Lakewood Observer: "With Better Management, Schools Can Stay Open"

by Dan Kirk

The Board of Education and the district are entrusted to manage the school system. With good management, there can be seven elementary schools—preserving our neighborhood schools and safeguarding them for our future. With enrollment stabilizing, classroom sizes projected to equalize starting with the 26-27 school year, little financial benefit, and an overarching lack of transparency, our question remains: Why are we still discussing closing an elementary school?

In fact, why did we even start the discussion in the first place? We have been told by the superintendent that “nothing is on fire”, “there is no emergency”, “this process isn’t taking place because of school finances” and “the passing of a new levy will need to happen regardless”. Convening a task force and asking them to review possibilities of expanding Pre-K by closing an elementary school wastes task force members’ time and brain power because it’s unclear what the impetus was in the first place. The Lakewoodites on the task force who I have spoken to are talented, intelligent, hard-working individuals. We could be using their commitment to provide support, guidance and perspective on a specific issue or problem and to figure out a better solution. Yet, with enrollment stabilizing, nothing on fire, and a wide group of supporters from new immigrants to Lakewood graduates extolling the virtues of preserving seven neighborhood schools at board meetings, it’s hard to understand why the task force has been asked to evaluate six predetermined options for closing and repurposing a school or schools.

Speaking of the recommendation process… how does it work? This is a question that Preserve Lakewood Schools has posed to the school board and superintendent, and spent a good deal of time trying to understand. In short… there doesn’t seem to be an established process. For example, it would seem as if the three scenarios for closing multiple schools have been taken off of the table, but the task force didn’t explicitly vote on that elimination. Who interpreted the work of the task force by removing those scenarios? The consultant? Superintendent? Board of Education? Is this the process they will follow for the final recommendation? It lacks clarity and transparency. The members of the task force and community deserve a better explanation!

Convening a task force, without clearly articulating the problem for them to solve and instead providing them predetermined solutions, is a management failure of our school district’s leadership. The parents and concerned citizens of Lakewood have been speaking out and telling said leadership that this is not the course of action we want to see happen. When Preserve Lakewood Schools met with district leadership and two members of the board of education in person on March 11, we were hopeful to receive answers to our questions. Instead, most concerns went unaddressed as we were persuaded to stop using the word “closure” (even though they are attempting to close a school) and asked to not talk about how this process could put future funding of the school district in jeopardy. Would well-planned leadership attempt to close a school right before asking parents and citizens to vote to increase their tax rates? And why wasn’t our offer to help market the school district to attract new students acted upon? Lakewood is one of America’s most walkable school districts. It’s a slam dunk marketing strategy.

We also can’t forget the new justification that the district has started to use in an attempt to shift the goalposts. That of the federal and state funding cuts and attacks on our public education system. You see, the district’s new argument goes something like this: ‘The state of Ohio may in the future attempt to force Lakewood to close one of our elementary schools. So to counter them, we better beat them to the punch and close one first!’ Makes little sense. Instead we should all be united to fight against such attacks on our public schools. They say that a house divided cannot stand, so why did our school district’s leadership establish a process that is sowing division? Notably, the process began with a clear distinction that only Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Grant were on the chopping block, which essentially caused parents from the four other elementaries to disengage. The ones speaking up and holding the district and board accountable are being painted as the bad guys.

Even worse, the school district has wasted our tax dollars by hiring two outside consulting groups. One to create scenarios using outdated information, and the other to run the task force, with no specific process for how a recommendation will be made. That’s a lot of money spent on consulting for something that should be as simple as listening to our community, keeping our 7 elementary schools open, and putting more energy into marketing our great school district.

Dan Kirk is a concerned parent and member of Preserve Lakewood Schools.

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