An Akron Public Schools’ parent told a teacher their pre-kindergarten child arrived home with soiled pants.
“It looked dry and smashed, like it had been there a while.”
Another child in the pre-kindergarten program, according to a teacher, climbed in a sink during a bathroom break to reach a soap dispenser. Stools had been ordered but not delivered.
“Almost none of the children can reach the soap. The floor is constantly wet and slippery.”
Emails provided to Signal Akron — written by at least six teachers — show a number of complaints about the roll out of the new full-day pre-kindergarten program. The initiative, which debuted on Sept. 3 across the district, works specifically with 4-year-olds and is an addition to the district’s previous half-day pre-K programming. Teachers’ names were redacted to protect their identities because they were not authorized to comment to publicly.
“Because of the lack of staffing, they were being required to supervise way too many students by themselves,” said Akron Education Association President Pat Shipe.
“It was causing real safety concerns.”
The pre-kindergarten program, which serves more than 400 students enrolled across full- and half-day programs, serves as a point of emphasis for Superintendent Michael Robinson with the goal of boosting early literacy rates and correcting pandemic-era learning losses.
The district approved the full-day pre-kindergarten program in March, alongside the redistricting plan. This left a bit more than five months from its passage to the first day of full-day pre-kindergarten.
“Since I arrived in Akron, this has been a mission of mine,” Robinson said in a February press release.
Teachers raised the alarm about issues in the early weeks of the program, which primarily center around staffing and safety.
They include:
- A lack of paraprofessionals in classrooms, repeatedly leaving teachers with classes of 15 or more students and no assistance
- Staffing shortages causing children to go for long periods without their diapers being changed
- Facilities lacking accessibility features, causing children to climb into sinks, creating a safety hazard.
Classrooms contain students with identifiable mental and physical disabilities and those without readily identifiable disabilities. Each classroom is supposed to be staffed by one teacher and at least one paraprofessional, who is a certified and licensed teaching assistant.
Teachers ask for meeting with faculty union
Recently, many of the teachers in the full- and half-day pre-kindergarten classes called for a meeting with union representatives to voice a litany of concerns, said Shipe, who added that nearly all of the teachers raised issues about the program.
When asked, the district did not provide paraprofessional staffing data. A public records request filed on Sept. 12, asking for those figures, was not fulfilled by the time of publication.
“At APS, the safety and security of our scholars is our top priority,” wrote district spokesperson Mark Williamson in an email in response to a question from Signal Akron about the pre-K staffing levels.
“Staffing in our Early Learning Program adequately meets the requirements for licensing ratios. We are staffed appropriately to meet all of our operational standards.”
When pressed for a response on the specific allegations, the administration did not address them directly. Instead, it again said that staffing levels meet state standards and that student safety is a district priority.
“Our top priority is and will always be the safety and security of our scholars,” Williamson said after being asked to address the individual issues raised by the teachers. “Our pre-k program is fully staffed to meet the needs of our children. Further, we encourage our teachers to notify an administrator should they have concerns.”
Ohio’s guidelines for pre-kindergarten programs state that, for 4-year-old students, there must be a ratio of 14 students to one staff member. Maximum group sizes are limited to 28 students. For 3-year-old students, there can only be 12 students for each staff member, and group sizes are limited to 24 students.
In Akron schools, diapering exacerbating staffing issues
Though APS requires students accepted into the pre-kindergarten program to be potty trained, it’s not unusual for students with physical and mental disabilities to need assistance using the bathroom or to still be in diapers
“Every time a child needs to use the facilities or be changed, an adult is leaving the classroom,” one teacher wrote in an email.
Several emails provided to Signal Akron show diaper checks and changes are among the most common issues being raised by teachers.
“Because they’re short-staffed on paraprofessionals, [the teachers] started seeing problems with children not being diapered in a timely fashion or at all,” Shipe said.
An email from a teacher recounted a parent complaint about a child who went home with what appeared to be soiled pants, “like it had been there a while.” The teacher said her assistant checked students’ diapers six times that day, with one check being “very severe.” The teacher said one of the assistants was pulled from the classroom to help with diaper changes elsewhere in the building.
“We were unable to notice he needed changed and did not get to her child,” the teacher wrote. “We feel terrible, but this probably would not have happened if we had proper staffing at all times.
“There are several times a day when my assistant takes a child to the bathroom to be changed and I am left alone with a larger amount of children than the state recommends.”
Another teacher, who also complained about a lack of consistent paraprofessional assistance in their classroom, said two students need to be changed twice a day. One is developmentally delayed and the other is in a wheelchair.
“They have us changing them in the teacher workroom on a cot, right next to where we eat and take our breaks,” the teacher wrote. “This has been brought up several times, especially that it is not right for the students’ dignity or the staff using the room.”
Union president says school district’s response falls short
On Sept. 9, Shipe emailed a list of concerns voiced by pre-kindergarten teachers she represents to Jennifer Douglas, supervisor of the district’s early learning program. The email outlined concerns with diapering students, teachers struggling to provide proper supervision and individualized care due to a lack of staffing, issues around supervision before students enter the classroom and after dismissal, and a lack of teacher lunch breaks and planning periods.
“Received, thank you,” Douglas replied.
Shipe said in the past, issues with new program rollouts were dealt with collaboratively between the administration and the union. That is not the case with the current alleged issues in the pre-kindergarten program.
“Now, it’s complete silence,” Shipe said, “and I think you’re seeing the results of that.”