“How can our children trust us when we say we care about them? We want them to learn, we want them to grow up and become successful, but yet we find ourselves here with a child being shot and charged with carrying a fake gun,” said Board Member Barbara Sykes during reflections at Monday’s Akron Board of Education meeting.
Sykes used her time to speak about 15-year-old Tavion Koonce-Williams – a student at East Community Learning Center who was shot by Akron police officer Ryan Westlake on April 1 after waving a toy gun – and shared her disappointment that Westlake is still a part of the Akron Police Department.
“Shame on us that we would sit here and act as if nothing has happened in this community,” Sykes said.
She also noted that “ironically,” the next town hall for Akron police chief candidate Brian Hardy will be held at East CLC.
“Shame on us and all the elected officials that say they support our children and they want our children to succeed,” Sykes said. “Shame on us!”
College preparation plan makes its way to elementary students
Leaders of College & Career Academies of Akron, a college prep program in the Akron Public Schools, shared an update on the plan for implementing the CCAA model in elementary schools.
Some of the tactical plans outlined included encouraging robust student leadership and family engagement as well as prioritizing out-of-school time, career exploration, early learning and inquiry-based learning.
“We’re going to be monitoring to make sure that we are making gains and we are doing the work,” said Mary Outley, executive director of elementary education. “We are holding ourselves accountable; then our elementary scholars will be prepared and ready to go on to the middle-school level.”
One program that has already taken off in the elementary schools is Elementary Ambassadors, which provides students with hands-on leadership experiences. Akron School Board Vice President Carla Jackson said she had visited schools and had seen firsthand that the “ambassadors are absolutely phenomenal.”
“It is amazing to see that they have pride in their school, but more importantly, that they know what the expectations are and what is happening around the school building,” Jackson said.
Board member concerned about student safety on election days
The calendar options for the 2025-2026 school year were presented to the board members ahead of their June 10 vote on calendar approval.
The board did not mention a March 14 grievance filed by Akron Education Association President Pat Shipe that claims the board failed to follow the proper procedures for negotiating potential school-year calendars. The grievance was denied by Michael Defibaugh, the district’s director of labor relations, because there was no “factual basis or evidence provided” regarding the alleged violations.
Instead, Board Member Rene Molenaur said that parents, teachers and students have been concerned about having community members “wandering” into the school buildings used for voting on election days while school is in session. Concerns included community members smoking outside and using the restrooms at the same time as students.
Molenaur said it is “great that we’re using our CLCs for the primary elections,” but she would like to see the schools closed on the day of the spring primary election, in addition to Election Day in November.
Molenaur said when she brought the issue to the table prior to the March Ohio primary election, she was told the calendar had already been approved and could not be changed.
“I’m just very concerned that we don’t even have a placeholder” for school closures during elections, Molenaur said.
Debra Foulk, executive director of business affairs, said, “At this point we are only voting on the general calendar for ‘25-’26. Just for the approved holidays and the [instructional improvement] days. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t come back and ask the superintendent to recommend it, but we will have no idea after Nov. 4 of ‘24 as to when the primary may be.”
Molenaur noted that schools are implementing a new computer system that requires school visitors to sign in with their ID, and she questioned if that would remain in place on election days if the schools are open.
Akron Public Schools brace for deficit spending next year
Chief Financial Officer Stephen Thompson summarized the district’s March financial report, which showed that current expenditures are $4.7 million more than what was forecast.
But Thompson also said, “That’s very misleading because we have about $3 million that’s ready to hit the books on tax collections.”
Because the financial report only counts what’s actually in the accounts at the time it is generated, the $3 million hasn’t been added in yet, so the final deficit number for the month “is going to change fairly dramatically in the next few days,” he said.
Other expenditures were more than $1.67 million higher than forecast, in part because insurance costs were higher than expected. Thompson said he wasn’t sure of the reason, but many of the increases were not passed down to employees because rates are frozen in the current contract.
Thompson said he’s doing the best he can to forecast where the district will be at the end of the year and “feels pretty good about where we are.” He said that spending, including pay raises in the 4% range, since last year has increased about 7.7%, or a little over $19 million.
He suspects APS will have a negative variance at the end of the fiscal year, in the $2 million range, but that $2 million, given the$370 million budget estimate overall, is a “pretty low percentage of being off.”
He said that the difference is absorbable and there will still be a positive cash carryover this year, but that the district will move into deficit spending next year.
Overall, Thompson said, the district is not in deficit spending at this point.