AKRON, Ohio — The Akron School Board is holding a special meeting Wednesday with a plan to go into executive session to consider the "employment, dismissal, and discipline of a public employee(s) and/or official(s) and to take potential action, in open session, related to the employment, dismissal, and discipline of a public employee(s) and/or official."
The meeting at 5:30 p.m. comes in the wake of accusations that Superintendent Michael Robinson potentially violated public records law over disappearing emails.
In July of 2023, Robinson was introduced as the superintendent of APS. During his initial news conference, he proclaimed, "I am here to stay."
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He also shared his goals and a vision that appeared to stress the importance of transparency.
"It's important for me that the public knows what we're doing. The work that we're doing is not top secret," he said.
But Pat Shipe, president of the Akron Education Association, has been critical of Robinson on several fronts, most recently for what she considers to be a lack of transparency from the district's leader.
"Everything has been cloak and dagger. We're going to hide things. We're not going to give information," Shipe said.
Shipe raised concerns that Robinson potentially violated public records law by using a function of Gmail called "confidential mode" to send staff emails that disappear after a certain amount of time.
Shipe showed News 5 screenshots of emails from Robinson with content expiration dates.
"The confidential mode can disappear an email anywhere from a day to five years," she said.
Last month, the union made a public records request for emails from Robinson with confidential mode applied.
Shipe said some were received, but others were denied. She feels emails about public school business should not be vanishing.
"We believe decisions are being made that are violations to our contract. Decisions are being made that are not necessarily in the best interest of Akron Public Schools," Shipe said. "There's a reason public records laws are in place."
In a statement, APS said emails sent using Gmail's confidential mode are not destroyed.
The statement continued, "While these emails may have limitations on forwarding, copying, or downloading, records of their existence and content are retained within the district's email system. The decision to utilize Gmail's mode in certain communications was made to address the sensitivity of some discussions, including personnel matters and preliminary budget considerations."
The district statement also indicated that APS will evaluate and update communication practices to ensure they align with legal requirements and open governance.
After a three-hour executive session on Monday night, the school board announced another meeting for Wednesday.
While no names of employees are listed on the agenda for the Wednesday meeting, Shipe believes Robinson will be a topic of discussion.
"The superintendent is the board's employee and it's up to the board to address their employee and the behaviors that have been happening," Shipe said.
News 5 reached out to all seven school board members for this story but did not receive any comment as of late Wednesday afternoon.
