Thank You for making our Schools First

Thank you Akron!

This means so much to our students for their future and yours.
We thank you for your support!

Marcia Skidmore
Miller South School for the Visual & Performing Arts

APS STUDENTS THANK YOU!

THANK YOU AKRON VOTERS!!!

Off to VOTE!!!

I am leaving to go make some of the most important choices of my life. One of the easiest is to vote YES for ISSUE 6! We have stated multiple reason for supporting ISSUE 6 but I think the Mayor has simply summed it up the best in saying "It's for the children". It's agreed that adults need to figure out how to change school funding and perhaps this Election will address that as well, but right here and right now we have a chance to change our future... or better yet the future of our children. I do not have any children of my own, but I feel like every day walking into a classroom I have 21 children that I care about. Please think about these children and all the children of Akron when making the right decision and voting YES for ISSUE 6!

No Ordinary Time

As I stump for the levy, I'm finding many voters find that the students of today are very different than when they were in school. That the kids and the culture have changed drastically from what they experienced when they were growing up.

No doubt, Akron Public Schools have changed. But so has the world in which we live.

Akron has changed.

We are living in a world in which nations such as China and India spend more on education than they do on anything else. Our children are not just competing with the students in Hudson, they're going up against students from Hong Kong.

Gone are the days when a decent high school education warrented a good job and a stable career. Our job market has changed so rapidly that the 'good old days' of Akron Public and the manufacturing base in Akron have left us forever.

We are in need of a 21st century education, so we can develope a 21st century workforce. And that's exactly what Issue 6 will do.

And the culture our students experience has changed. Students are relying more on our schools for needs and services than ever before. If we can't provide those services, they turn to less positive things and we end up paying in other ways.

We need Issue 6 so we can keep our kids in afterschool programs and off the streets. We need Issue 6 so our students learn teamwork by playing a sport, and not by joining a gang. We need Issue 6 so that our kids have a place to go, when often they have no where else to turn.

When you vote, please think of the child who is working hard and beating the odds. She's doing her homework while working part-time. She's active in school and is making it on her own. You may not know her name, but she's out there. And there are many more just like her, who need Issue 6.

An APS Family

I awoke with optimism today. I am feeling very good about many things. My mom Dr. Jan Enright had a very scary medical emergency this week and it really put things in perspective for my family and me. Mom is a proud retiree from APS most recently serving as Principal at King. She is the reason I am who I am today. I remember the day I told her I wanted to be a teacher and she replied “no”. She was against me going into education without me really knowing what education was all about. Mom made me visit Crosby and Robinson and spend time with teachers before she would sign off on me becoming a teacher. I had a great time and learned so much from the likes of Jeff Moats and the late Larry Marshall.

I am so lucky to be working on my 11th year as a teacher in the Akron Schools. I love my job so much and feel so great about working with these awesome students at Mason and developing friendships with my fellow teachers. My “real” (because everyone knows teachers are not real people!) friends tease me because I have never missed a day of school. Eleven year and I have perfect attendance. I have missed a chance to play Firestone South because it was a school day. I missed a NASCAR race because of travel and it was a school day. I missed a trip to Vegas because school was in session and countless other activities with my friends. But the reality is I would rather miss that stuff because I would hate to miss the little miracles my first grade munchkins create every day.

I guess the point of this post is to say please vote yes for Issue 6. The values I have learned from my mother, Larry Marshall and Jim Modugno, and all the great teachers I have been honored to work with are what make APS special. I am but just one person who represents our great school district. As a person with 20+ more years in this system I want to be able to carry the torch that so many before have. Please vote YES and allow us to continue to move this district up and beyond.

Support Levy 6

Please consider coming out to vote on November 7th and bring a friend!!! Don't tell yourself that one vote doesn't count -- it does! Every vote counts. Have you asked your friend and neighbors if they are voting??

Consider putting a sign in your yard.
Call a neighbor, friend or relative.
Get in to vote yourself!
Email or call someone who is undecided and motivate them to help the students of Akron.
Put up a sign at work.

Every vote counts!
The kids count!
Can we count on you??

Marcia Skidmore
in the skidZone!
Miller South School for the Visual & Performing Arts

My favorite memories

What is an education? While I certainly work hard to prepare these students with skills for life - work, home, community - education is also chocked full of the memories of your youth. What do you remember? What do you want for these students?

I want students to remember a positive experience.
I want students to remember my classroom as bright and cheerful.
I don't want them to remember how they didn't have enough text books, classes were crowded.
I don't want them to remember the year they lost French and there wasn't going to be any choir.
I want students to remember the class play, art class, and band practice.
I want students to remember me.

Vote yes on Issue 6.
Keep the memories coming.

OUR Children, OUR Schools, OUR Community

I am lucky enough to live in the same community as my parents. My parents would never dream of voting no on a school levy because it affects their grandchildren. In speaking with my father the other day I asked the big question; "If you didn't have grandchildren in the area would you still vote yes?" He seemed very disappointed that I would ask that question. He told me that although his grandchildren are of the utmost importance to him, all the children in the community need a wonderful, well rounded education. He went on to discuss the importance of extra curricular programs and their impact on keeping children active and out of trouble. He also stated that someone payed for him to go to school and someone paid for his children to go to school (he didn't do it alone). My dad told me that to vote no would impact the whole community and eventually would affect the value of his home. To cast a no vote could prevent people from wanting to move to the community, to cast a no vote could cause crime to increase due to lack of quality education, to cast a no vote could leave hundreds to thousands of kids without anything to do but sit on the couch and play video games or even worse, run the streets and get in trouble. The people that work for APS have worked too hard to improve student achievement to allow these things to happen. If you listen to no one else, please listen to my dad! I am finding as I get older that he is quite a wise man!

My Favorite Teacher

I'm a Board Member, and I see this Levy though that lens most of the time because that's my job. But I'm also a fairly recent graduate of Akron Public Schools (Firestone Class of '02). And I try very hard to see the Levy from that perspective as well. And when I think of my time as a student in APS, I begin to see the impact the passage or failure of Issue 6 has on current students. Let me share a story with you that I think about often, especially when thinking about Issue 6.

We all can remember that one teacher we had that made a real difference in our lives. We can all think back to a particular grade or class where a certain teacher or school staff member took an interest in us above and beyond what was required. For me, that was my Choir teacher Mrs. Schneider.

I didn't go to Firestone because of the Visual and Performing Arts. I wasn't in the program and I didn't know much about it to be honest. I was in choir my freshman year but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. So I figured my singing career was over and I didn't give another thought.

During my Junior year of High School, my father passed away from cancer. I was 16 years old. My father had just taught me to drive, and then he was gone. Coming back to school seemed like a nightmare. I hated it. The subjects I used to enjoy began to feel like a drag on me. My grades began to slip. Coming to school was more of a chore than it should be for a person at the age.

I'll never forget stumbling through the halls one day, when Mrs. Schneider came up behind me and gave me the biggest hug and asked how I was doing. She told me to hang in there and asked if I wanted to come back to Choir for my Senior year? Come back to Choir!? It had been two years since I sang in a Choir and I didn't even know if Mrs. Schneider remembered me! She did remember me, and she cared enough to check up on me. So I said 'sure', and when I got my schedule at the end of the year, Choir had been added.

I came to realize later, that Mrs. Schneider had granted me my biggest wish and I didn't even know it at the time. Singing in the Choir for my Senior year was beyond therapeutic. I looked forward to school again. My grades went back up. I regained my confidence. I started having fun. I really believe that none of that would have been possible had Mrs. Schneider not grabbed me in the hall that day and almost demand that I join the Choir. I suspect she knew it would help me get over my loss, and get me back to being myself.

Issue 6 is about keeping the Mrs. Schneider's of Akron around for another generation of students. It's about the programs that drive students like me to want to come to school and learn. It's about people.

Without Mrs. Schneider and the Senior year I spent in Choir, I honestly don't know where I would have ended up. That one simple thing, a Choir, changed my whole perspective at that time. And as a result, changed my life.

We need to keep our Choirs, we need to keep our Mrs. Schneider's, we need Issue 6.