Lakewood Observer: "Letter From Mayor Meghan George To The Community Regarding The Future Of Lakewood City Schools"

With my brother, Tim, and my dad, Tom (the honorable former Mayor of Lakewood) on graduation day. We all went through Lakewood schools. I’m an LHS graduate, former Lakewood City Academy school board member, mom to a Lincoln elementary preschooler, and current Mayor and Safety Director of Lakewood.

by Meghan George

Lakewood is a city with a high quality of life, positive momentum, and a history of providing its residents with the best in public assets and services. A bedrock of this value proposition has always been our Lakewood City Schools and their neighborhood-based model of education. In practice, that has always meant an excellent standard of learning set within walkable schools. This approach to education was the product of a long-term vision that has served our community extremely well for over a century. It is one of the primary reasons people choose Lakewood as their home.

Last year, the Lakewood Board of Education established an Elementary Planning Task Force to “explore the optimal use and maintenance of District facilities.” This task force has been provided seven scenarios for the future of Lakewood’s elementary schools; however, only one of those scenarios involves maintaining our tradition and core value of walkable, neighborhood-based education. The other six all suggest closing at least one and possibly even two of our neighborhood schools. For many reasons, I believe that this task force process is overly focused on shedding facilities and should instead be refocused on how to maintain our traditional approach to education in Lakewood.

For those who may not have a full history, in the early 2000s Lakewood City Schools undertook the creation of its 50 Year Committee. This plan was based in part on the assumption of a decrease in enrollment (which has come to fruition). The 50 Year Committee examined all factors and recommended an expansive overhaul of our school facilities. It called for “decommissioning” – closure in lay terms – of three elementary schools as a result: Madison, McKinley, and Taft. Other shifts in location and capacity were also undertaken. What that plan made clear was that enrollment would dip significantly in the future, and closure of these three schools was necessary to address the coming enrollment decline. As the name of the plan suggests, this plan was based on forecasting the next 50 years of our public school needs.

That planning process also coincided with Lakewood City Schools asking for and receiving an immense commitment and investment by our residents and taxpayers – the capital project that accompanied the 50 Year Committee included the complete rebuilding of half a dozen schools and vast renovations of the others.

While parents and the community were not enthusiastic about losing schools nearly 20 years ago, our Lakewood community answered the call and stood up for our children at that time. They put their dollars forward in a major way to pay for the capital plan. In doing so, the understanding was that this reduction in buildings would be a long-term solution for future enrollment decline, one that would lead us forward for decades. It was also understood that it would protect our walkable neighborhood model while also improving the quality of our facilities to enhance learning.

Now, not even ten years after the completion of the capital plan, Lakewood City Schools is advancing multiple options to close schools that were just built. All of the previous planning and investment by this community seems to be ignored if we decide to shut down newly built schools and abandon our neighborhood model.

I have spoken to many community members over the past few months – both parents of current school children and many others who do not directly use our schools – and the consensus is clear, that Lakewood City Schools should not consider closing schools. People logically believe that this would spell the death knell for our long-held model of neighborhood education in Lakewood and they also believe that any further closures should be the path of absolute last resort. I agree.

I also have spoken to the leadership of Lakewood City Schools and listened to their views. I want to stress that current leadership at Lakewood City Schools should be commended for maintaining a high-quality classroom education for our Lakewood’s children and for continuing to navigate a challenging state and federal education environment. But at this point, they have failed to put forward a convincing rationale for the current heavy focus on closing schools.

School officials have stated to me that financial factors are not the driving force behind the current effort to evaluate school buildings. Rather, they talk about things like logistics in moving teachers year-to-year and the variety in class sizes within grade levels. These are normal challenges in any school district. They do not call for closing schools. If schools are closed, redistricting will be required regardless; therefore, the scenario that would employ redistricting to realign students should be the sole and primary focus at this point, not closing buildings. There is nothing lost through the redistricting process, but we all know that once schools are closed, they do not come back.

We are all aware of the current chaos facing education at both the federal and state levels. This should not be a reason to throw away our long-cherished values here in Lakewood – instead, we should fight even harder to preserve them. I believe this is a time for Lakewood to keep a steady hand and not let the current winds blow us off our strongly held beliefs on education. We do not know where enrollment will be in the future – especially as Lakewood expects to add a minimum of 400 to 600 housing units in the next two to three years, and possibly many more beyond that. What we do know is that this community values our model of high quality, walkable neighborhood schools.

Lakewood City Schools must take the long view in this process. Closing neighborhood schools should be taken off the table unless and until there are no other options. We owe it to the children of Lakewood to do the right thing and keep our walkable, neighborhood school model intact and thriving.

Meghan George is an LHS graduate, former Lakewood City Academy school board member, mom to a Lincoln elementary preschooler, and current Mayor and Safety Director of Lakewood.