Akron Life September 2023

by Kelly Petryszyn and photos by Maggie Harris

Change Leader New principal Stephanie Davis steps up to the challenge of leading LeBron James’ I Promise School into a fresh era.

Akron Life

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Stephanie Davis, photo provided by LeBron James Family Foundation

“I super-duper love the tie-dyed Crocs,” says Davis, sporting thick framed brown glasses, chandelier earrings and a gray “We Are Family” T-shirt. She keeps the conversation going. Where did you go last year? Tell me something fun you did this summer. Any brothers or sisters? For the latter, the girl says she has a big and little brother. “Same-sies!” Davis exclaims and hands the girl directions she wrote on pink notebook paper, asking her to de liver it to her parents, who wait across the lobby.

It was Davis’ first official week at the I Promise School that many students enter about two grade levels behind academically. Akron native NBA superstar LeBron James, Akron Public Schools and the LeBron James Family Foundation started the unprecedented now full-capacity third-to-eighth-grade school as an extension of the I Promise student program to raise graduation rates. APS students are chosen for the school through a lottery pool of those in the lowest 25th percentile for reading and math, according to APS. About 70 percent of I Promise School students receive assistance from the Department of Job and Family

Stephanie Davis gets down to eye level. While the new I Promise School principal pulls up directions to the July 13 Meet the Principal event at House Three Thirty for an incoming student and her family, she sits down on a bench in the school’s lobby to get to know the student. She smiles and compliments the student’s pale yellow flouncy dress and rainbow Crocs.

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akronlife.com | SEPTEMBER 2023