Akron Public Schools’ administration on Monday announced a plan to cut roughly 285 positions at the district — representing about 6% of its staff budget — including dozens of teachers, in order to trim about $24 million from the budget.
While about 110 of those 285 positions will be removed via attrition — through retirements or removing vacant positions — almost 170 employees could lose their jobs if the board approves the plan at a meeting next week.
About 200 vacant and full positions, represented by the Akron Education Association, the union that represents teachers, substitutes and others, will be eliminated, according to the plan. Among those are 77 “non-certified” substitute teachers, 58 teaching staff not directly in the classroom and 66 teachers.
“We have left no stone unturned in our efforts to ensure fiscal stability and operational efficiency, all while maintaining our focus on the core of instruction and upholding high standards of excellence for our scholars,” Superintendent Michael Robinson said Monday during a board of education meeting.
Robinson said class sizes will likely increase “slightly” in the next year due to the cuts and will increase even more if a levy is not approved by voters.
The district has said it will also need increased funding to keep operations in the black in the future; It's not seen a new levy approved to fund operations since 2012. The board will need to vote next week on the exact details of a levy to put on the ballot this November, but the administration’s current request is 7.6 mills for general operations and 1.3 mills for a bond issue to build a new North High School.
Regardless of whether voters approve a levy, Robinson previously said more budget cuts will be coming in the next few years in order to “right-size” the district after years of declining enrollment.
Yamini Adkins, human capital director at APS, said the district’s plan with the cuts is to wind down additional positions that had been added with pandemic relief funding.
“Continuing to operate without identifying savings places the district in jeopardy of deficit spending and in following the fate of some other neighboring school districts, which have fallen into such status as fiscal watch and state receivership,” Adkins said.
Other positions cut include 16 of the district's 211 administrators, nine of the 70 staffers in its security department and 13 of its 133 support staff.
