The STEM High School building, which houses a top-performing college and career academy in Akron Public Schools, is experiencing construction delays during its transition from Robinson Community Learning Center.
The school is waiting on delivery and installation of wall cabinets, countertops and lab station tables. These delays are keeping some students from hands-on lab work.
Superintendent Michael Robinson said construction could extend into November, beyond the end of the first grading period. Biology, chemistry, environmental sciences and biotechnology programs are the primary areas of study impacted, said APS spokesperson Mark Williamson.
The issue marks one of several challenges the district faces at STEM High School, which in the summer of 2024 moved from its former home in the old Central Hower High School building — on the University of Akron campus — to Robinson CLC, a former elementary school in East Akron.
National Inventors Hall of Fame – STEM High School is among the best performing schools in the district, receiving 4.5 stars on the 2024 Ohio education report card. The district overall received 2.5 stars.
Robinson said delays are caused by COVID-19-era supply chain disruptions, an issue he said he was aware of when the district decided last year to move STEM High School.
“We knew up front that there [would] be some delay with these labs,” Robinson said in an interview with Signal Akron, “given the supply-chain issues that we had to deal with.
“…and as soon as it gets in, we will expeditiously get those labs up and running.”
Blaming delays on COVID-19-era supply chain challenges misses the mark for Pat Shipe, president of the district’s teachers union.
“They’re required to know certain things by certain times,” said Shipe, who represents many of the teachers working at the school. “There’s a belief the delays could’ve been avoided had the board and administration made decisions in a more timely manner.
“When those things are delayed, they have to be made up or retaught [to students]. The danger is moving on without a full understanding of the concept and ability to get hands on and wrap their brains around the concept in a lab, especially in the sciences.”
Robinson said he is unsure how grades are configured at STEM High School — given that some students take courses to receive college credits — or whether lab delays would lead to academic issues. He added that the school principal, Dina Popa, and faculty enjoy broad latitude to adjust coursework to best serve students during the construction delays.
Transportation logistics a hurdle for STEM students also taking college classes
Beyond the disruption to class work, the move from Central Hower to Robinson CLC has caused some STEM parents to speak out, both during the initial period of public input and now, after the move has been finalized and students are in classrooms.
Kellie McKay, whose son, Caden, is a senior at STEM High School, is unhappy about the move away from the University of Akron’s campus and the stress the distance has added to students.
“STEM was unique in its physical attachment to the University of Akron, and now you’ve broken that,” said McKay, whose son has been in the program since the fifth grade.
McKay said the move has presented logistical issues for students that she doesn’t believe were thought through prior to the move. Her son now has to rely on public transportation to commute from Robinson CLC on 4th Avenue near South Arlington Street to the University of Akron’s campus.
Robinson said his administration works with Akron METRO RTA to ensure there’s a bus traveling every hour from Robinson CLC to the University of Akron.
Costs central to move from Central Hower
Robinson said the decision to move STEM High School from Central Hower was in motion prior to his hiring in the summer of 2023. The University of Akron offered APS a 20-year lease for $1 per year — if the district assumed all maintenance costs for the building, which opened in 1975.
Robinson and APS Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Steven Thompson said maintenance costs were too high. Thompson said it would’ve cost $18 million over a decade to maintain Central Hower — $4 million of which would have been covered by the University of Akron.
That would have left APS on the hook for roughly $14 million over a decade.
“If it weren’t for that, we’d still be there, but it was just not cost effective to stay there,” Thompson said. “There was no choice other than move somewhere, and we tried every avenue possible. And Robinson [CLC] made the most sense.”
For the superintendent, the move solved another district problem — declining enrollment and empty buildings. Under state law, public school districts with empty school buildings must offer to sell or lease those buildings to charter schools.
Initially, the district explored moving STEM High School to Garfield CLC in Firestone Park. That plan was axed after pushback from parents. The district then explored moving the high school to Robinson CLC.
The district is asking voters to pass a pair of levies this November.
Retrofitting Robinson CLC proving expensive for district
Transforming Robinson CLC from an elementary school to a high school comes with its own costs.
The district’s initial estimates for the project were between $500,000 and $1 million. The final budget was set at $2 million, but the retrofitting has gone over budget.
Thompson said the current costs of the project are $2,498,000.
“But what we also have to look at is this was a very big cost savings move on the part of the district because Robinson is our building, so we’re not having to pay to fix a building that’s not ours,” Robinson said.
“Central Hower is not our school building. Robinson is.”