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Buchtel/Perkins building design approved over protests

11/19/2009 - West Side Leader
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By Becky Tompkins

DOWNTOWN AKRON — The new Buchtel/Perkins Community Learning Center will be built following the design approved Oct. 26 by the Joint Board of Review.

Despite lobbying by a community group for a new plan that would build the new school on the footprint of the current Buchtel High School to avoid losing a practice athletic field, the Akron Public Schools (APS) Board of Education at the Nov. 12 meeting approved proceeding with the plan recommended by Superintendent David James.

The boardroom was overflowing and the discussion turned rancorous after several people addressed the board in support of redesigning the $46 million building.

The approved plan calls for students to remain in the current Buchtel building while construction takes place mostly behind it, and then the old building will be torn down. The community group objected to losing the practice field behind the school and having to bus athletes to other venues for practice.

Russel Neal Jr., newly elected Akron City Council Ward 4 representative, argued that Buchtel needs good athletic facilities to attract students through open enrollment. His plan suggests keeping sixth-graders at their elementary schools and putting the Buchtel students at the Central-Hower High School swing space or at Perkins Middle School during the demolition and construction phases.

Current plans call for construction from summer 2010 to summer 2012. James explained that East High School students still will be using Central-Hower while East is being rebuilt and there would not be time to move Buchtel in before school starts in fall 2012.

Busing Buchtel students to Central-Hower during demolition and construction would cost around $3 million, James said.

Neither Perkins nor elementary schools would be satisfactory to house a high school, he said, because high schools have different academic space requirements. Buchtel would need labs for science classes, for example, so Perkins’ academic spaces would need to be retrofitted for high school classes.

Redesigning the new building would take nine to 12 extra months, James said, and demolishing the current building another year, pushing the project back two years.

The state is paying 59 percent of the cost of the basic building, with the remaining 41 percent coming from a voter-approved city income tax. The redesign costs and expense of transporting students would add $8 million to the cost, and such additional expenses must be locally funded, James said.

To come up with the extra $8 million, he said they would need to cut out more than 24,000 square feet of planned spaces by either eliminating or reducing such things as the auditorium, middle school gym, locker rooms and more.

Board members pointed out the uncertain state of APS’ finances; Treasurer Jack Pierson said in his recent five-year forecast the district was looking at a $6.6 million deficit by 2012.

The city of Akron would need to sell more bonds to raise the money, James said, noting the current poor condition of the economy.

The financial condition of the state government also is precarious, board member Kirt Conrad added, so delaying the project would put it at risk.

“There are no guarantees — the state could take that money back,” he said.

James agreed, saying, “The longer we delay, the more I’m afraid of not being able to do this.”

Board President James Hardy reminded the audience that in 2007, enrollment had dropped so low at Buchtel that the state wanted the APS district to close it.

“This board fought to keep the high school and see that it’s rebuilt new,” he said.

The community wanted to keep the large gym built in 1984, he said, so they designed the new building to incorporate it.

Athletics are very important, Hardy said, “but at the end of the day, we’re in business to educate children.” He suggested using the land at Perkins as a centralized west-side athletic site.

Shelia Smith, the board member who is the Buchtel cluster liaison, steered the discussion to the loss of students from Buchtel, saying, “No one has done anything to attract students.”

She also protested personnel placements at the school and strategic things done “not to improve Buchtel but for its demise. You have dissed Buchtel,” she said.

In the end, the vote was 5-1 in favor of proceeding with the current plan, with Smith opposed.  Board member Linda Omobien was absent.

In other business, the board approved a new contract for the treasurer following Pierson’s annual review Oct. 27. The four-1/2-year contract — from January 2011 through July 2015 — contains no change in salary or benefits, Hardy said. The only change is the length of the contract, which was changed to coincide with the superintendent’s contract term.

The board also welcomed the three new members who were elected Nov. 3 and will join the board in January: Bruce Alexander, Ginger Baylor and Lisa Mansfield.

The next APS Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Nov. 23 at 5:30 p.m. at the Sylvester Small Administration Building, 70 N. Broadway in Downtown Akron.

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