Six weeks after the head of the LeBron James Family Foundation told members of the Akron Board of Education they had broken her trust by questioning the success of the I Promise School, the two groups reiterated their support for one another at a joint meeting.
“We’re committed to Akron Public Schools for the long haul,” said Michele Campbell, the executive director of the foundation. “When you’re at your lowest of lows, you need partners that believe in you. We’re going to have high highs and low lows. No matter what, we value our partnership with all of you.”
School board members and Superintendent Michael Robinson praised Campbell and the foundation for the work they’ve done at I Promise School and in the community. The breakfast meeting, at the foundation-owned House Three Thirty, was a chance for Campbell to tell school leaders about the extent of the work the group is doing — from the housing it has built for I Promise families and community members to the under-construction HealthQuarters project, a medical center scheduled to open in May.
In December, Campbell addressed the board during public comment, saying elected officials harmed I Promise students when they expressed disappointment with standardized test results last summer.
“What this board put our students and families through is deplorable,” she said last month.
Board members, superintendent, praise I Promise school’s efforts to rethink education
Since then, two new members have joined the school board, Barbara Sykes and Summer Hall. Hall, whose brother was part of the I Promise program after their mother died, said the LeBron James Family Foundation represented hope for her family and the community.
“You know the impact that you have for those kids,” Hall said at the meeting. “I commend you for doing what you’re doing. Every day you get out there, making a difference.”
School Board President Diana Autry said she looked forward to continuing to work with the foundation while Carla Jackson, the board’s vice president, thanked Campbell and her staff for “agitating systems.”
“You are rethinking education in a way a public school would not be able to,” she said. She added that the “Ford assembly line” approach to education had to be rethought.
And Robinson, the superintendent, began Aug. 1 — after the July dressing-down by board members. He said he thought a lot of things were “misinterpreted” last year, and he told leaders that, as a student, he would have been a “prime candidate” for the I Promise School, as he struggled with reading.
“We’re not good test-takers, but we’re determined. We have the skills data says we don’t have,” he said. “If we look at them a little deeper than the numbers say, these kids have more to offer.”
Robinson said he appreciated the I Promise School’s work to rethink traditional education.
“I feel comfortable in saying our board is here to support,” he said. “Those are our kids, yours and ours.”
After the meeting, Campbell said the conversations she had were in line with what she would do with any new board. But she said the commitments between the two groups remain strong.
“We had some rough times as a family last year, but the past is in the past,” she said. “We come together for something bigger.”
