School in Youngstown breaks ground on building expansion

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A local school specializing in help students with learning issues and disabilities is looking to expand.

Ground was broken this morning for a $1.5 million expansion for the ACLD School and Learning Center on Youngstown’s lower North Side.

The facility currently has 65 students in grades 1st through 8th with various learning difficulties.
But directors tell First News they’ve been desperately looking to grow its building to accommodate the students and staff.

“We’re completely out of space in our building,” said director Erica Brown Fire. “We’ve even had some of our staff members convert closets into offices and we’re really, really stuffed in there.”

The non-profit school — which is now in its 52nd year of operation — has raised about two-thirds of the money needed for the expansion through donations from the community.

“We have our oldest kids, our 7th and 8th graders, are in a classroom with 23 kids. And they have two teachers and an intervention specialist, but for the way our program runs, it’s way too many kids,” Brown Fire said.

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