A group of about 40 parents, teachers and students gathered outside the National Inventors Hall of Fame Middle School Thursday in downtown Akron for a a rally to try to save the school from being moved.
The district has recently proposed moving the middle school out of the building to allow for the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM High School to move into it due to an expiring lease on the high school’s current site.
It's part of a series of discussions about school facilities the district has had in recent weeks ahead of a major vote, to take place later this month, that will decide new locations for the STEM high school and potentially the STEM middle school along with it, the Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts and plans for a new North High School, among other changes. The district says it's trying to cope with rising costs of operating school buildings while the overall population is declining in most of its school buildings, outside of schools on the city's north side which are flush with refugee students.
Danielle Williams, a member of the middle school’s parent teacher association, who helped organize the protest, said parents are upset because the STEM middle school was specifically designed for the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and said they want the best for their students. The STEM school is one of the more popular and higher-performing buildings in the district, and students only get accepted via a lottery system.
Williams said a survey conducted of 85-plus parents indicated that almost 70% would move their children out of the school district if the building is taken away from them.
Parents like Amber Howe, who has a fifth- and sixth-grader at the school, said they just got their children into the school. Now it appears as if the district will take away a purpose-built facility that their children love learning in. She said she lives in Portage County, and brings them to school every day.
"It's scary, and it's not fair to the kids or the families or the teachers," she said.
One of the plans being considered by the district is to move the STEM Middle School to Leggett Community Learning Center, an elementary school about 2 miles south of the current middle school site, and provide roughly $2-3 million in renovations to the building to add in labs and other facilities that would make it more conducive to the STEM-education model. Stephen Thompson, Akron Public Schools Chief Operating Officer, has previously said the district wants to keep STEM High School downtown in order to better facilitate connections with the University of Akron, including students taking college classes and trips to nearby amenities.
Parent Danielle Williams said the location is one of the reasons why parents love the middle school.
"They're able to walk to the museum, they're able to walk to the Civic Theater, they're able to walk to Lock 3 (Park)," she said.
Samantha Shaver, the mother of a fifth-grader, said she was upset her daughter might be taken away from a facility that seems tailored uniquely to her interests.
"She loves her robot robotics class with Mr. (Perkins) Pringle," she said. "She just loves it here. She likes the architecture. I mean, this building was built for them."
The parents said they hope the district reconsiders its plans, and voiced support for a prior plan considered by the district, in which Akron Public Schools would acquire the former Morley Health Center building from the city of Akron. That building is near the current STEM Middle School. The district would then renovate it at an estimated cost of $20 million to make it into the STEM High School, keeping the middle school in its current location.
The high school currently sits in the former Central-Hower High School building, now owned by the University of Akron. The district's lease of that building expires this school year, although district officials have recently said they're working to negotiate a one-year extension.
