About Portage Path CLC

Principal: Daniel Casalinuovo
Dean of Students: Elizabeth Toppin

Portage Path is an authorized IB World School. We provide transdisciplinary instruction with an inquiry approach, and our students learn a second language – French! Find out more about the IB PYP program here.
Our teachers have an average 16 years of experience.
62% hold a master's degree or higher.
Portage Path offers ongoing testing in math and reading which guides our individual learner instruction.

Portage Path CLC Programs:

Akron After School
Reading and Math Nights
An active PTO – we are always seeking new members! Please join us.
Project THRIVE attendance and truancy reduction program

Portage Path CLC Community Partners:

Akron Children's Hospital
Kent State University
The University of Akron
United Way

History of Portage Path CLC

The original Portage Path Elementary School building was constructed in 1908. The school’s origins can be traced back to the “Portage Path,” the path used by Native Americans who journeyed from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, using the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas Rivers of Summit County as a link. These two rivers were separated by a distance of only eight miles and were connected by the "Portage Path." It followed the present Portage Path road south to Copley Road, through Perkins Woods, dropped near Manchester Road, and then ended at a landing near Long Lake. By 1850, a small stone building known as the Chestnut Grove School served as the first school in this district. By the early 1900s, the growth of the city and continued westward expansion led to the building of a new school, eventually known as the “Portage Path” school, which took its name from the famous Indian trail of so long ago.