Just when they thought the "Fiscal Cliff" was avoided, local agencies are learning to fear the "sesquester".
Billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts will take place in Washington, if they're not averted in a deal by Friday.
Akron school board president Jason Haas says that the federal cuts would hurt an already hard hit budget, by a few percentage points.
"When you're talking about already having a deficit that's a few percentage points of your total budget," Haas tells AkronNewsNow.com, "you definitely don't want to be adding any more to it."
Haas says programs that could be cut include those funds based on poverty in the city, including some child nutrition funding.
"Direct supports to reading interventions, other programs that affect children that come from our least to-do neighborhoods," Haas says, "We're talking about even some of the child nutrition programs are funded on this."
But as in January, local school officials can only wait for how Washington politicians act, or don't act.
In action at Monday night's school board meeting, a new educational and training facility will have an Akron Public Schools component.
The Akron district has agreed collaborate at the new Summit Lake Family Opportunities Center, which is being built by the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority.
Akron schools superintendent David James says that some Kindergardeners will have classes there.
"We're going to have two Kindergarden classrooms in that facility that AMHA is constructing," James tells AkronNewsNow.com. "It'll serve the students who live in the Summit Lake area."
There will also be Head Start classes and AMHA training rooms.
The $4.3 million center will be primarily funded by federal Housing and Urban Development money, but the Akron school board agreed to spend $600,000 for its portion of the building.
James says such one-stop centers help improve education in areas like Summit Lake.
"When you look at some of our populations in the city, and the opportunity for different agencies to partner and share in some of the costs," James says, "to help improve the educational outcomes of our children."
