Akron Public Schools voting tonight to limit public notice to pass redistricting plan

Two years after revising its redistricting policy to require more public involvement in the process, the Akron Public Schools board is being asked to walk some of those changes back — and quickly — to allow for the passage of the new redistricting plan.

The board will hold a special meeting Wednesday to vote on a revision of the board's "Assignments Within the District" policy. Immediately after, the board has a vote scheduled on the redistricting plan.

The administration presented the board's legal contracts and board policy committee Monday with a draft of the resolution. A staff member told the board it was necessary to approve the changes to allow the redistricting plan to pass this week.

The revisions to the policy include eliminating the requirement that the board "shall provide notice" to "the public" regarding proposed changes to boundary lines for schools, which determine students' building assignments each school year. That will be changed to require the district to notify only parents of current students in the buildings that would be affected, not the general public or possible future parents and students of that school.

The revisions also remove a key time element in the notification process, which requires the public to have a 30-day notice ahead of the board's first, second and third readings of a resolution that would change a school's boundary lines.

The board's president said the intent is to maintain the spirit of the policy to engage the public without tying the board's hands to an unrealistic timeline.

But two years ago, the board added the timeline specifically to make sure the public had enough time to engage in the process.

Policy changes, such as the one made two years ago, usually go through the committee in a months-long process of discussions, edits and consultations with attorneys before coming to the full school board for three readings. To pass the revised policy Wednesday with two days' notice would have to happen under an "emergency" provision in the board's bylaws that allows the normal process to be skipped if there is a threat to students' or employees' safety or welfare.

Staff members said moving the policy forward as an emergency is necessary because students and families need to know now where they are going to school next year, and the administration needs to prepare for needs like transportation and technology ahead of next school year.

But at least one board member asked for a clearer explanation about why the change was needed.

Board member Rene Molenaur, who chairs the policy committee, said it was hardly a "courtesy" to bring the measure before the committee when it was already going to be put on the agenda for a special meeting Wednesday.

"I appreciate that it went through [legal] counsel, but it hasn't gone through the public," she said. "The committee is the public. And the part of the policy here that's striked out is the part that involves the public. So that's what I would really like to hear explained — why."

Molenaur, along with board member Barbara Sykes, expressed further frustration that whoever had written the amended language was not at the committee meeting to explain it, and they requested an attorney be present at Wednesday's meeting.

Last week, the board was set for a final vote on the redistricting plan until board members received an email at about 1:45 p.m. saying the item was being pulled from the agenda. Superintendent Michael Robinson said that night there was a concern about whether the process had complied fully with the board's policy.

After Monday's committee meeting, Robinson said the administration had followed the policy: "In fact, we did way more than we were supposed to."

When asked why the policy then needed to change, Robinson said that had been answered in the meeting and declined to answer further questions.

Board President Diana Autry said the concern was over the 30-day timeline of notice ahead of the first reading of the redistricting plan. While the district had done extensive community outreach about the plan, dating back to last fall, she said, the plan had changed since then, particularly the addition of the closure of Robinson Community Learning Center as an elementary school. The policy, she said, wasn't clear on whether changes to the plan required it to go back to the community with another 30 days of notice before another first reading by the board.

"We certainly engaged the community, that's been very evident .... The policy, the way it's written, it's just not clear, do we start over with a first reading?" she said. "In that case, I don't know if we would ever get around to voting on it."

At least 30 days have passed since the administration released its plan to relocate STEM High School into the Robinson Community Learning Center building, but the board had already done its first reading of the legislation by then. The first reading was on the Jan. 22 board agenda.

The second reading — listed as an "amended" plan that now included the relocation of STEM to Robinson — was held Feb. 12.

The district held a meeting at Robinson on Feb. 9, but notice only went out to parents, and it was not listed on the district's redistricting webpage as other meetings had been.

The author of the policy from two years ago, former board president N.J. Akbar, said Tuesday he was not criticizing the board, but as the writer of the policy, the timeline in the policy was intentional and key to making the process equitable.

"It gives parents an adequate amount of time to provide a response that will inform the board's decision," he said. "Anything less than the 30 days is inadequate."

Small changes, he said, should not be a problem under the policy and would not require starting over with 30 days of notice and a first reading. But if a new building is now part of the plan, he said, the policy is written so that it would require starting the process over to give the parents of that building and the people in that community the same full chance to voice their thoughts.

"The timeframe is the essential component of that policy," he said.

Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: APS board to review emergency policy change to pass redistricting plan