Akron Public Schools Exploring Funds for Waiting Building Projects

Akron Public Schools (APS) began its ambitious $800 million program to either renovate or rebuild all of its schools with joint state and local funding in 2002.

According to APS officials, the Ohio School Facilities Commission, now the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC), agreed to pay 59 percent of the cost. The remaining 41 percent would come from local money raised by a 0.25 percent increase in city income tax approved by Akron voters in May 2003. Over 30 years, the tax money collected would be used to issue and retire bonds to raise money for the construction.

At the beginning of the project, there were 58 APS schools, according to APS officials. There were also 29,251 students, according to figures presented by Superintendent David James as he updated the APS Board of Education on the master plan at a board meeting Jan. 26.

Last fall, there were 21,568 students, so there is no longer a need for 58 schools, he said. So far, 29 new schools — now called community learning centers (CLC) — have been completed, James said, with two more under construction — Firestone High School and Litchfield Middle School, which will be combined into one CLC. All of the Buchtel cluster schools have been completed, he added.

Case Elementary and Ellet High School are in the design phase, and Harris CLC is under early construction. That leaves seven schools not yet tackled, James said, for a district total of 42. Some schools have been closed due to dwindling enrollment, such as Crosby and Jackson elementary schools, and others have been repurposed, such as Essex Elementary, which is now being used as a preschool.

As the district approaches the final stages of the project, however, the money the state is providing is dwindling because of the district’s shrinking enrollment.

The OFCC has used up all the per-pupil money available for the elementary schools that have been built and has said it will fund school footage for only 1,254 more students in the other grades, said James.

But the following school projects remain: Garfield, Kenmore and North high schools; Roswell Kent Middle School; Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts; and Bettes, Firestone Park, Pfeiffer, Smith and Lawndale elementary schools, he said.

In James’ report, he said the current planning focus is on the elementary buildings, since the state money has run out for those. There are no plans to close any of the elementary schools as of now, he said.

When OFCC funding for elementary schools was available, elementary schools built with a 59 percent contribution by the state had to accommodate 350 pupils, according to OFCC guidelines. While Firestone Park now has 415 students, Pfeiffer has only 152, Smith has 119 and Lawndale has 135, James said. They might be combined into one school, he said. District officials need to review the long-term enrollment projections, he added.

In addition to the decreasing enrollment, the cost to build per square foot has risen in the past 11 years from $160 to nearly $243, James said, so any available funding does not go as far as projected earlier.

The district is now looking to 2020-21 as the final year of the state’s participation in the project, he said.

The elementary buildings could be totally locally funded, paid for with proceeds from the bonds sold to raise the local 41 percent match, according to APS officials. The city of Akron has about $50 million more bonding authority left from the 0.25 percent tax increase, said Paul Flesher, APS director of facility planning and capital improvements.

To finish all the remaining buildings would cost probably $80 million more, though, he said.

James said district officials are first looking for solutions for the elementary buildings and how to fund them and will bring proposals for them to the school board before moving on to what to do with the remaining high schools and middle schools.

By Becky Tompkins, The West Side Leader