Check out this meeting's agenda here The Akron School Board is a non-partisan elected board that helps to evaluate, determine priorities for, and distribute resources for the district go.boarddocs.com/oh/akron/Board…

The meeting started at 5:36 pm The previous meeting minutes passed unanimously

Carla Chapman (Chief Diversity Officer) said the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Committee chose four areas to focus on between 2022-25 Including culturally responsive professional practices, school climate, and resource equity . techtarget.com/searchhrsoftwa…

Carla Jackson (APS Board Member) asked what it would take to audit the master (class) schedule to manage class sizes Chapman said schedules are contractual, or are determined by administration so there isn't a clear person who's responsible

Chapman said they need to followup with staff who are not adopting equitable practices that impact student She said the status of overall district equity is "negative" of where they want to be

Rene Molenaur (board member) said equity work will never be finished and she wants these reports to be continued regularly Chapman said she intends to give regular reports

Jackson said she wants to see results from DEI initiatives to ensure that things are happening and address where and why things aren't happening Chapman said she wants to measure the impacts of DEI initiatives and how they are impacting students and clusters

Chapman said the state tracks issues including underqualified teacher and administraters She said the Human Capitol and Finance departments are submitting a plan to the state based on the data

Gregory Harrison suggested reintroducing an equity dashboard that tracks district progress for equity

Jackson asked how state data such as teacher quality, attendance and graduation rates are being used. She said tracking student success and how that compares with state data can help inform district priorities signalakron.org/akron-aps-stud…

Hall said these state tools can help inform specific help to specific clusters Chapman said this can help do a root cause analysis to determine what is actually hindering student success

Steven Keenan (APS Interim Director of Facility Services) they found three candidates to be Owner Representatives for construction of the new Miller South/Pfeiffer building in Kenmore They will monitor costs and find cost reduction strategies signalakron.org/akron-school-b…

He said that contract will be before the committee in December and in front of the board in January

The RFP for a construction manager at risk (CMR) for the building is open until December 2nd A CMR will manage construction within the predetermined budget and will cover any cost overruns. Saved money will be invested back into facilities

The CMR will help keep the project on schedule. Students are scheduled to be in the building in three years These positions are necessary because the district doesn't have the construction staff it had when building the Community Learning Centers

The overall project cost is $63 Million -$54 million will be used to construct the new building -The remaining $9 million pays for the architect, CMR, Owner Representative, and demolition of former Kenmore High School, and current Miller South and Pfeiffer

Alexander said this should be presented to the finance committee Harrison asked is the money is actually there

Michael Robinson said "the money is there" Harrison said he is concerned about cost overruns due to "the nature of construction" and asked if this budget and timeline has been approved

Robinson said the timeline and budget were approved but the CMR contract will need to be approved Chapman said the board has approved the overall project and an architect She said the board will be updated by the architect on November 25th

Keenan said they added restrooms to the $2 million dollar Buchtel Stadium press box and concession stand project and they are preparing to release an RFQ for project architects He said the project will include work based leaning for students through College and Career Academies

Keenan said Buchtel stadium lighting would cost $1.2 million He said a 100k Dicks Sporting Goods match Grant the district has applied for (not received) would go toward upgrading the East CLC football stadium including seating and track pavement

The meeting ended at 7:13 pm For more coverage check out Akron.documenters.org

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