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Board divided over grant-funded social worker hire; motion to send item to committee tied 3-3 and failed
Summary
Public commenters and board members clashed over whether a proposed grant-funded social worker supplants union positions; administration says the role is 100% grant-funded and nonunion while the union has filed a grievance. A motion to move the item to committee deadlocked 3-3; the personnel recommendation passed on final roll call.
Longtime staff and community members told the Akron Public School Board on Nov. 4 they feared the administration was supplanting unionized positions by hiring nonunion employees for work previously done by contracted educators.
Dan Richards, a counselor at Garfield for 28 years, said the administration's actions "contradict the narrative" of collaboration and asserted that a newly listed social-worker position had been designated nonunion, a step he called harmful to employees and to students who rely on experienced staff. "This professional licensed and certificated educator position has been designated as a nonunion role by this administration," Richards said.
Administration officials — including Yamini Atkins — told the board the APS online social-worker role is funded entirely by a supplemental, noncompetitive federal grant this year and therefore is a nonunion, grant-dependent position. Atkins said the district has met with the union and provided responses and that the district posts grant-funded roles with clear notice that funding and continuity are conditional on future awards.
Board members debated process and timing. Reverend Harrison moved to take personnel item 11.2 off the consent portion of the agenda and send it to committee for fuller review; the secondary motion to move 11.2 to committee deadlocked 3-3 and failed. After further floor discussion and roll-call voting, the personnel recommendations — including the social-worker hire tied to the grant — were approved on the floor with recorded yes/no votes and abstentions.
Administration said the social-worker position is covered by a one-year supplemental school-improvement grant ($120,000 for the program) and that the role would end when funding ceases unless future competitive grants are awarded. Board members expressed differing views on whether the district has adequately shown internal reductions before adding staff funded by grants that could later become general-fund obligations.
