Akron Board of Education: Navigating Schedules, Budgets, and Community Expectations
The Akron Board of Education plays a crucial role in shaping the educational landscape of Akron Public Schools (APS). This article delves into the board's meeting schedule, the challenges it faces, and the individuals who contribute to its decision-making processes. It also addresses the district's financial constraints and the proposed measures to mitigate them.
Akron Board of Education: Structure and Function
The Akron Board of Education is the official body representing the citizens of Akron on all matters of public education. The board is non-partisan and non-sectarian. All policy issues are voted upon by board members at their regularly scheduled meetings. A simple majority of votes carries an issue. Committee chairs report at each board meeting. The board of education comprises seven members assisted by an appointed officer - the treasurer. The board president and vice president are elected from the membership at the first meeting of each calendar year.
Board Meeting Schedule
The board meets the second and fourth Monday of every month.
- Apr. Jul. Oct. Jan.
- Apr. Jul. Oct. Feb.
- Aug. Nov. Feb. Aug.
- Nov. Mar. Jun. Sept.
- Dec. Mar. Jun. Sept.
- Dec. Other Committee Meeting Dates (Jan. - Apr. Jan.
- Jan. Feb. Feb. Feb.
- Mar. Mar. Apr. Apr.
Board meetings are live-streamed in unedited form by Akron Public Schools. Our signal is communicated to YouTube, which then televises our meetings as they happen. These meetings are not edited. Due to the nature of electronic communications, there may occasionally be a technical matter that could interrupt the audio and/or visual images.
The Akron Board of Education welcomes district residents, faculty members, students and any other interested persons to its meetings. It is the goal of the Akron Board of Education for the school district and community to work together to provide a quality educational program for our students.
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The Board is the official policy-making body of the school district. It consists of seven community residents elected by voters to serve three-year terms. Board members are not paid for their work. Anyone can run for a seat on the Board providing they file a petition with at least 25 names of qualified voters residing in the district. Policies set by the Board are carried out by the Superintendent of Schools, Mrs. Andrea S. Kersten. The superintendent is a professional educator hired by the Board of Education. She acts as an advisor, informing the Board of the needs, programs, and progress of the school district.
An opportunity is provided at each board meeting for residents to address the Board with questions, concerns, or suggestions. The public comment session is intended for comment, not for question and answer. Community members may share their concerns or thoughts with the Board. Individuals who have submitted a comment card will be given a turn and should be prepared to approach the podium, and state their name and address for the record. If the speaker is representing an organization, the name of the organization should also be identified. Speakers are expected to maintain a respectful demeanor and tone with their comments. It is asked that speakers not identify individual staff members or students by name for critical comment. These matters should be directed to the Superintendent outside of this meeting during school business hours. In the interest of civility and respect of different points of view, attendees should not applaud nor boo speakers. The Board will listen to all public comment but it should not be expected that the Board will respond.
Budgetary Challenges and Proposed Solutions
Akron Public Schools must cut $11 million from its budget to avoid a financial cliff. Superintendent Mary Outley presented an outline on how she plans to do it. Staffing cuts are included in the proposed reductions. This story has been updated with additional information. Akron school leaders plan to use a combination of staffing cuts, operational changes and program reductions to eliminate an $11 million budget gap next school year. Superintendent Mary Outley presented an outline of her proposed budget reductions on Feb. 23 to school board members for consideration. The board could vote on the recommendations as soon as its March 9 meeting. The district of roughly 19,000 students must reduce its nearly $386 million budget by at least $11 million to avoid possible state oversight and exhausting its cash reserves in 2028. The school board previously approved a state-required financial forecast that reflected the $11 million cut, but Feb. 23 was the first time Outley shared the recommendations publicly.
Staffing Reductions
Superintendent's proposed staffing changes to save $6.4 million Outley, who plans to meet with district union leaders this week, did not name specific positions that may be eliminated in her recommendation. She said the person who may ultimately lose his or her job may not be the same person whose position is cut due to what’s called bumping rights under union contracts that allow employees with more seniority to transfer to a position held by a less-senior employee. She hopes most of the reductions can be made through not replacing people who retire or resign, or by moving employees into open positions.
Outley's recommendation calls for cutting:
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- 16 administrator positions, including eight retired administrators who are used to fill in for administrators on leave, a college and career academies specialist, two special education coordinators and five support administrators to save roughly $997,000. Outley also restructured three administrative positions to reduce their salary and benefits costs to save nearly $97,000.
- 13 college and career academies teachers to save $1.2 million.
- Five other teachers to save $455,000.
- At least one substitute and online mentor and reducing the budget for mentors to save $257,203.
The district also would seek to reassign 10.5 paraprofessionals to other roles not paid by the district’s main operating fund and would not fill vacant technology support specialist positions. The treasurer’s office also expects to save $88,717 by restructuring its staff.
Operational Efficiencies
Proposed operational efficiencies to cut $4.2 million Outley is asking nearly every district department to reduce its budget by 6.5% to save $1.9 million. The departments exempt from the reduction include athletics, transportation and environmental management. The district, which already has cut its overtime costs by 10%, will seek to reduce overtime even further next school year by 11.6% to save $823,000. Outley said the district still will approve overtime when needed, but supervisors are more mindful when approving it.
Other proposed changes include:
- Relying on the district’s current supply of 5,000 Chromebooks and not buying more next school year to save $1 million.
- Using district employees to provide pest control instead of an outside company to save $114,232.
- Adding energy efficiency lighting to two buildings to save $80,000.
- No longer allowing maintenance employees to drive district-owned vehicles home for an expected savings of $99,505.
- Replacing existing copper lines for building fire alarms with a wireless option to save $70,000.
- Negotiating a change in the union contract to reduce the number of hours a mechanic must be on call during student field trips to save $53,336.
Program Reductions
Proposed program reductions to save $1.85 million To save $1.4 million next school year, the district hopes to split the payment for its new math textbooks over the next two school years. Outley also has proposed to:
- Reduce available seats in the SOAR program, which provides special education instruction and related services for students, to save $105,000.
- Reduce summer programming costs by $100,000.
- Cut program support by $165,000.
- Revert to online testing (instead of paper-and-pencil testing) for the district’s cognitive abilities test to save $20,000.
- Reduce the budget for its optional 12th-grade ACT testing and its 10th-grade SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test to reflect how many students tend to participate for a savings of roughly $34,000.
Outley said the upcoming state performance audit, which is expected to be completed by this fall, also will help identify additional staffing adjustments and operational efficiencies.
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Concerns and Perspectives
Akron school board members share concerns Board member Summer Hall expressed concern about cutting so many positions needed to help students succeed. "I just don’t know if I can agree with so many things being taken away from our students that they actually need, especially if we want to keep our students and bring more students to the district," she said. Outley said she and her team have been mindful of continuing the district's academic progress and not moving backwards. "I accept the challenge to try to stay away from the classroom, but I also know that by 2028, we have to reduce our budget by $58 million and so we have to make some tough decisions," said Outley, who previously noted that personnel costs comprise 80% of district operating expenses. Board President Barbara Sykes and member Gregory Harrison encouraged residents to urge their state lawmakers to fully fund public education so school districts are not faced with making such drastic reductions. "We heard our superintendent talk about cuts, the $11 million cuts, and she is struggling. You can hear it in her voice how painful this is," Sykes said. "It’s painful for all of us." Harrison said a recent visit to the statehouse with members of the Akron-Canton Advocacy Alliance didn't give him much hope for better state funding in the future. He said lawmakers believe Ohio has too many school districts, too many buildings and too many administrators. "There is a reality that we have to face as public school districts," he said.
The School Board Race
For some, that means supporting Superintendent Mary Outley’s initiatives and exploring areas of collaboration and agreement with other board members. The school board race for Akron Public Schools features eight candidates - including three incumbents - vying for four seats. After Election Day on Nov. 4, Summit County’s largest school board could look quite different. The incumbent school board members running for reelection are Diana Autry (former board president), Gregory Harrison and current Board President Carla Jackson. In recent forums and events, candidates shared visions for Akron Public Schools. The district serves more than 20,000 students, employs more than 3,500 people across 47 schools and community learning centers and maintains an annual budget of more than $500 million. Successful candidates will join a school district that’s managing two major construction projects and facing a bleak financial outlook. School board members also supervise two employees: the superintendent and treasurer. Given the public’s familiarity with incumbent candidates, we’ll start this voting guide with the newcomers. Much of this reporting is based on a candidate forum on Sept. 30 in West Akron at St. Montgomery, the director of Finance and Budget for Summit County, recently obtained his treasurer’s license from the state. Montgomery touted his deep financial experience as an asset: With the county, he oversees a budget of more than $700 million. Looking for more election news and information? That stewardship of resources is a pillar of Montgomery’s campaign, something he said will be enhanced by his background in policymaking. Blake is a longtime Akron resident and APS graduate with a professional background in “community lending of economic development,” where she worked with prospective homeowners to secure loans. If elected, Blake said her background in finance will aid her. She said she would support Outley, the school superintendent, and make every effort to arrive at board meetings prepared. “I wouldn’t be one of those type of board members to be defiant or try to belittle my superintendent,” Blake said. Her priorities are making school board meetings shorter and diving into the district’s finances through the Finance and Capital Management committee. Blake said she would press for transparency from the treasurer’s office, which publicly presents regular financial updates, and for the district’s ongoing construction projects. Kelly is a newcomer to Akron’s politics. “Expertise and experience is important,” Kelly said. Kelly said that, if elected, she would bring transparency, integrity, honesty and leadership - with a healthy dose of listening - to a school board that several times over the past school year has been publicly divided on key issues. Jarosz is the youngest of the board candidates but no rookie to the region’s politics. Before running for the Akron Board of Education, he challenged Rep. Derrick Hall in the 2024 primary election for the Ohio House of Representatives. In his campaign messaging, Jarosz touts his student-focused nonprofit, Leadership Influencing Teen Empowerment, as a reason he’s worthy of votes. Akron school board candidate Nathan Jarosz poses for a photo while holding one of his election yard signs. Jarosz said he wants to ensure the school district’s leadership is stable, especially after premature exits from former superintendents Michael Robinson and Christine Fowler-Mack before the end of their contracts. “All of us who are running to be a school board member, we’re not running to be superintendent,” Jarosz said. Bryant is a longtime Akron teacher turned national education consultant, work that she said keeps her in schools across the nation roughly 20 days each month. “I know the system,” Bryant said. “I was a part of the system and did it. Regarding the budget, she said she wants to use data to identify areas that could be cut. “When you look at schools, they have systems,” Bryant said. “And if the leadership is not working, that’s where you start. If elected, Bryant said she would ask fellow school board members to take a leadership style survey, which would then be available for school district administrators. Akron Board of Education President Carla Jackson listens to a discussion at the May 5 special session where a vote was taken to reaffirm the appointment of Mary Outley as the district’s superintendent. “I have to be a voice for the voiceless,” Jackson said. She said student empowerment would take the form of promoting entrepreneurship. Jackson acknowledged there’s been turmoil over the past year among school board members, and learning to navigate seven different elected officials with seven different personalities has been a major on-the-job lesson for her as the board’s president for the last 10 months. “This is how we will move the district forward,” Jackson said. Akron Board of Education member Gregory Harrison speaks during the meeting Nov. 25, 2024. Harrison is a graduate of Garfield CLC. He’s currently a pastor at Antioch Baptist Church and, prior to that, served in the armed forces before working for years as an officer with the Akron Police Department. “I have been questioning the use of resources for the last 10 years, the priorities of the school for the last 10 years,” Harrison said. “Not just questioning them, but actually trying to understand exactly what is going on with our children. One of his major focuses as a current school board member is ensuring public transparency around finances and decision making, both from the board and the district’s administrators. He differed from some candidates in saying that the school board, not the superintendent, sets the vision. “You have the right person for the job,” Harrison said. Harrison also advocated for equity across the district’s 47 schools and various athletic facilities, including public access to the community learning centers outside of school hours. He noted the possibility that staff would be cut over the next year, a likely outcome of the school district’s financial crunch. Akron Board of Education member Diana Autry listens during a May 5 special session where a vote was taken to reaffirm the appointment of Mary Outley as the district’s superintendent. Prior to being appointed to the Akron Board of Education in 2019 and winning a seat on the board in 2021, Autry spent years volunteering with the Buchtel Community Learning Center Parent Teacher Association and the Akron Council of PTAs. “My character and my life’s work is centered around service to children, families and my community,” Autry said. Specifically, she said she pushed former Superintendent Michael Robinson last year to recommend the school board pursue a levy - while advisors told district leadership the community would not support it. Autry was a key advocate in the prompt appointment of Outley to the superintendent role, a process that did not seek outside candidates or engage in public interviews. Given that, she’s a supporter of the district’s top leader and her initiatives. Outside of board relationships and the superintendent, Autry said she’s supportive of expanded literacy programs.
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