Mark J. Price: When is a school not a school?
Mark Williamson kept me after class the other day.
The Akron Public Schools spokesman responded to my recent diatribe about “community learning centers.” I’ve never warmed up to the phrase and wish they could be called schools — like they are in most other cities in North America, and like we did for most of Akron’s history.
According to Williamson, the city wouldn’t have received the money necessary to replace most of the district’s buildings if we had called them schools. With state funding, Akron began an $800 million program in 2002 to renovate or reconstruct its buildings.
Mark J. Price:What on earth is this thing?
“When then-mayor Don Plusquellic was working on a solution to Akron‘s aging school building inventory, the average age of a school 20 years ago was between 80 and 90 years, he discovered that money from the recent legal settlement with tobacco companies could be used in a building project for new schools in Akron,” Williamson explained.
“One catch was they had to be built and designed for the community’s use and enjoyment, not just for school during the day.”
In order to use the hundreds of millions of dollars from the tobacco settlement for this purpose, there had to be another name for the buildings — one that reflected their dual purpose, Williamson noted. And voila! Community learning centers were born.
“Today, 35 CLCs later, the communities that make up our city do indeed make the most out of these community learning centers, using them thousands of times per year for a variety of events and activities,” Williamson said. “And, thanks to Mayor Plusquellic, Akron Public Schools’ average age of a building is barely into double digits.”
“Had to school ya’ on that one, Mark!” Williamson concluded.
OK, I get it. Although I still wish the buildings were called schools, I have seen the light.
From now on, I will pick up my groceries at the community sustenance center, fuel up my car at the community propellent center and do my banking at the community depository center.
Celebrity sighting in Akron
Akron librarian Mike Elliott is another one who fondly recalls the bean soup at Art’s Place. He sent a note after reading my column on “10 restaurants I miss from childhood.”
His parents, Harold and Shirley Elliott, used to bowl in a Sunday night league at Colonial Lanes on Waterloo Road in the 1970s. Afterward, the family often went down the street to Art’s Place, where Mike always ordered the delicious soup.
But that’s not the point of this item.
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One night around 1978, the restaurant was packed with customers, and Mike’s dad looked up from his meal and saw a familiar face.
“That woman over there in the booth looks like Ruth Roman,” he told his wife.
A glamorous Hollywood star, Roman (1922-1999) had appeared in several movies, including “Champion,” “Lightning Strikes Twice,” “Strangers on a Train” and “Tomorrow Is Another Day,” as well as dozens of television shows.
“Do you think that woman over there looks like the actress Ruth Roman?” Harold Elliott asked a young waitress.
“I don’t know who that is, but I’ll find out,” the server replied.
She marched over to the woman’s booth and asked her point-blank.
Yes, indeed. Ruth Roman was dining at Art’s Place. A real-life celebrity in Akron!
“The word spread like wildfire and pretty soon you couldn’t hear yourself think because of everyone talking at once,” Mike recalled. “Everybody was walking up to her booth with whatever they had at hand for her to sign, which she kindly did.”
He didn’t know it at the time, but Roman was married to Bill Wilson, a former Akron police lieutenant who had returned to town for business, and she had joined him on the trip.
“The dining room was still buzzing when the waitress brought our check,” Mike said. “With equal parts pride and mirth, she presented Dad with the check and said, ‘Do you see what we did?’ ”
Some like it hot
Diane Lazzerini of Akron mailed us a copy of her Ohio Edison bill from Aug. 21 through Sept. 20.
“I knew it was a bad summer but I had no idea it was that bad!” she wrote.
According to the comparison chart, the average daily temperature for that billing cycle in 2021 was 73 degrees. This year, it was a balmy 150 degrees, according to the FirstEnergy Corp. computation.
Whew. Talk about a scorcher. Hopefully that was Fahrenheit and not Celsius.
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: The reason Akron has community learning centers, not schools
