The Rotary Club of Akron had the privilege of listening to the Akron Public Schools’ Superintendent.  View the presentation by clicking here or copy and paste the link into your browser https://youtu.be/ppeD7o29Vb8
 
Born and raised in Akron and educated in Akron Public Schools (APS), Superintendent Christine Fowler Mack is an experienced school district leader whose first classroom experience was in the APS system as a teacher at Robinson Elementary School from 1989 – 1995.  Following that, Fowler Mack was a student dean and teacher leader for two years in APS.
 
Named superintendent of Akron Public Schools in 2021, Christine Fowler Mack began her leadership duties July 1, 2021. 
 
Superintendent Fowler-Mack provided the Club some information about the school system as well as some of the goals and direction the APS system is going.   With more than 4,100 teachers and staff, APS budget stands at more than $565 million. This number equates to $10,652 per student.  There are 21,113 students enrolled.  Of these 21,113 students 465.5% are Black, 31% are White, 9.3% are multi-race, 8.8% Asian/Pacific, and 4.3% Latino.  The APS system has 48 school buildings and 4 administrative/support buildings.
 
APS graduated 1140 students in 2021.  A total of 9,297 college credits were attained, 18,744 hours of internships and jobs were accomplished and there were 935 Industry credentials.
 
APS continued to embrace the Career and College Academy approach.
 
Fowler-Mack discussed the 4 core commitments of APS.  These commitments are: 1) High Quality Instruction, 2) Health and Safety, 3) Staff Support, and 4) Adaptive and Responsive Practices.  Some of the Health and Safety initiatives include mask wearing, surgical masks, handwashing, cleaning and sanitation, social distancing, transportation systems, building systems, school visitors, COVID testing, vaccination clinics, athletic and field trip engagement modifications.
 
Fowler-Mack discussed the Portrait of an Akron Public School Elementary Student as well as a Portrait of an Akron Public School Graduate.  These portraits included 5 areas: 1) Social skills development, 2) Contributions of society, 3) Strong habits of mind, 4) Real world skills, and 5) Plan for the future.
 
COVID was and continues to be a challenge to the system, but Fowler-Mack emphasized the challenge also unleashed a wave of innovation that accelerated changes improving various aspects of the APS system.
Some of the Strategies for Innovation and Improvement included the following: 1) Family Resource Centers, 2) Akron Children’s Hospital Academy of Health and Human Sciences at North High School, 3) The I Promise School, 4) College and Career Academies, 5) Stay in the Game, and 6) I: World (every student has a notebook or laptop which made the virtual learning last year more of a reality than many urban schools).
Currently in draft is an “Excellence through Equity” vision statement that will be presented to the School Board in the very near future.
 
Superintendent Fowler-Mack entertained questions from Rotarians. 
 
She also provided information of the Vaccination Clinics that are taking place - the next one is on January 14, 2022 3pm-7pm at North High School.
The vaccination is for student and staff boosters or second shots for students who received first shots through APS vaccination clinics.
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