would have to move from if the plan is approved. The overcrowded Harris-Jackson CLC would send some of its 623 elementary students to Barber CLC, which has 225 students. Harris-Jackson would also gain students from Forest Hill CLC, with 419 students. Additionally, Barber CLC would send some other students to Seiberling CLC, with 396 students.
And elementary students at Robinson CLC would be displaced entirely: those 216 students will go to Mason and David Hill CLCs, with 227 and 237 students apiece.
Robinson CLC is being vacated to make way for STEM High School, a 315-student school focused on science, technology, engineering and math. It’s located in the former Central Hower High School, on the University of Akron’s campus, but the university declined to continue an arrangement that would keep the school there.
Robinson first proposed moving STEM High School to the middle school portion of East CLC before complaints about the distance to the University of Akron — where many students take classes — and having to share a building caused him to reconsider.
The district, which is planning to cut up to $17 million in its budget for the next fiscal year, said it would cost between $500,000 and $1 million to outfit Robinson CLC for the STEM program. CFO and Treasurer Stephen Thompson did not return a phone call Friday seeking comment about how the improvements would be paid for, and the district has not made more information available about any costs for the restructuring and redistricting plan.
The new school would be called Robinson STEM CLC. It’s on a bus route to the University of Akron, which is about two miles away, and could allow for the expansion of STEM High School.
Students affected by the changes will have the opportunity to choose to stay at their current school, if it remains open, or enroll in another school if they don’t want to go to the one they’re assigned. If they choose to go to a school other than the one they’re assigned, families will be responsible for transportation.
The district is also considering closing the Conrad C. Ott Building after next school year. And Robinson briefly flirted with the idea of separating the Buchtel and East CLCs into separate middle and high schools before deciding not to move forward with the plan.
“It’s a proposal, so things are going to move around,” he said. “It’s expected that if you’re doing a proposal that changes will occur along the way.”
Fiscal responsibility vs. ‘musical kids’
Robinson said many changes occurred to the redistricting and restructuring plan over nearly three months because he was listening to feedback from community members that prompted him to make changes. He emphasized that such community meetings were not required.
“It allowed me to really understand the voice of the community. I was able to hear from them and what they think,” he said. “We literally would go back the next morning and we would revisit. We listened to what they had to say. We went back and we problem-solved.”
Robinson said he was encouraged by how collaborative the process was. His chief of staff, Angela Carter, said he visited each affected building more than once.
Autry, the school board president, said she understands the board will never make everyone happy with its redistricting decisions. But she wants to be “fiscally smart” while making decisions that will improve the health of the district. She commended Robinson for his work engaging with the community and hearing their concerns.
“It doesn’t mean everybody was happy,” she said. “Adjustments were made based on that feedback. It doesn’t mean everyone got what they wanted out of this deal.”
James, the former superintendent who’s now with the Summit Education Initiative, said he closed 13 schools during his tenure due to declining enrollment. He said he didn’t think Robinson had much of a choice other than to move forward with closing schools and moving students.
He called it a complicated process.
“There are always going to be unpopular choices,” he said.
The decisions the district makes are vital as leaders prepare to go to voters for a levy this fall, said Kirstin Toth, a philanthropic and educational consultant. She said the district might want to consider what it could do to help make the transition to a new school easier on families.
Benak, the social worker and Firestone Park graduate, said moving students around can create issues of anxiety and lead them to act up in class. Children often tie their sense of safety to familiarity, she said, so a changed environment can make them feel unmoored.
Benak said she didn’t know the right answer to make families happy, especially if the district didn’t have the money to build all new schools for students — which it does not. But she thinks something is lost when classes get broken up and students who started school together are later split up.
“That’s just so much moving for kids,” she said. “I don’t know what the solution is, but musical kids is not a good solution.”
