University Of Akron Relocating Regional Campus to Lakewood High

LAKEWOOD, OH — The Lakewood regional campus of the University of Akron (UA) will relocate to Lakewood High School. The Lakewood Board of Education approved a lease agreement at its May 15 meeting. The new UA campus will open Aug. 1, 2017.

The Lakewood UA campus will include six classrooms and two offices and will be open from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday. The campus will open Aug. 1, 2017 and remain open through July 31, 2018.

However, instead of paying rent to Lakewood Schools, UA will donate $50,000 annually to the Lakewood High School Community Fitness Center Fund, which goes toward the creation of a new fitness center that will open in the fall.

School officials said in a press release the agreement will improve access to post-secondary educational opportunities for Lakewood High School and other area institutions. Superintendent Jeff Patterson said the agreement will help students bring down the cost of a college education by offering easy-to-access classes through the state's College Credit Plus program.

“Anything we can do to expand the opportunities for our students beyond the traditional high school classroom experience and help families make college more affordable, we embrace,” Patterson said in a statement. “We want to make our new high school spaces more available to the community, and that includes the University of Akron, Lakewood.”

The UA Lakewood leadership is hoping the move will improve its reach to high school students in the region, including Lakewood and all of Western Cuyahoga County.

"This new relationship will provide increased access to a high quality, affordable education for both college students and high school students taking college courses in Western Cuyahoga County,” said Jarrod Tudor, head of University of Akron Regional Campuses, in a statement. “We hope that this sharing of public resources proves to be a model for other partnerships between our state's universities and public school districts. We are grateful to Superintendent Patterson and Mayor Mike Summers for their cooperative efforts in bringing this ‘win-win-win’ concept to fruition."

The Lakewood UA campus is currently located on Warren Road.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch