Helen Arnold CLC on target for fall opening
By Kathleen Folkerth
WEST AKRON — Akron’s first new school community in 30 years is on schedule to open this fall.
The Helen Arnold Community Learning Center (CLC), an elementary school in the Buchtel Cluster, will open its doors to students Aug. 29. The school is located on Rhodes Avenue at Vernon Odom Boulevard and will serve the Lane-Field neighborhood, which has been without a school for many years.
“That was a neighborhood where we had closed a lot of the schools and a lot of the kids were bused out,” said David James, executive director of business affairs for Akron Public Schools (APS). “With our goal of maintaining neighborhood schools, we wanted to have the kids who were bused out attend school in their neighborhood.”
The school’s attendance zone is bordered to the north by West Exchange Street, east at Broadway, south at West Thornton Street to the Ohio and Erie Canal to Interstate 76/77, and west by East Avenue to Euclid Avenue to Edgewood Avenue.
APS is currently putting together
the staff and administration for the new school. LaMonica
Davis, who is currently the
principal at Portage Path Elementary School in Highland
Square, has been tapped to be principal of the new school,
according to Sue Long, assistant superintendent of curriculum
and instruction.
Long added that the teacher slots,
which most likely will be filled with current APS teachers
whose schools are closing after this school year, will
be finalized by the end of July.
The school will bring together
students who are currently bused to several Akron elementary
schools: Resnik CLC and Case, King, Voris, Rimer, Sam
Salem and Firestone Park elementary schools.
Some students attending the school
will come from Margaret Park Elementary, which will
close at the end of this school year. That building
will be used for swing space for students from other
elementary schools as the district continues to build
new schools.
Long said the challenge of taking
students from several different schools and putting
them together will be something for which the district
is prepared.
“Starting a new school is
always a challenge, but it’s a great opportunity
to come together and establish best practices,”
Long said. “How often
do you have the opportunity to build from the ground
up?”
James said it’s expected
that no students will be bused to Helen Arnold.
“They should all be able
to walk,” he said.
That has raised the concern of
some parents whose children are moving from Margaret
Park to the new school, he said.
“There are some who live
close to Margaret Park that aren’t happy that
they’ll have to go farther,” James said.
Some also have raised concerns about the safety of neighborhoods
the children may walk through, and James said the district
is working with those families.
But even though dozens of students
won’t be bused anymore, James said the district
doesn’t expect to come out ahead in transportation
costs, since students whose schools are being rebuilt
are being bused to temporary school locations.
Helen Arnold CLC has a capacity
of 452, but James said currently just about 325 students
are enrolled for the coming year. That number could
change as open-enrollment decisions are made in the
coming month.
Families living in the new school’s
boundaries were notified
in February about that fact and meetings were held,
James said.
James added that while the schools
the students are coming from will lose students to the
new school, it’s not expected to make much of
an impact.
“We won’t know until
the open-enrollment process is complete,” James
said. “Resnik is over capacity, so we were hoping
that some of those kids will go to Helen Arnold. Case
is another one that in terms of size could be affected.”
“There’s not a huge
amount from any one school as far as to make a difference,”
Long said. “The biggest group is coming from Margaret
Park.”
Helen Arnold CLC will be the third
new school to be completed under the school construction
project between APS and the city of Akron. Also opening
this fall will be David Hill CLC.
In addition to having its facilities
available to the community after school hours, the Helen
Arnold CLC is part of the new Akron Community Center
and Urban League campus. That facility is expected to
be completed this summer as well.
James said the buildings are self-contained
but the two entities have
formed a partnership so that the Urban League can use
the school’s gym or the school can use the Urban
League’s meeting rooms.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for
the new school will most likely take place sometime
after the start of the new school year, James said.
 
The Helen Arnold Community Learning
Center is located on Rhodes Avenue at Vernon Odom Boulevard
in the Buchtel Cluster. Photos:
Ken Crisafi
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