The Akron Public Schools board picked new leadership Monday night, selecting Carla Jackson as its new president and Bruce Alexander as vice president in split votes after a contentious battle for the top position.
As expected, board member Barbara Sykes also threw her hat in the ring for president and gave a speech ahead of the roll call accusing Jackson of missing a significant number of meetings and votes over the last year.
“This community deserves a better school board,” Sykes said.
Jackson pushed back, saying she had a family illness and that she showed up and did her job.
“We all have life that happens,” she said. “I’m not derelict in duties. I show up. And I meet my responsibilities.”
Rene Molenaur also was nominated for vice president of the board.
Split votes on the school board’s leadership are rare, especially with the two candidates heavily criticizing one another ahead of the vote.
Sykes opened the speeches by saying she’d had no intentions previously of running for leadership, wanting to focus on legislating. But she said as a board member she had the obligation to “assess the needs and desires of the community.”
She also directly called out Jackson for her attendance record, saying she had missed 20% of meetings last year, guessing that represented more than 100 votes missed.
A Beacon Journal review of full board meetings from January to November last year, including regular business meetings, retreats and special meetings but excluding committees, showed Jackson missed nine of 35 meetings, about 26%.
“While dropping into the schools and interacting with the kiddos is good… it is not our primary responsibility,” Sykes said, further criticizing Jackson, who has taken pride in her “in-the-weeds” approach to being a board member.
“Maybe the plan now as president is to be a better board member,” Sykes said. “Maybe that excellence that we hear about is what the plan is now, as she (finishes) this four years of service on this board. But I can only imagine — the past is the only thing that I have to judge what I can expect from her in the future.”
Jackson fired back, saying, “I’m not just popping into schools for kiddos but for students.”
“When I speak, I speak from a lens from those same students who you say are not your constituency because they cannot vote,” Jackson said, referring to a comment Sykes made at a board retreat last month that her constituents were the parents and community members who voted her into office.
“I advocate for all students, and I also support teachers in the work that they’re doing,” Jackson said. “The teachers and students should inform our decision making. That’s the data that should divide our decision-making.”
The board voted first on Jackson’s nomination for president, which passed with yes votes from the outgoing president, Diana Autry, Summer Hall, Alexander and Jackson herself. The dissenting votes were Sykes, Molenaur and the Rev. Gregory Harrison. There was no vote on Sykes for president because the first vote for Jackson passed.
Jackson is in her fourth year on the board, the last of her first full term. She is a middle school principal of Emmanuel Christian Academy, a private Christian school that accepts vouchers.
Sykes, a former state and city legislator, has spoken out strongly against vouchers, and told the Beacon Journal in an interview last week that vouchers and state funding were a primary reason she was seeking the board presidency, hoping to further advocate against vouchers and for additional money for public schools.
Jackson has said she believes in school choice, but said in a separate interview that she would not, as president, work to stop the Akron school board’s participation in a lawsuit against the state for the expansion of its voucher program.
Alexander is the board’s longest-serving member, now in the last year of his third term. He previously served as board president in 2016.
The board honored outgoing president Diana Autry for her work over the last year, presenting her with a proclamation and a gavel.
Alexander spoke in recognition of Autry, noting she was the reason so many under-appreciated areas of the district, especially equity in athletics across Akron, had been given attention.
Autry gave brief remarks thanking the board for the proclamation.
“Anyone who knows me knows it’s all about children,” she said.
Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.