AKRON, Ohio — Holding signs that read "Save Pfeiffer" and "Keep Your Promise," several kids, parents and teachers chanted and stood up for a 108-year-old school that's home to about 200 students.
Many at a rally that took place Tuesday afternoon outside Pfeiffer Elementary know the school's days are numbered.
The Akron Public School District has plans to demolish it eventually, but the exact timeline for the teardown hasn't been announced yet.
Brittany Fenwick, whose daughter is finishing up second grade, attended the rally.
"My daughter comes home every day like, 'Mom, they're trying to take Pfeiffer away from us and not give us a school,'" Fenwick said.
A few years back, the school board approved a plan that Pfeiffer and another school, Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts, would be rebuilt on the site where the former Kenmore High School once stood.
Demolition of Kenmore has been going on for a few months.
Councilwoman Tina Boyes said the promise made by he board to rebuild Pfeiffer is very important to many in the Kenmore community.
"When they voted to replace those two schools on that campus, the whole community rallied behind it," Boyes said.
However, in recent weeks, a funding issue has been revealed that has put the project in question.
The price tag to build the schools on the old Kenmore site has increased by $13 million, in part due to construction costs and tariffs," district officials have said.
As a result, the school board has presented new alternate plans, two of which do not include a replacement for Pfeiffer Elementary.
"This is the only elementary school left in our northern two-thirds of our neighborhood, and we're one of Akron's largest neighborhoods," Boyes said.
In one alternate option, only Miller South would be built on the Kenmore property. In the second, plans would be abandoned to build any new buildings in Kenmore, and Miller South would be moved to the Litchfield CLC property.
In either of those scenarios, Pfeiffer students would be re-zoned to other schools that are not walkable, which doesn't sit well with Fenwick.
Her daughter, like many other kids in the neighborhood, walks to school.
"It's their way or no way it seems like, and that's not convenient for everybody. I work when it's time for her to go to school so she does walk," Fenwick said.
The school board could decide to stick with the original plan and look for the additional money to pay for the project at Kenmore.
But Boyes feels there's another way. She believes there are still millions of dollars available from an income tax increase, passed by voters years ago, to pay for community learning centers (CLCs).
"To me, if there is $18 million sitting in a fund somewhere, we need to figure out how to use as much of that as possible," Boyes said.
News 5 reached out to Superintendent Mary Outley and School Board President Carla Jackson to get their thoughts on what should come next for Pfeiffer, and when a final decision could be made. As of Tuesday evening, there has not been a response from either.
