'Neighborhood glue': Kenmore fears more blight as historic high school closes with no plan

Published June 3, 2022

By Jennifer Pignolet Akron Beacon Journal

PHOTO BY PHIL MASTURZO/BEACON JOURNAL

Za'Nyiah Miller was gracing the halls of Kenmore-Garfield High School before she was born.

Her mother, Sierra Senter, was pregnant with Za'Nyiah when she was a student there, graduating in 2005 from what was then Kenmore High School.

On a late May morning, Senter sat in the same red upholstered auditorium seats where she sat as a student and watched as her daughter earned one medal after another on Senior Awards Day. Za'Nyiah's grandmothers sat behind her mother, gushing they always knew their granddaughter was smart but they didn't know just how smart.

Za'Nyiah is part of the last class of seniors to graduate from the building after more than 100 years. Kenmore-Garfield will close this summer, bringing an end to a historic pillar of the Kenmore community, at least in its current form.

What's next for the school? Read more from the Akron Beacon Journal.