Superintendent's Message

Message from David W. James

(February 2012)

As I prepare for this year’s annual State-of-the-Schools speech, I’m focused on two overwhelming, and related, feelings: pride in our district’s many accomplishments and concern for impending budget cuts.

We face a $22 million deficit this year alone, and more cuts loom in the future.

Our school board postponed a planned March levy request until November, in large part to give us more time to spread our message to APS staff and parents and the community in general.

In the most basic terms: We’re doing a good job, and we want to keep it that way. APS is moving in the right direction.

We’ve improved the graduation rate and made significant reading and math progress in nearly every grade.

Overall, the district rated Continuous Improvement on the state’s report card, with 14 schools rated Effective or Excellent, the top two categories. We’ve also made strong gains in our lower-performing Impact Network Schools.

We’re a district pushing to better prepare students for the real world. In this year’s State-of-the-Schools speech, I plan to highlight college and career readiness efforts. 

I’ll be speaking in more detail about these and other accomplishments, as well as the financial reality staring us in the face, at my presentation on February 22. Click here for more information on the annual Akron Press Club event.

For those who cannot attend in person, please make time to watch. The speech will be re-broadcast on www.akronschools.com and APS 15 (Time Warner).

Sincerely,

David W. James
Superintendent