Akron Public Schools Superintendent Mary Outley proposed a new $11 million budget reduction plan during a board meeting Monday night that appeared to mostly avoid layoffs.
Outley said her team went back to the drawing board after initially proposing to layoff three dozen staff last month. She said they were able to find savings elsewhere, mostly around cutting open positions and holding off on purchasing things like laptops and textbooks. Holding off on purchasing new math books for a year will save more than $3 million. Budgets for individual departments will be slashed by 6.5% across the board.
"We tried to be strategic with these reductions through attrition, role consolidation and efficiencies, which brought savings without mass layoffs at this time," Outley said.
Even so, the plan includes cutting open positions and reducing six dean positions to part-time. One art therapist will be laid off as well.
The budget plan will still need to be approved by the board and would take effect next school year. In total, the district needs to cut a total of $58 million over the next three years to avoid a deficit, Outley previously said, meaning harder decisions could still come down the road.
Board Vice President Rene Molenaur said Akron is not alone in facing these problems.
"This is not an us problem, this is not an urban problem, this is not an Akron problem," she said. "We have friends who are also working really hard under the same constraints."
Districts across the state are proposing major cuts to staff, operations and buildings, including in Northeast Ohio in cities like Cleveland, Lorain, Elyria and Cuyahoga Falls.
Outley said state funding is not keeping up with the costs of educating students. The district is also missing out on roughly $33 million per year due to Akron students using vouchers to attend private schools instead of their local public school, she said.
