Tito Koffa tells his grandchild, a 10th grader at North High School, to put their clothes in the wash immediately after coming home from school. Koffa is worried about them bringing bugs home from the 93-year-old building.
So it comes as no surprise that Koffa, an African immigrant who has been in the United States for a decade, is excited about the construction of a new North High School after the passage of Akron Public Schools’ levies.
“We’ve got more people coming in, I think the school is overcrowded,” Koffa, 49, said. “It will help them do better.”
A new building is on the way. On Tuesday, 57.7% of Akron voters approved an Akron Public Schools’ levy which will, in part, lead to the construction of a new North High School.
The passage of the dual levy and bond issue, the first levy APS has taken to voters in 12 years, will raise $4.4 million annually for 37 years to repay an $85 million bond — the operating levy will generate an estimated $26.4 million annually.
APS Superintendent Michael Robinson told Signal Akron he expects the new school to be finished by 2027 or 2028.
“I’m feeling a lot of relief, but I do know that we still have a road ahead of us,” Robinson said.
About 1,000 students are enrolled at North High School. The student population has boomed in recent decades with a rising immigrant population in North Hill.
New construction excites Frozan Azimi, a recent North graduate. After all, Azimi remembers school staff complaining about cockroaches and rats in classrooms.
“It’s an amazing opportunity and amazing news for the students and the staff at North,” she said.
Azimi was a first-hand witness to North’s leaking roof and falling ceiling tiles. The building has been plagued by a litany of issues that have deeply impacted the learning atmosphere and led to equity questions.
“The most important things right now are the classrooms,” Azimi said. “The students should feel safe.”
Koffa’s excitement is echoed by Honest Kivengere, a 35-year-old Ugandan immigrant with a brother in 10th grade at North High School. Kivengere also believes the school is too crowded.
The general consensus is: ‘Thank God’
Alma Kyrah-Deblasio is an English teacher at North who works closely with immigrant students.
She’s worked at the school long enough to have a student-painted mural on her wall. When the school was being considered for demolition, she let kids paint on a wall.
She said the levy passing was a pleasant surprise for her and other North teachers.
“The general consensus is: ‘Thank God,’” Kyrah-Deblasio said.
She said the students deserve a new building, one that matches the needs of the academies and pathways at the school, as well as their diverse needs.
“I think our main thing is that we’re happy for the students because they deserve it,” Kyrah-Deblasio said. “We’re really, really glad they’re not splitting up and having to go through even more trauma than they’ve already been through in getting here.”
With APS levy passed, real work begins for North Hill school
Robinson said the district will begin having conversations about the new North immediately. He expects an architectural firm to be selected by the spring or summer. He said the passage of the levy and a new North on the horizon is a “jolt of excitement” to North Hill and across the district.
“The community will have a lot of opportunities to have some say into what they would like their building to look like,” Robinson said.
The superintendent, like others in the community, has his own ideas of what the new school should include. His dream? An on-site health clinic that students and families have access to.
The inclusion of a health clinic could dovetail well with the Akron Children’s Academy of Health and Human Services at the high school. North students in that career pathway can study healthcare operations, biomedical science, allied health and early childhood education.
“When you think of the nursing pathways or allied health, they could have intentional lab space with a classroom space,” said Charles Morrison, the principal at North High School. “So that’ll be nice to have those specific areas, rather than just having one big space that has to serve both purposes.”
Morrison said he was up late on Election Day watching local results trickle in. He couldn’t go to sleep until enough votes were counted to ensure the levy passed.
“It was an exciting time this morning for sure,” Morrison added. “I think there’s a great anticipation of what can be.”