YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Akiva Academy will begin an expansion Monday, adding a separate middle school that’s projected to double its enrollment over five years.
“We’ve been in really high demand for many years,” said Lisa Long, CEO of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, the umbrella organization that includes the school. “We usually – even without marketing it – we close our enrollment within two weeks of opening it pretty much every year.”
A groundbreaking is set at 520 Gypsy Lane, the former Allen’s PharmaServe, across the street from the academy building. The pharmacy building will be renovated, and an addition will be built onto the back to become the new middle school. It’s expected to be ready for students in January.
Federation officials wanted to be able to increase the number of children, and with the state’s expansion of Ed Choice and open enrollment, Long doesn’t anticipate demand decreasing.
Akiva houses 161 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The expansion will move fifth through eighth grades into the new building. It will provide four classrooms, office space and a multipurpose area for Shabbat services. Each classroom will be able to accommodate 30 students.
Kathy Mioni, Akiva principal, said the school has more students enrolled in the primary grades, necessitating the need for more space as they advance. The school includes one section per grade, and the expansion will allow two sections per grade.
Akiva started in 1986, and in 2012, seventh and eighth grades were added in response to a survey of parents who wanted their children to be able to stay at the school.
While expanding the school had been on the wish list for a while, grants and donations allowed it to become a reality, Long said.
Alan Mirkin, a longtime supporter, former federation board president and the former owner of Allen’s PharmaServe, donated the building. The federation received a $501,000 state grant, and a $1 million capital campaign is underway – with $315,000 raised so far – to fund the remainder.
While Akiva sits in Mahoning County and the Youngstown City School District, the new middle school will be in Trumbull County and the Liberty Local School District. That means the new school will need to secure a new charter.
“We actually pull from 16 different school districts,” Long said. “So we’ve got kids coming from Columbiana County, from Mahoning. They’re coming from all over for this education.”
Consistently high state test scores and its student-to-teacher ratio draw students in.
“Since its opening, it has been a stellar educational environment,” Long said.
Mioni said the school employs a strong intervention program that begins with kindergarten.
“We don’t wait for the kids to struggle,” she said.
If a student begins to struggle academically, they’re provided extra teaching and extra practice to help them keep up.
“We have an after-school program of intervention in third and fourth grades …,” the principal said. “But we do have a strong learning support with all K-8 students that really does, I think, make a difference to really get the kids during those formative years, their really early years, to get them on a solid base.”
For middle school grades, students’ academic classes run an hour and 10 minutes.
“And then after school, we run a myriad of enrichment and academic opportunities,” Mioni explained.
That includes learning support, allowing students to complete their homework before they go home. It also includes activities such as swimming and art and theater clubs.
The school aims “to use that academic day to really emphasize the academics, but then we also understand the kids want to be with their friends, and they want to have choice in what they’re doing with their friends,” the principal said. “And so we have set up that enrichment program and the learning support, and it really does work well.”
An early-bird program provides intervention too. It’s free and provides math help to junior high students.
“I think that really does support our kids for academic success on the tests and then in high school,” Mioni said.
The majority of students continue with private school education after graduating from Akiva, with most enrolling in Ursuline High School.
Akiva Academy is open to children of all faiths, but as a Jewish day school, it teaches students Hebrew, beginning in kindergarten.
That’s an important way to combat antisemitism, Long said. Children are being educated about the religion and the culture, she said. That’s especially crucial as these same students head to college campuses a few years after completing their education at Akiva.
“So this is a move toward our mission as well, of making sure that we’re helping to curb the rise of antisemitism,” Long said.
Pictured at top: The former Allen’s PharmaServe building on Gypsy Lane.