Students from Leggett begged Akron's school board not to close their building. It worked.

Call it a win for civic engagement.

Over the course of two meetings in three days and dozens of calls and emails, the Leggett CLC community successfully persuaded the Akron Public Schools board to leave the school alone.

A plan up for review called for Leggett's 368 students, many of whom are immigrants or come from immigrant families, to be displaced and for its building to be the new home for the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School.

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But a couple dozen speakers from Leggett, including several students and several parents who identified themselves as refugees, voiced their concerns about that plan at meetings Monday and Wednesday, begging the board not to uproot them.

At the end of Wednesday's public comment session, board President Derrick Hall said he would not be supporting any plan that included disrupting Leggett students.

There was no official vote, but other board members nodded as Hall spoke, and then walked into the crowd as it left to congratulate students, parents and teachers for successfully advocating for their school.

Students in tears following apparent decision to keep Leggett intact

Members of the crowd embraced, and teachers and parents wiped tears from their students' faces.

"I am so happy," fourth grader Giayonnie Dillard said. "I might go home and cry."

Dillard had given one of the most passionate speeches of the night, telling the board she was "putting my foot down" and would not allow them to move her out of her school. She was bullied in her previous school, she said, and at Leggett, she had friends and loved school.

"My school gives me the education I need," she said after the meeting.

Her aunt, Tiffany Taylor, who is also a substitute teacher, said the news they would be left intact was "such a relief" for her family.

"We just want to keep them on the path they're going on," Taylor said of her three children at Leggett.

Monday's victory was about saving their school, she said, but it had another benefit.

"It was also a great time for our children to speak and be heard," Taylor said. "And they were heard."

Teacher Tara Colando said it was moving hearing her students speak and advocate for their education.

"They need this safe space to remain functional," she said.

Facilities plan seeks to meet several needs in the district

The district is trying to plot its long-term future as it pertains to facilities and programming, and has several immediate needs to address. There are no easy solutions, board members have said, and many have acknowledged that in the end, someone will be unhappy.

One big need is the future home for National Investors Hall of Fame STEM High School, which currently sits on the University of Akron's campus in the former Central-Hower high school building, leased back to the district until the end of this year. District leaders expect to be able to extend the lease one more year; after that, will need a new home for the school.

STEM Middle school sits just off campus to the west, attached to the National Inventors Hall of Fame building. District leaders have proposed putting STEM High in that building instead, because of its proximity to the university campus where 30-plus students from the high school take classes for college credit.

That would mean STEM Middle would need a new home, and one proposal was to put it at Leggett. Located at 333 E. Thornton St., the school sits just south of the university campus. The district proposal included spending about $2 million to retrofit the building for the needs of STEM Middle. Administrators had not said where Leggett students would go, but the other schools in the North cluster are already overcrowded.

STEM Middle has waged its own war against being uprooted, but so far has not heard the same promise from the board that it will not be uprooted. Hall has said only that they could take a breath on the issue, as it wasn't a decision that must be made in the coming weeks.

In general, the district's elementary schools are under-enrolled. Administrators have said there are enough open seats to close 12 elementary schools. Such a plan is not on the table, but it highlights the available space, and the desire to repurpose existing facilities instead of building anew. The possibility has been floated of turning the city's former Morley Health Center building into the new STEM High, but that has a price tag of $20 million.

New buildings are under consideration for North High and in the Kenmore neighborhood, totaling over $160 million. The Kenmore building, as proposed, would hold Pfeiffer Elementary and the Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts.

But the district is running out of time on one of its funding sources. If Akron wants to use any of its $96 million in stimulus funding toward new buildings or renovations, it must move quickly, as those dollars must be spent by September 2024.

An initial proposal to make Miller South, currently a school that serves grades 4-8, just middle school grades to make it easier to move into another building also received significant pushback, and the board agreed not to support any plans that called for lopping off grade levels from the successful program.

But other than a rezoning of the sixth graders in the East cluster to East CLC starting next fall, the board has not made any other commitments, until agreeing not to disturb Leggett.

"I have been genuinely moved, I think we all have, by the community support," Hall said. "I think this is what civic engagement looks like."

Leggett Principal Greg Blondheim said he was grateful for the board's support for the school and proud of his community for speaking out. He said he hoped there could be a solution other than closing an elementary school.

"I think it would be a shame to uproot any community," Blondheim said. "All of our elementaries have strong communities just like Leggett."

Parents, teachers and students spoke out during two meetings

In both meetings this week, students stood on their tiptoes to see over the podium, held handwritten notes on lined paper and let the board hear it.

"Leggett has meant a lot to me, and I hope I've made it pretty clear that I don't want this to happen," fourth-grader Hongtala Roteain said.

Kindergartener Kamari Wright said he loved the school because he was learning to read chapter books and has a lot of friends there.

"I like my teacher because she is the best teacher," he said. "Please do not close Leggett."

Cameron Stahleker, a fourth grader with younger siblings at the school, said his teachers make him feel safe and he wants his siblings to feel that support.

"If you close Leggett they will miss all the great teachers I had," he said. "I want them to stay at Leggett. It is the best school."

Parent Siri Devi Paing, who said she is a refugee from Burma, spoke at Monday's meeting. The school has translators available, because so many immigrants send their children to Leggett. As a parent and nonnative English speaker, Paing said she appreciates the ease of the help.

"When we go somewhere, they don't understand us, and sometimes they don't know how to communicate," Paing said. "Here, when we go in and they know exactly what we need... it's easy."

She's had three boys go through Leggett and they love the school, she said.

"They love the teachers," she said. "They want to go to school every day and to learn. That's what we want to see."

Fourth grade teacher Anthony Gosmer asked the board not to break the bonds teachers have made with their students.

"You've asked us repeatedly to build relationships," Gosmer said. "We've done that, including going above and beyond building family relationships."

Kaohtaw Raman, an Akron Early College student, said her educational journey began at Leggett. Her community, the Hmong community, considers Leggett a home, she said, a place for them to come together.

"Historically, my people were displaced from war and discrimination," she said. "We have finally found a home right here in Akron."

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: Leggett community convinces Akron school board to keep school intact