Akron Public Schools will return state money it wrongly received to purchase new reading curriculum materials.
APS initially received the funds from a pool of state dollars intended to assist school districts in purchasing programs on the science of reading. In a state survey, APS mistakenly left off its K-5 reading curriculum — Wonders 2023 — which is among the state-approved programs.
The mistake, first reported by the Akron Beacon Journal, led the district to receive more than $1 million from a pool of about $60 million intended to help districts across Ohio. The state surveyed all public and charter schools and assigned money based on responses.
Akron Public Schools issued a statement emphasizing its commitment to transparency and underlining early adoption of a science-of-reading curriculum. The district also denied that any APS employee “acted unethically or inappropriately.”
APS spokesperson Mark Williamson said the district will return the funds.
According to the Beacon Journal, the state has not announced a specific dollar amount that APS will return, but its investigation showed the district received about $800,000 in extra funding.
Gov. Mike DeWine included a mandate for school districts to adopt a science-of-reading curriculum in his recently passed budget. The new curriculum aligns teaching with brain science, which studies how the human mind thinks, remembers and learns, in an attempt to boost literacy and comprehension among students.
Ahead of the new state requirement, APS purchased Wonders 2023 in the spring of 2022 for more than $1.7 million.
