The Canton City School District is dealing with two big challenges: The students it serves — many of whom come from low-income families — are struggling academically. And aging facilities, some of more than 70 years old, aren’t up to snuff.
The district is not alone in facing these challenges. Many school districts across the state and country face similar challenges. But Canton officials say they believe they are seizing on opportunities to address those issues.
Canton School Board member Eric Resnick said a combination of factors — federal pandemic relief money, the expiration of an old bond issue, and good planning — set the district up to consolidate after years of declining enrollment. The district will close old buildings to save money and renovate some facilities while building others.
“I don’t want to say, ‘Once in a lifetime,’ but, you know, you don’t have these elements present all the time,” Resnick said.
The district put a bond issue on the ballot in the spring to fund two new elementary schools. One would be at the current location of Mason Elementary School, in the city’s Northwest side, and the other at Souers Middle School, in the Southwest part of Canton. The district says that would cause a relatively small increase in taxes, about $19 more per year for the owner of a home valued at one hundred thousand dollars. A previous bond issue recently expired.
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Ideastream Public Media
At a time when the vast majority of new levies failed in Ohio, Canton’s passed. It was close, about 51% to 49%. Just a 60 vote difference.
Paul Palomba, president of Canton’s teachers union, attributes the levy’s success to the district listening to parents’ desires to return the district to a concept it calls “neighborhood schools.” Previously, Canton’s grade configuration meant every few years, students in the younger grades changed schools. A student would go to one building for kindergarten through second grade, then a different building for third grade through fifth grade.
Palomba said consolidation and the new buildings will improve the experience for parents.
“We had roughly six transitions,” he said. “And now we can shrink that. You got your elementary, then your middle school and then high school. So now we’ve gone from about six or seven to three, and we’ve seen all kinds of studies about (the impact of) transitions and switching schools.”
Stylé Marshall, a Canton resident who has sent four children through Canton City Schools, said he’s excited to have his two youngest children attend one of the new schools, down the street from his home.
His four older children attended schools that, at the time, were new facilities, so he understands the benefits.
“I’m not going to sit here and say that the facility is newer or older determines how your child’s success is going to be the outcome,” he said. “But I think that helps with the overall, kind of, energy, for lack of a better word, around wanting to do better because, you know, unfortunately or fortunately, as Americans, when we see something new, we typically attract to it.”
Ryan Loew
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Ideastream Public Media
However, he said he worries about equity. He lives in Market Heights, in Northwest Canton, one of the wealthier parts of the city.
“The northwest end of Canton compared to, say, the southwest end or the northeast end just has better facilities at this point than, you know, the more impoverished areas,” he said.
Superintendent Jeff Talbert said the school district wants high-quality schools in every part of the district, and its facilities plan, developed with a significant amount of community input over the last several years, reflects that.
“During the pandemic, our kids became isolated,” he said. “They lost lots of opportunities. Our kids don’t have the same level of opportunities that some of our surrounding districts have. And so this gave us the ability to create spaces, to invite community in, and to create opportunities before and after school in the summer for students. And then we’ll be able to work with our partners to fill those facilities with students and community events.”
Talbert said the district recently invested millions of dollars in federal relief funds to build a new athletic center and add on to other buildings. The $19 million Bulldog Performance Center will create a 110,000-square-foot activity space at the Timken Career Tech Campus, with an indoor track, basketball and volleyball courts.
The district also been working on additions to Crenshaw Middle School, and the STEAMM Academy at Hartford Middle School (STEAMM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, music and medicine).
Assistant Superintendent Jason Dixon said the district has tried to expand its career-exploration programming through the facilities improvements. The $3.5-million addition at Crenshaw Middle School is an example of that.
“Giving kids more opportunities in that space to get exposure at the middle school level for career technical education heading into high school is just phenomenal,” he said.
Bill Sherer, the Canton City Council president, who is a member the local Ironworkers union, said he’s been thoroughly impressed with Canton schools’ efforts to help students explore different career pathways.
“So, when you think about the construction trades, the position that I’ve always taken is not every kid is going to go to college,” he said.
Research suggests that the quality of school buildings has a direct impact on the quality of education students receive. The school district has long posted low test scores and graduation rates under Ohio’s annual report cards and, prior to the pandemic, was under threat of takeover by the state.
Board member Eric Resnick said the state’s report card has never been a fair assessment of districts that serve majority-impoverished students. Resnick called it a “rigged system” that forces districts to chase test scores rather than focusing on how best to prepare students for life after school.
“And you say, ‘Well, these are just low performing schools,” Resnick said, “therefore, they (students) are not worthy of any investment to make them better.’ What are you actually saying to those kids that we serve? You’re saying ‘You’re not worthy of anything any better.’ That’s not true. Our kids are worthy of something better, and it’s our obligation to give them as much as we can.”
Resnick added that the district is trying to educate high-need students with the resources it has. Its local tax base has shrunk as Canton’s population has declined, and the school district’s enrollment has declined along with it.
When he graduated from Canton schools in 1981, the district had roughly 20,000 students, Resnick said. Now it has less than half that amount. He argued that the state’s recent expansion of funding for vouchers for private schools in the most recent state budget is an example of the state’s lack of interest in adequately funding public education.
“They (Republican leaders) are philosophically opposed to public school districts and public school district funding,” he said.
Still, state legislators, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, approved expansion of what’s known as the “fair school funding plan” in the biennial budget approved in July, which further expands funding for public schools.
The district’s next step in its facilities improvement plan is to further explore moving McKinley High School away from the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village. It had considered placing a much larger bond issue on the ballot this spring to fund a new McKinley High School downtown, along with the two new elementary schools. Talbert said that would have been too large of an ask for voters, though.
Ryan Loew
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Ideastream Public Media
Resnick said the commercial development that now surrounds the high school has created a “bad situation.”
“The access in and out of the high school is impeded,” he said. “If the Hall of Fame Village has events going on, it’s chaotic. And there’s (sports) gambling kiosks and people walking around with open containers of alcohol right up next to the school.”
Talbert and Palomba said they agree the high school needs to move. Talbert said the district wants to move the high school downtown to be close to other facilities it already has (like the Bulldog Performance Center), That would save money on the overall project.
But the cost of such a move, $80 million. would be prohibitive. Resnick said the district’s five-year financial forecast is looking stable, but increasing costs of everything from payroll to healthcare could mean the district will need voters to approve a new levy to fund operations. A bond issue to fund a new high school on top of that might be a hard sell.
Talbert said he’s confident the district will find a good solution, and that might involve finding local and state partners to help pay for the new high school.
“We’ve talked to our local legislators just about, ‘Hey, you guys are in this arena of economic development. You’re in this arena of finding creative fund raising funds to do things outside of the box,'” he said.
In the meantime, renovations to existing schools are expected to be completed next year, with the two new schools opening by fall 2026.
