What a difference 23 months makes.
The long-awaited new construction of Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts and Pfeiffer Elementary School is experiencing cost issues before a single brick has been laid.
About $13 million worth — from $63 million in July 2023 to the most recent estimate of $76 million. District spokesperson Stacey Hodoh, in an email, blamed the cost overrun on “increased inflation, higher labor costs, and tariffs.”
Also an issue: The lag time between the two-school project gaining approval from the school board to the project beginning with the demolition of the old Kenmore High School building.
Construction is being funded through a multi-million-dollar loan, general fund dollars and federal stimulus funds. Even with those funds still available, Akron Public Schools must now decide whether it should alter the project or figure out how to raise additional funds.
“This project remains a district priority,” Hodoh said in an email.
Interim Superintendent Mary Outley and Treasurer Steve Thompson are preparing options for the board to consider at the school board’s Finance Committee meeting on Monday, May 19.
The ballooning cost estimates are hardly surprising to some board members, some of whom voiced worries about the price tag when the project was originally approved.
“I suspect that there are some cost overruns,” board member Barbara Sykes said in advance of Monday’s meeting.
The two Akron schools serve about 600 students
Construction of the two schools was scheduled to be completed within three years — in time for the 2027 school year.
Currently, Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts, located in the Sherbondy Hill neighborhood, serves about 400 students in fourth through eighth grades. And in the Kenmore neighborhood, Pfieffer Elementary serves around 200 students in kindergarten to fourth grades.
In April, workers began tearing down the old Kenmore High School after the architectural firm hired by Akron Public Schools presented plans to the school board for approval.
The plan: House both student populations in a single building. About 400 kindergarten through fifth-grade students and 400 fourth through eighth-grade students would be able to fit. The initial plan would also include a 1,000-seat auditorium.
The design firm, Prime AE, is paid a bit more than $4.5 million, which comes out of the project budget.
Joint Board of Review and its role in supporting schools’ construction project
The project’s issues come during increasingly tenuous times for federal and state education funding. The state budget is expected to be passed in early July and will likely siphon money from public schools to voucher programs for private schools.
Also, Akron’s school board recently voted to gut any mention of diversity, equity and inclusion in the district — from policies and a board subcommittee to a DEI department created in recent years — so it didn’t run afoul of a federal mandate and lose a substantial chunk of its income.
The district may be able to use some leftover funds raised to build the community learning centers under former mayor Don Plusquellic in a joint account between the district and the city. There’s about $18 million in the fund, but no decision on how the money can be used was made when the city and district in April met at the Joint Board of Review meeting.
Last November, Akron voters approved a dual levy to help fund the district and build a new North High School. No contractors or architectural firms have been hired for the North project over the past six months.
