On Monday, David James presented a new option for the final phase of the reconstruction of the Akron Public Schools. The superintendent and community leaders long have been aware that declining enrollment dictates just one more new high school can be built with local taxpayers and the state sharing the cost. The question has been how to decide the fate of the three high schools left untouched by the project: Kenmore, Garfield and North.
James pointed toward combining Kenmore and Garfield in a new building where Garfield now stands. North would survive as is for the time being, its enrollment having increased due to immigrants settling in North Hill. That leaves Kenmore residents fighting back, arguing that keeping Kenmore High School open is vital to revitalizing their neighborhood.
The trouble is, the battle for Kenmore High School is over. The rebuilding project, started in 2002 by the city of Akron and the Akron schools to take advantage of state aid, cannot afford to wait. An enrollment update in July led to a loss of $4 million in state funding. Another update, expected in October, could show a continued decline — lowering again what the state is willing to pay, now about $21 million, or about half the cost of a new high school.
The commission that runs the state rebuilding program doesn’t want to build schools that cannot be filled. For its part, the Akron district must use its current space as efficiently as possible. Unused space wastes money, which means program cuts or a trip to the ballot to seek voter approval of a tax increase sooner than planned.
Enrollment trends in Kenmore make the high school the most vulnerable in the city. It is the smallest, with 534 students. North and Garfield are substantially larger, at 827 and 722 pupils, respectively. The largest of the seven high schools is Firestone, at 1,236.
More, Kenmore is severely underused, operating at about 33 percent of capacity, the lowest share among the city’s high schools. Garfield and North are both at 51 percent of capacity. Buchtel is at 61 percent, and East, at 75 percent. Closest to full enrollment are Firestone, at 86 percent, and Ellet, at 99 percent.
With open enrollment and magnet programs, many students in the Kenmore cluster have chosen to go elsewhere. That’s understandable, even desirable from the perspective of the district maintaining a variety of special programs impossible to duplicate in each high school. Still, it does weaken the argument for keeping Kenmore open. Of the students now at the school, just 291 (or 54 percent) come from within the cluster, the lowest percentage among the high schools.
No question that the city and school district must redouble efforts to attract and retain young families by offering attractive and safe neighborhoods, good jobs and strong schools. Clear, too, is that the Akron Public Schools, currently operating under capacity, cannot afford to build schools on the hope that students will come.