Welcome Akron Beacon Journal Readers!
To all our Akron Levy bloggers:
Our work was noticed today by the Beacon Journal as part of the Levy Kickoff article! So to all those visiting our blog after reading about it there...Welcome! Feel free to read, post a comment, and tell your friends.
Third time's the charm everybody! Vote YES on Issue 6!
Our work was noticed today by the Beacon Journal as part of the Levy Kickoff article! So to all those visiting our blog after reading about it there...Welcome! Feel free to read, post a comment, and tell your friends.
Third time's the charm everybody! Vote YES on Issue 6!
posted by James Hardy at 6:31 AM
6 Comments:
I'm still undecided. I was very disturbed that the city decided to not hold classes on election day. When I have voted for operating levies it has helped to see an active, busy building filled with Akron's students. I'm not sure why classes were cancelled. I have heard a number of theories and none lead me to put much faith in our school or city leaders to make good choices regarding the schools.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I cannot offer an "official" reason behind the decision to use election day as a waiver/teacher inservice day, but I will re-state that as a teacher I think it is a very good decision to have no students in the schools for election day. To me the decision is 100% based on student safety. I have worked in buildings in which were polling places and the extra traffic is dangerous for students walking to and from school. The fact that 100's of extra people are coming in and out of buildings raises a very real and unfortunate risk. One of our goals in APS is to provide a safe learning environment for our students. I look at the schools closing as a proactive approach to ensure this safety. We have been lucky that there have not been situations in the past and I believe that our school and city leaders are simply taking action based on caution and what is best for the Children of Akron. I am happy you have had experiences with seeing "active and busy" buildings and I encourage making a call and visiting other classrooms and other buildings. You are a vested partner in our schools and you should feel comfortable in visiting them and seeing the excellence in practice. It should not just be an election day in which you visit a school, but you should feel welcome any day, providing you follow the safety procedures and check in with the school office.
Greg-
Thank you for your feedback. I am fortunate in that I can walk to my local building to vote. I had honestly not considered the extra traffic.
Your comments bring up another matter I hope will soon be addressed by the school board. Our new schools are being billed as "community centers", where a variety of activities will be held for both adults and children. We approved a constuction levy based on this concept. It seems to me that the security concerns you mention will be everyday concerns with the schools used in this way. I have my doubts that Akronites will really see the new buildings used as community centers.
My other concern is that this is a PERMANENT operating levy. Honestly, if there was an expiration date on the levy I think it would have been voted in already. I would have voted in a levy that would expire or be up for renewal in 3-5 years. I have a VERY hard time voting in a PERMANENT levy. Why does the district continue to push for a permanent levy? I have talked to several neighbors who feel the same way.
I can speak of the new Mason Community Learning Center on Exchange Street as a model building that indeed will be open to the public during the day as well as teaching Akron's Children. What is great about the new building is that it is roughly in the shape of a "Y". This is done to limit access to potions of the building while most of the building will be able to be used by the community. Without a doubt, safety issues have been addressed and we are certainly taking precautions.
To give an 'official' answer to the Election Day question, after the 2004 elections the Board was overwhelmed with complaints from parents about the enormous number of people (voters) in the buildings while their children were in the buildings. As well as enormous traffic problems both before and after school. PTAs across Akron asked if we could either take voting out of schools or make Election Day a day off for students.
The Board took action, promising that for gubernatorial and Presidential elections, we would use a teacher inservice day so the children would not be in the building.
Again, while there were no security problems in 2004, the risk of one and the large volume of people coming in and out of the building caused enough of a problem that the Board changed the schedule. Only for major election years.
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