APS adds 3 communication positions, but no cost estimates yet available
Akron needs to make up to $20M in cuts before next school year
The Akron Public Schools board was split Monday night on adding three new communications positions in the district, but approved the superintendent’s ask with a 4-2 vote.
The board approved adding the following positions, which had no cost estimates attached to their job descriptions:
Assistant director communications.
Video production/digital production specialist.
Communications and multimedia specialist.
The district and school board have long talked about the need for additional communications staff, and the district’s staff is smaller than many other large urban districts. But Akron is already facing the need to make up to $20 million in cuts before next school year, which could include staffing reductions.
Superintendent Michael Robinson said the district needed to beef up communications and marketing to recruit students and staff to the district.
“The reason why we are trying to re-establish the communications office is because we want to tell our own story,” Robinson told the board. “And we want to tell it proudly, and we want to tell it accurately, as it depicts who we are as a school district.”
The communications department for the last several years has mostly been one person, Mark Williamson, the director of marketing and communications, who serves as the district’s spokesman. But the district has video production staff who produce the videos on the district’s YouTube page and livestream the board meetings. The district also has contracted work to outside marketing, printing and graphics firms.
Board Vice President Carla Jackson and board member Rene Molenaur voted against the new hires. Board member Bruce Alexander was absent.
Molenaur asked questions about the cost and how it would impact the looming millions of dollars in cuts the district needs to make before next year’s budget starts on July 1, noting that was less than 100 days away.
Robinson said he did not know the cost of the new positions but said they would involve some repurposing of existing staff.
“We are working on right now looking at where we’re going to be doing those reductions or cuts in the district,” Robinson said. “That’s not information right now that we know because that’s something we’re still working on. But when we get ready to look at budget and all of that, then we can we can present that information to the board at that time.”
Jackson also asked about the cuts, and Robinson interjected, saying the cuts were irrelevant to the conversation about adding positions.
“This is not about cuts right now. We shouldn’t really be talking about cuts at this conversation,” he said. “And so that will come at a later time. But be assured that.. as we are looking at cuts, we’re balancing things, we’re reconfiguring, restructuring with what we are cutting.”
Later in the same meeting, CFO and Treasurer Steve Thompson said the cuts were essential to the district’s financial future, in addition to a levy ask.
“I think we have to be committed to making these reductions,” he said.
Jackson said she asked about the cuts because “we’re approving a position that we don’t know what the position will cost.”
“And then I can’t make an informed decision,” she said.
At the end of the meeting, Molenaur asked if the board’s finance committee could review future additions to the budget that were not anticipated. Committee chairman Job Perry said he would make sure that happened.
“If we are considering asking the community to give us money, money that some families might not have to spare, the least we can do is to ask the cost of something before we agree to buy it,” she said.