AKRON, Ohio — The Akron Public Schools Board discussed the future of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies in its schools at a school board meeting on Monday night.

What You Need To Know

  • Members of the Akron community defended DEI policies during the meeting

  • Superintendent Dr. Michael Robinson recommended to repeal several DEI measures due to risk of losing federal funding

  • Repealing DEI in Akron Public Schools will be further debated in an equity committee meeting on Wednesday

A letter sent out on Feb. 14 by the United States Department of Education gave schools across the country two weeks to stop “race-based decision making” or risk losing federal funding. 

The school board declined to vote on Akron Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Robinson’s plan to repeal DEI policies on Monday and will discuss that further in a special meeting of the equity committee on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday’s meeting will be open to the public. 

At Monday’s meeting, several community members expressed their concerns over repealing DEI in schools, including former President of the Akron Board of Education, N.J. Akbar. 

“Going through with it and repealing these policies sends a resounding message in our community that certain sections of our community do not matter,” Akbar said, “I think that’s counter to what the community wants and that’s counter to what the district actually wants.” 

Despite several community members sharing a similar stance as Akbar, Robinson encouraged the school board to repeal the policies. Robinson cited his concern that Akron Public Schools could lose most of the nearly $85 million in federal funding they’re expecting to receive this year. 

“Due to this unknown related to this directive and the risk of federal funding at this time, I do recommend to the board that we look into the process of rescinding those policies and taking those to the committee where we can further massage them and really delve into what we need to do in order to meet those obligations,” Robinson said.

Several community members like Akbar hope that at the special equity meeting on Wednesday that the board members will make decisions advocating for the community that elected them to their positions. 

“We elect our board members to stand up for us and advocate for us and that’s what we need right now,” Akbar said.