Two APS board members are now voting against spending stimulus dollars. One explains why.

Two Akron Public Schools board members are pushing back on the school district's plan to spend its nearly $100 million in federal stimulus dollars.

Board Vice President Derrick Hall joined board member Valerie McKitrick last week in voting against the administration's recommended spending of a small portion of the dollars. McKitrick has voted no on several previous expenditures of the dollars and has continued to decline to comment on why. The other five members of the board have continued to approve the expenditures, so they have all passed even with dissention.

Hall voted against the spending for the first time Aug. 22, rejecting a handful of expenditures like $40,000 on software licenses for career certification programs, but did not comment on his reasons at the time.

Monday, he explained in a finance committee meeting that he didn't have any problem with individual items at that board meeting or in the district's overall spending plan. However, he said, he was concerned board members don't have enough information about the district's broader strategy, including what new staff or programming was temporary and what the administration planned to keep when the federal dollars run out in two years.

"I’ve already been asked, 'Hey, wait a minute, in two years, what’s going away in two years and what are you going to keep and how are you going to make those decisions?' " Hall said. "And I have no idea."

Sustainability key with personnel hiring

That sustainability piece is especially important, Hall said, as it pertains to people the district is hiring with the federal funds who may not know if their job is temporary.

"I get that our kids need what they need and we need to make the necessary investments right now to address that but the people that we’re hiring also have families too," Hall said.

Hall said the plan also does not account for the possible impact of the district's ongoing union negotiations or priorities the board has expressed, such as the renovation of the former Kenmore high school.

"I like what’s here, but there are things that are not here that I think are important we add in," he said.

The school board voted unanimously earlier this summer on a resolution directing the superintendent to conduct a feasibility study for renovation and repurposing of the Kenmore building, which closed at the end of last school year. A draft report from that study showed the feasibility would be challenging, given limited resources and a long list of facilities needs in the district.

Funds designed to remediate learning loss

Superintendent Christine Fowler Mack said in Monday's meeting that time is also a factor, as stimulus dollars must be fully spent by September 2024.

"Dollars matter greatly but also time (matters), and the time at which we’d have these funds and our ability to execute and finish a project at Kenmore, that’s complicated," Fowler Mack said, but noted a future discussion on Kenmore is still coming.

The plan to spend the stimulus dollars, known as the third round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER), is still flexible, Fowler Mack said.

The challenge has been to address immediate needs of students and staff coming out of the pandemic while the pandemic is still ongoing and needs may change, without facing a financial cliff when the funds run out, she said.

"Our goal is to use these funds in the spirit in which it was intended to be that infusion of support, first and foremost, to remediate learning loss that occurred as an outcome of the pandemic, and to get things then accelerated toward the future in ways that we support our students and our staff members," she said.

Lower class sizes, additional counselors in long-term plan

The district has already spent about $14 million of the pot of money on continuing initiatives from the last rounds of stimulus dollars. The money went toward hiring additional counselors so every building has one full-time counselor and hiring additional teachers to lower class sizes at the elementary and middle schools to an average of 24 students.

Those two initiatives, along with additional safety and security personnel hired, are in the plans to keep long-term, at least in part, Chief Financial Officer Ryan Pendleton said.

The district is anticipating keeping about $10 million of spending related to those three items beyond the availability of the federal funding.

Fowler Mack said that doesn't mean anything is locked-in at this point for future years, but rather, "that is a part of what we see in our future moving forward."

"This is a guide," she said. "These are the things we believe, based on our data, based on our district’s needs, of all the things we could do, what it seems like it’s really important to do to make sure the needs of our students are met and that we’re positioned for the future."

Hall said it was important for board members to understand the full thinking on the future of the plan, especially as the district eyes the need for a levy as the federal relief funding depletes.

"I just want to make sure I can answer these questions, because at some point we’re going to have to pass a levy, and people are going to have their opinions about how we spent these ESSER dollars," he said.

Hall said in addition to the spending questions, he has also heard feedback in the community that the board, which has received criticism in the wake of a harsh first review of its superintendent, should just trust Fowler Mack's plan. Ultimately, he said, the board approves the budget and has to be accountable for how the district spends its money.

"I get that, I’m a trust guy. I like our superintendent," Hall said. "But at the same time, I also have to be able to explain to people that don’t understand why we’re doing what we’re doing, why we’re spending the dollars that we’re spending. That’s where I’m saying this falls short for me."

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: Two APS board members are now voting against spending ESSER dollars