Akron Public Schools might not end up building a new school in Akron's Kenmore neighborhood after all, as costs have risen on the project to replace Pfeiffer Elementary and the Miller South School for the Performing Arts.
The project was initially estimated to cost $63 million when the Akron Board of Education approved it in 2023. The project will now cost an estimated $76 million.
The district administration blamed the increase in inflation, higher labor costs and tariffs during a Monday board finance committee meeting.
Chief Financial Officer Stephen Thompson said the district has three options:
- Move forward with the plan to rebuild a school in Kenmore to house both Pfeiffer and Miller South students.
- Build a new Miller South school, but not replace Pfeiffer; instead, Pfeiffer would be closed, and those students would be "redistricted," meaning sent to other schools across the district. This would save about $15 million total.
- Move Miller South students to Litchfield Community Learning Center and build a $40 million addition at that school, saving $36 million.
Tina Boyes, the Akron City Council member for the ward representing Kenmore, has said the district has closed more schools in the neighborhood than any other neighborhood in the district. She asked Monday why the district has waited so long to start the project. She also said not replacing Pfeiffer in her neighborhood will continue to harm its vitality, like past decisions to close schools.
"This project was promised to this community," Boyes said. "These children walk to school in our community. The loss of another school will basically send the students that are redistricted not only out of our community but out of district."
The challenge with moving forward with the current project, Thompson said, is the district has a tough budget outlook ahead of it. Its latest forecast, due to the state this month, shows APS out of money completely by the end of the 2029 school year, even after $10 million in budget cuts planned for the 2025-2026 school year and another $10 million in the following school year.
The district has updated or rebuilt 35 of its 44 buildings over the last several decades through a combination of local and state money, Thompson said. Neither Miller South nor Pfeiffer was among those, and so the aged facilities need to be replaced, officials have previously said.
Of the initial $63 million in funding earmarked to replace the Miller South and Pfeiffer schools, $40 million is coming from a loan; $15 million came from federal pandemic relief funds that were placed into the district's general budget; and $8 million was expected from about $18 million left in a local fund overseen by a joint city and school district review board.
The board had initially agonized in 2023 over the decision to replace Miller South and Pfeiffer schools, versus replacing North High School. The board voted to replace Miller South and Pfeiffer first, reasoning that the decision would benefit students attending multiple school buildings. After a levy and bond issue passed in November 2024, the district now has the funds to replace North as well.
Thompson said the district will need to look at a variety of options as it moves forward to cut costs and become more efficient. That includes conducting a host of audits and layoffs. He said the Ohio House Republicans' budget, which does not continue the Fair School Funding Plan, and uncertain federal funding are creating a challenging environment for budget planning.
"We're minus $44 million in state funding that we had predicted previous to that, that was part of the fair school funding act which is not being honored at this point," Thompson said.
The board will need to vote on the plan for the Miller South and Pfeiffer buildings at some point in the future before costs increase further.
