Christine Fowler Mack resigns from Akron Public Schools, board approves separation agreement
Christine Fowler Mack has resigned as superintendent of Akron Public Schools.
The school board Monday night voted 6-0, with one member absent, to approve a separation agreement with Fowler Mack that pays out the entire remainder of her contract, a total of $462,585.68.
The agreement, which was released to the Beacon Journal after the meeting, also includes a non-disparagement clause for both Fowler Mack and the board.
Fowler Mack's signature on the document is dated Feb. 5.
Mary Outley, the district's executive director for elementary education, will serve as interim superintendent.
No reason was given for Fowler Mack's resignation. The board held no discussion and made no comments about the separation during the meeting. But Fowler Mack's departure comes after nearly a year of a publicly documented fraught relationship between the board and its superintendent.
Board president says separation was 'no mystery'
Board President Derrick Hall said in a statement released after the meeting that the resignation was voluntary but came after discussion with the board.
"After careful consideration by the Board and the Superintendent, we have agreed that Ms. Fowler Mack will resign from her role as Superintendent effective March 4, 2023," Hall said. "While the Board remains appreciative of her service as Superintendent, it accepted her voluntary resignation."
After the meeting, Hall said the reason for the separation was "no mystery" and "just what was best for all parties."
"We're super excited for Christine's next chapter," Hall said. "We're also very excited about our next chapter as well here with Ms. Outley as our new interim superintendent."
Fowler Mack was not present for the meeting and did not answer a phone call seeking comment, but also released a statement through the district following the vote.
"It is never easy to leave a place we love," Fowler Mack said. "My decision to leave Akron Public Schools was made easier by my knowing the outstanding work, increased supports, scholar focus and measurable progress I was privileged to lead since I was named superintendent in 2021.
"My decision to separate at a time of such pivotal change and opportunity for APS was made with careful thought, prayer and discussions with my family. In this moment of transition for APS, I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to serve Akron's children, whose hopes for the future rest in our hands. With all my heart, I have faith that our amazing staff, families and community will remain determined, hopeful, engaged and optimistic in the district I will always call my home."
The agenda was updated at 5 p.m. to reflect the pending vote on the separation agreement, and Assistant Superintendent Tamea Caver sat in for Fowler Mack at the meeting.
Fowler Mack's resignation is effective March 4, but the board also approved appointing Outley as interim superintendent effective Tuesday. She will be paid $277.07 per work day on top of her current administrative salary, according to her interim contract released Monday night.
Per Fowler Mack's agreement, she will remain with the district through March 4 in a remote role as an "educational administrator" to aid in the transition to the new interim superintendent.
Outley, like Fowler Mack, graduated from Akron Public Schools
Outley, a 1985 Buchtel High School graduate, will become the second woman and second Black woman — after Fowler Mack — to step into the top role in Akron's school district. Fowler Mack was also a graduate of the district, from East High School, but spent the majority of her career in other districts before returning to Akron as superintendent.
Outley said after the meeting she was excited to bring her passion to the job.
"I believe in our students, I believe in our staff and I believe that we're going to move forward," she said. "And I just want everybody to stay focused on our scholars. That's what we're here for."
Hall said the board intends to have a new superintendent before next school year but has not discussed a search process. He said he hopes Outley applies for the permanent job, citing her 32 years in APS as a teacher, principal and administrator.
"She's never left. She's been here the entire time fighting for Akron Public Schools, families and children, administrators and teachers," Hall said. "We're just incredibly blessed and fortunate to have her here working side by side with us."
Fowler Mack's tenure was never smooth sailing
Fowler Mack's departure comes just 19 months into her three-year contract.
The resignation marks the end of the strained relationship between the school board and its superintendent. In her first evaluation last year, then-board President N.J. Akbar called her first year "a failure" due to a lack of leadership. The board had been working on a second evaluation of Fowler Mack for the last several months but had not completed it, Hall said, and will not be releasing it, per a clause in the separation agreement.
The board has publicly pushed Fowler Mack on several issues, including the district's long-term planning process for facilities and programming. A meeting to discuss recommendations on the plan scheduled for last week was canceled.
The board has held two closed-door sessions in recent weeks, releasing only that the subject was "personnel." The board oversees only two employees, the superintendent and the treasurer, and is in the process of searching for a new treasurer. Previous meetings that were about the superintendent's evaluation or the treasurer search were publicly stated as such.
The school board appointed Fowler Mack in April 2021. Her contract began that July as the district prepared to welcome all its students back into school buildings following a year of remote learning.
Becoming the Akron superintendent was full-circle for Fowler Mack, who graduated from Akron's East High School and started her teaching career in the district. Her father is former a school board president, the Rev. Ron Fowler.
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She left the district early in her career to chart her own course, working in Kent and the Cleveland Heights school systems before landed in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. She left there as the chief of portfolio planning, growth and management.
But her tenure at APS was never smooth sailing, as a fraught relationship with the school board led to tension that caused community leaders on multiple occasions to voice concern over the dynamic and how it would affect the direction of the district.
In her first evaluation, released about 10 months into her contract, Akbar criticized Fowler Mack heavily on a personal and professional level. He called her insubordinate, in addition to labeling her first year on the job "a failure." Two other board members, including the board's new president, also leveled strong concerns, particularly around Fowler Mack's communication with the board. The four other members of the board were largely positive in their review.
Before that, tensions had simmered for months, including around the board's delayed approval of new positions Fowler Mack proposed in her first day on the job, the process for planning to spend the district's nearly $100 million in stimulus dollars and the future of the former high school in Kenmore.
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Hall and board member Valerie McKitrick have been issuing protest votes against any item on their meeting agendas that involves spending stimulus dollars, arguing not with the items themselves but rather the clarity of the process.
Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Christine Fowler Mack resigns as superintendent of Akron Public Schools
