LaMonica Davis has 242 children — one of her own, and 241 who walk through the doors each morning at Helen Arnold Community Learning Center.
She’s been principal of the elementary school for almost two decades. Over the years, she has boosted test scores, led a crucial shift toward new reading curriculums and developed a nurturing environment for students.
But Davis starts every day with just two goals: support each student’s well-being and lay a foundation for educational success.
“Those are my kids, those are my babies,” she said. “I see the barriers that they come to school with every day. Our task is to make sure that those barriers don’t interfere with their learning … to love them, nurture them, give them comfort and support.”
Her ability to navigate educational obstacles recently earned her the inaugural 2024 Akron Public Schools’ Principal of the Year award.
Her emphasis on community and positive culture won over both the CLC’s students and teachers.
“A lot of kids love Mrs. Davis,” said Margaret Oliver, a special education teacher at Helen Arnold. “It starts with amazing leadership. [She] shows us by personal example how to care for one another… [and] she supports anything that we do in our classroom for teaching.”
On June 24, Davis received a standing ovation at an Akron Board of Education meeting. Superintendent Michael Robinson said Davis embodied the finest qualities of an educational leader.
Said Toan Dang-Nguyen, the K-12 literacy content supervisor at APS: “LaMonica is a dynamic leader. She is a visionary.”
‘It’s not only the program, it’s really the leadership’
In 2019, Helen Arnold faced a number of challenges. State test scores placed it in the bottom 5% of all Ohio schools, where it received additional scrutiny on the state’s priority watchlist.
Davis focused on lifting this designation through educational innovation and improved student-teacher communication.
Since the school serves grades K-5, Davis pinpointed literacy as a top educational priority. To improve test scores and reading proficiency, she helped lead a successful transition to new, phonics-based teaching strategies.
The school district partnered with Neuhaus Education Center to train Helen Arnold’s educators in systematic phonics. Davis served as an enthusiastic supporter of the new program.
“It’s not only the program, it’s really the leadership,” Dang-Nguyen said. “I believe the leader has an important part in ensuring that the staff is being trained and then coming in to monitor and support them.”
Under the new curriculum, students follow structured routines to help connect letters with the sounds they represent. Instead of relying on pictures and other context clues, they learn to decode stand-alone words.
Within months of implementing the pilot program in 2020, reading abilities at Helen Arnold skyrocketed. Though the CLC had previously performed much lower than other Akron elementary schools, mid-year test scores from 2020 exceeded the district average by nearly nine percentage points.
Due to its success at Helen Arnold and other schools, the structured literacy program has since become a mandated curriculum in all APS schools and a government-encouraged, national standard.
Davis’s optimism and determination made all the difference in the program’s successful implementation.
“I don’t see anything as a challenge, because there are always going to be issues,” she explained. “We come in, we embrace the mess and we don’t take no for an answer.”
Saluting lost educator, friend: ‘That’s why this award is hers’
Davis goes out of her way to recognize and amplify the achievements of Helen Arnold’s staff. Upon receiving the principal of the year award, she dedicated it to Denise Williams, an APS educator and close friend who died in June.
“She could have retired years ago, but she chose not to,” Davis said. “She wanted to make sure to continue to give the kids what they needed. That’s why this award is hers.”
Davis noted that Williams, who taught first-graders, had a passion for bringing new reading techniques into the classroom and sharing literacy innovations with fellow teachers. Her zest for improving processes at Helen Arnold played an important role in modernizing the elementary school.
“Every time she’d learn something, she would come to school and try it out with the kids,” Davis said. “They may have come in with a low [literacy] level, but by the time they left, they were reading on grade level.”
Davis continues to honor Williams by improving children’s education. Her emphasis on community and positive culture inspires Helen Arnold’s students and teachers.
“I love my job,” Davis explained. “I love doing what I do. I love serving Akron Public Schools, and I love being there with my babies.
“They are why I get up every morning.”