Pride runs deep in Akron at 1040 Copley Road — especially with Buchtel Community Learning Center’s football team. The program’s many accolades include back-to-back state football championships in 1987 and 1988.
Nearly four decades later, the school’s Griffin football stadium is slated to acquire a new press box.
On game days, this space is utilized by staff operating the scoreboard and tallying game statistics, by home and away football coaches communicating to colleagues on the field via headsets, and by media covering the sporting events.
“It means a lot,” Akron Board of Education member Diana Autry, a locally famous Buchtel graduate, said Monday evening about the press box upgrades. “There’s a lot of pride around athletics there.”
Upgrades are also coming to East Community Learning Center’s track and football field, and extensive repairs are underway at Kenmore Stadium, where Garfield Community Learning Center plays its home football games.
On June 9, Buchtel CLC’s press box refresh received approval from the school board. The district will contract with Hasenstab Architects for design services.
Construction could begin in spring 2026, said Debra Foulk, the school district’s executive director of Business Affairs.
More on Buchtel CLC’s football facility upgrades
Buchtel CLC’s football field received new goal posts in 2019 and new turf in 2021. The money for those upgrades, Autry said, was raised by the school’s parent teacher association.
Autry called the new press box a reward for the athletic acclaim the school brings to the city.
“I’m just happy that hopefully they’re getting something that will last for a long time,” she said.
Assistant coach Gregory Clark echoed Autry, saying the upgrades were a long time coming. Clark and other coaches have pushed for them for the better part of a decade.
“It’s something I’ve actually dreamed about,” Clark told Signal Akron. “… Positive excitement is something the whole city needs.”
The press box upgrade will include a new concession stand and restrooms. Previously, attendees had to go inside the school to use the restrooms, which Autry considered a security concern.
What are the athletic facility updates at East CLC?
At East CLC, the track will be resurfaced and the football goal posts replaced. Foulk said this work is well underway and should be completed by July.
And at Kenmore Stadium, where Garfield CLC plays its home games, a water line burst last winter, damaging the fieldhouse and parking lot. Repairs are slated to begin soon.
S.A. Comunale Co. will manage water line repairs, while Carpenter Asphalt Sealer Co. repairs the parking lot.
