Chang, the East High mascot

East Cluster Newsletter

Chang, the East High mascot

East Cluster of the Akron Public School System   •   Akron, Ohio


East High       East Middle       Barber CLC       David Hill CLC       Mason CLC       Robinson CLC       Seiberling CLC
 

Cluster
Calendar

Click on the calendar below to see a list of events relating to the schools of the East Cluster.



East Cluster Sports


News
♦ Former East basketball coach, Bobby Smith, was inducted into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame.

Emcee for the event was East grad and former East Athletic Director, Ron Linger.

♦ The Ohio High School Athletic Assoc. has also announced the preliminary division assignments for the 2024-25 basketball season.   East moves down to Division IV from Division III for both boys and girls teams.



Boys Basketball
Varsity
East 31
C.V.C.A. 76

Sat., Jan. 11
6:30 p.m.
vs. Hoban
at East

Junior Varsity
Sat., Jan. 11
5:00 p.m.
vs. Hoban
at East

Freshmen
Wed., Jan. 15
5:30 p.m.
at Buchtel

Middle School
Mon., Jan. 13
4:30 p.m.
at Innes


Girls Basketball
Varsity
East 16
Firestone 46

Mon., Jan. 13
6:30 p.m.
vs. Ellet
at East

Junior Varsity
Mons. Jan. 13
5:00 p.m.
vs. Ellet
at East

Middle School
Mons., Jan. 13
4:30 p.m.
vs. Innes
at East


Bowling
Girls
Mon., Jan. 13
4:00 p.m.
vs. Elms
at Clutch Lanes

Fri., Jan. 17
4:00 p.m.
vs. C.V.C.A.
at Spins Bowl

Boys
Fri, Jan. 17
4:00 p.m.
vs. C.V.C.A.
at Spins Bowl



Music & Drama


Instrumental Music
Band / Orchestra

Wed., Feb 12
7:00 p.m.
Akron Public Schools
High school
bands-in-the-round
at East



Thank You

Thanks to the following organizations and individuals who made contributions to the schools of the East Cluster:

Rick & Susan Haury donated $100 to the East JROTC for the John Stanley Memorial.

• The East High Alumni Assoc. donated $700 to the East JROTC for their drill meet.

DonorsChoose.org donated 5 Lego sets & 1 storage bin, valued at $315, to the L.R.C. at East for the Innovation Lab.

• The University of Akron donated a MakerBot Replicator & 3D printer, valued at $1,500, to the high school L.R.C. at East.

Zion Temple Baptist Church donated snacks, valued at $52.22, to Seiberling to be used for student incentives.

Diana Tinker donated 30 electric sharpeners, valued at $900, to Barber.

Vickie Stone donated bottled water & food items, valued at $121.82, to Seiberling to be used for student incentives.

First Presbyterian Church of Hudson donated 34 electric sharpeners, valued at $1,020, to Barber.

Michael Hayes donated $300 to the bowling teams at East.

• The David & Cheryl Venarge Fund donated the following amounts to be used for basic needs for women and children:
▪ $2,500 to David Hill;
▪ $1,000 to Barber;
▪ $1,000 to Seiberling.

Karl Warther donated 420 DQ cupcakes, valued at $2,000, to Seiberling to be used for student incentives.

Akron HOPE donated 2 3D printers & 2 Cricut cutting machines for use by the students at Mason. Value of the donation is $7,500.



Media Matters

Here is the East campus news for the week of Jan. 6.


Seiberling's Leader of the Month video for December & January emphasizes "Think, Win, Win."


The Univ. of Akron's College of Engineering has issued a series of podcasts entitled Diverse Engineering hosted by U. of A. grad, EbaNee Bond.

These podcasts celebrate the diverse voices and stories of U. of A. engineering graduates and seek to encourage more women and other underrepresented groups of students to become engineers.

Listen to the podcasts here.




State Report Cards

Every year the Ohio Dept. of Education (ODoE) issues a report card for every public school and school district in the state.

Over the years, ODoE has changed the grading system from a series of vague categories, to a letter grade, and now to a five-star rating system — the kind of rating system you might see when asked about your most recent pizza or the promptness of your latest Amazon delivery.

Here is the report card for the Akron Public School District for the most recently-completed school year. Below are the report cards for each of the East Cluster schools.

2023-24
Barber
David Hill
Mason
Seiberling
East High & Middle



Local College Info

Academic calendars

Univ. of Akron
Kent State
Stark State

Campus news

Buchtelite
Kent Stater
Stark State News

Campus tours

Univ. of Akron
Kent State
Stark State
Walsh Univ.

Admissions

Univ. of Akron
Kent State
Stark State
Walsh Univ.



 

Smoother Running at East

Thanks to a grant awarded in the amount of $100,000 to the Akron Public Schools from Dick's Sporting Goods Foundation and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the battered dirt and cinder running track at East will be excavated and replaced with a rubberized, all-weather track.   The new track will be similar to the one at Firestone C.L.C.

The grant was oficially accepted at the December 9 Board of Education meeting.

The first synthetic, all-weather track was developed in the mid 1950s, and the first time one was used in the Olympics was in 1968 at Mexico City.   So you see, East is a little behind the curve but happy to catch up.



School administration recommends

Ending Requirement
for School Uniforms

The administration of the Akron Public Schools is recommending to the
Board of Edcuation that the requirement foe school uniforms be permanently eliminated.   This would apply to students in kindergarten through grade 8.

Even if the school unifoms are no longer required, a dress code (see page 18) would still be in effect.

In recent poling, 70% of parents voted to eliminate the requirement for uniforms, while 91% of students in grades 5-8 voted to eliminate the requirement.

 


Akron Public Schools Passes
Five-year Budget Forecast

Includes $10,000,000 in cuts

At its December 9 meeting the Akron Board of Education approved a five-year budget forecast which it will submit to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

The forecast includes $10,205,558.27 in cuts for next school year alone.   This includes $1,793,993 in cuts to the Dept. of Academics and a reduction of $1,103,608 to the Dept. of Student Services.

This forecast was due to the state by November 30, but Board members, at their November 25 meeting, pushed the Administration for greater detail before it could vote to approve the measure.

Ohio school districts are required to routinely submit budget forecasts to the state in order to avoid state oversight of a district's finances.   Akron's failure to submit its forecast could have resulted in the District being placed in a category of "fiscal caution."

 


Dr. Aaron Palmer

Helping Students Sew Up
a Future Career ?

In 2015 Summa Health began offering a hands-on medical exploratory outreach with a group of the Akron Public Schools.   Since then, Summa Health's efforts have expanded to include more students from Akron Public Schools and to include additional health systems throughout Greater Akron.

That initial program has evolved into the Future Healthcare Leaders' Summit.   This year's demonstration was held at the University of Akron.

One of the doctors participating in this year's outreach is Summa neurosurgeon and East High grad, Dr. Aaron Palmer.

Here is his story as appearing in cleveland.com, and here is a report from Channel 5 News.

The photo below shows Dr. Palmer demonstrating suturing to students at this year's outreach.



Bad news

FAFSA Glitches Continue

If you are a household with a prospective college student and were planning to submit a FAFSA application soon, you may want to reset your calendar.

Due to all the glitches, shortcomings, and failures in the FAFSA online system and at its call centers, the U. S. Department of Education announced that the FAFSA application for the 2025-26 academic year will not be available until at least December 1 instead of its normal launch date of October 1.

On September 24 experts from the U. S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified before Congress as to the reasons for the problems, past and present, occurring with the FAFSA application process.

Here is some additional information about the FAFSA problems.

11/18 UPDATE:
The long-delayed 2025-26 updated FAFSA application is now available.




Polymer Academy
Seeks Young Inventors

for 17th annual Rubber Band Contest

The Akron Global Polymer Academy at the University of Akron is looking for students in grades 5-8 with elastic minds for the 17th annual Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors.

The contest is divided into two divisions:   Arts & Leisure and Science & Engineering.   The goal of the competition is to come up with a working invention or piece of art that uses at least one rubber band.

About $2,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded with the first place winners in each division earning $150 apiece, and runners-up in each division earning $100 apiece.   All entries must be postmarked no later than February 21, 2025.

For complete contest details, entry forms, and guidelines, visit the contest web site here.

 


4 Cluster schools will be

Serving Up Better Nutrition

The Akron Public Schools have been awarded a $618,422.94 grant as part of the Ohio Deptartment of Education Office of Nutrition's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.   The money is to be used to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to all students enrolled in Akron elementary schools.

This grant is subject to the guidelines of the U.S. Deptartment of Agriculture's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

It requires that each selected school offer fresh fruit and vegetables to all its students and be served in addition to the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program meal service.

The four East Cluster schools participating and the amount of their awards are as follows:

  • Barber $19,853.51
  • David Hill $15,579.49
  • Mason $20,749.67
  • Seiberling $27,436.44.



After 112 years

Farewell to Robinson

Ever since the 1912-13 school year, students have attended a Robinson Elementary, or, more recently, Robinson Community Learning Center.   However, the 2023-24 classes were the last to attend the school.   Why?

The Akron Public School's lease with the University of Akron on the Central-Hower building has expired and will not be renewed.   The latest occupants of that building, the STEM High School, needed to be relocated.

The decision was made by the administration and Board of Education for the school district to decommission Robinson as an elementary school and re-open the building this school year as the new home of the STEM High School.

Students who would have attended Robinson this year have been re-assigned to either David Hill or Mason.

NOTE: The Family Resource Center, previously located at Robinson, has been moved to David Hill.

Robinson in 2004

The above photo pictures the original Robinson building as it looked in October 2004.

 


United Way Has
Bold Goals for
Akron Public Schools

As part of its Bold Goals by 2028 initiative, the United Way of Summit and Medina wants to improve the performance of Akron Public School students.

The organization said it wants to help raise the reading scores of APS students from 40% reading at or above grade level in the 2021-2022school year to 60% in 2028.

The organization also hopes to increase four-year high school graduation rates in the districtto 90% from 82% in the 2021-2022 period.   Among graduating students, United Way's goal is for 60% to be college- or career-ready.

It will also seek to raise the percentage of students involved in extracurricular activities.

Here is a related article from the Akron Beacon Journal.



 

Valuable School Info

Some important things to know for the 2024-25 school year:

Akron Public
Schools


Cell phone policy

College & Career
Academies


Dress code changes

Home Access
Center


Kindergarten enrollment

Ohio Dept. of
Educ. & Workforce


Ohio Dept. of
Higher Education


Parents' handbook

Redistricting

Registration & enrollment

Safer Ohio School
Tip Line


School meals

School start &
end times


School supply
giveaways


School
transportation




News About
the Super

New superintendent, C. Michael Robinson

General info

State of the Schools message

Super to be
investigated


Super's New Year's
Message




Akron
Board of
Education

General info

Members

Latest
meeting agenda


Meetings
livestreamed


Board demands
more budget cuts


New Board
member selected




Standardized
Testing
info

test takers

ACT
Testing dates
& deadlines


Practice tests

Advanced
Placement

Testing dates

SAT
Testing dates
& deadlines


Practice tests

PSAT
PSAT 8 & 9 info

PSAT 10 info



Looking Ahead

College & Career

Some overlooked scholarship opportunities

College
alternatives




Some
Recent
Stories

Alternatives
to college


East marching band

Farewell to
Robinson


Gun violence

Making Akron
Possible


SAT changes

Sean Robbins

Zips Affordability Scholarship



Homework
Helpers

math students

Dictionary.com

Discovery Educ.

Homework Spot

Info Please

Khan Academy

Math.com



Aids to Deal
with Bullying

The BULLY Project

Kind Campaign

National Bullying
Prevention Center


Sit With Us

stopbullying.gov

StopCyberbullying



East
Cluster
Resources

For a list of resources helpful to residents of the East Cluster neighborhoods , click here.

where to?



Alumni
News

class reunion

East High Alumni
Association web site

Facebook
Alumni Group



Contact Us

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions regarding this web site or its contents, send us an e-mail.

East Cluster E-mail

e-mail in motion



East High       East Middle       Barber CLC       David Hill CLC       Mason CLC       Robinson CLC       Seiberling CLC
 

Reporting on the news of the East Cluster since 2002.

Hope you learned something new while visiting our web site.

Last updated:
1/11/2025

Michael T. Hayes
— Web Manager —

Site E-mail