AKRON, Ohio — As Akron Public Schools works on its new redistricting plan, citing shifts in students population and the need to close buildings, parents at STEM High School said they were blindsided by a new change.
"This is the first we’re hearing about it, was last week on Thursday," Lisa Shaw said. "And now we're finding out that they're going to take them and move them to the end of the district, combine them with a school that has had troubles in the past."
Shaw's son is a freshman at STEM High School, located at the former Central-Hower High School building on South Forge Street. She says families were told two months ago that students would be able to stay in the building, but now, the proposed plan she found out about last week has them moving the entire high school to East Community Learning Center a few miles down the road.
Parents and students voiced their concerns at a meeting Tuesday night.
"I think a lot of the parents have the same concerns as I — for safety and keeping the program the way that it is and making sure that our kids are feeling safe," Shaw explained.
APS currently leases the building from University of Akron. That lease is up at the end of this school year, and Superintendent Dr. Michael Robinson says the district can't afford to stay.
"There are a lot of things and logistics that would have to go into this that we would not be able to do from a fiscal perspective over time," Robinson claimed.
He assured parents during the meeting that safety is a top priority for all schools in the district, including those affected by this move.
"There would be doors that would have badges where you would have to have an employee badge to get back and forth," he said. "We're going to ensure that as much as we can that it's going to be sealed so that the kids that are in one high school remain over there and the kids that are in STEM high school remain on their side, and they would have very little affiliation with one another because they are two schools and they function totally different."
Another concern? Transportation and the distance for some students.
"Looks like I'm going to have to start sleeping at like 5 in the afternoon just to get to school on time and get my daily eight hours," STEM High School freshman Alexis Aguilar-Melendez said.
According to Alexis, his 30 minute commute on the city bus to school would turn into three hours if the district doesn't come up with another transportation option for students. His family is considering a transfer.
"We might have to stick to North [High School] even though that's not what I want," he said. "That's not the type of pathways I want to learn, but that's the only logical thing for us to do if they decide to move all the way and do nothing about the transportation."
Robinson says the district will take the concerns into consideration before presenting a final redistricting plan to the school board. The board is set to vote on the final plan next month at the first meeting on Feb. 12.