Task Force Member Pushes Back From the Inside Against Superintendent's and School Board's Alleged Illegal Actions

An Elementary Planning Task Force member is speaking out. Skip directly to read his comments.

In case you missed it, in late May, Lakewood City Schools abruptly halted their Elementary Planning Task Force process before the Task Force issued its final report. The district has not been entirely forthcoming about the reasoning up to this point, but in recent days have made several references to a demand letter.

Here are the Superintendent's latest two email updates to the community, who have been waiting since at least Fall 2024 for a decision on whether or not one or two of our neighborhood elementary schools will be closed and repurposed:

Here is one Elementary Planning Task Force member's response to the district's latest email charades. His name is Zach Robock, and he is not officially affiliated with Preserve Lakewood Schools, though our viewpoints are very much in alignment.

Email from Zach Robock to Superintendent Maggie Niedzwiecki on 8/11/2025. Preserve Lakewood Schools has added bold for emphasis.

"Maggie:

Your recent emails deliver disappointing news.  I was confident our presentation committee would have worked together to fairly and respectfully represent the range of perspectives on the Task Force. It's frustrating that you and the Board seem to have relented so easily to abandon our Task Force work instead of advocating more strongly.

I have not seen the demand letter, but understand from your note that it claimed violations of the Open Meetings Act, a law designed for transparency and accountability of government officials. 

Your district-wide email today places the blame of having to scrap all the work that we did on the demand letter, instead of taking responsibility for your role in managing this process. 

In my decade of practicing law, I have never seen one side so readily concede to a simple demand letter unless there was clear evidence against them and no meaningful defense. 

A demand letter is the earliest stage in a claim, prior to filing a formal lawsuit or any judicial intervention. Yet according to your note below, the district’s attorney has already reviewed the merits of the letter and conclusively “instructed you that your recommendation can't utilize the work of the task force.”

The clear inference here is that substantial legal violations occurred under your leadership and the Board's oversight. Your response - to retreat behind closed doors - should be alarming to all of us. 

Whether you think a school should close or not, this has grown into a larger issue of lawful governance, transparency and accountability. The decision is now entirely up to Superintendent Niedzwiecki and the Board of Education - i.e., the same people accused of violating government transparency laws in their management and oversight are now seizing complete control and excluding community input. 

Community members have expressed several common concerns to me since your initial district-wide email last week:

Separation from Task Force.  You were present at every task force meeting and privy to the final report and other work product developed during the process.  The Board attended all but two Task Force sessions.  It seems impossible that you or the Board could avoid utilizing information gained during the Task Force process, which you state below cannot be used due to the legal transgressions. 

This approach seems likely to mire the district in legal challenges and legal fees. What assurances can you provide that the process moving forward will address the legal violations that occurred and not result in ongoing legal action?  How are you separating the Task Force process from your own independent effort?

Timeline and Basis for a Recommendation.  Your community emails leave many questions unanswered, including:

• When will you make a recommendation to the Board? 

• When will the Board make a decision?

• How can the public participate in the process?

• Will the data underlying your decision be made public?

• What is the “newly collected data” referenced in your email from August 11?

• Will your recommendation be made public?

• Did the Board authorize your proposed plan forward?

Claw Back Consulting Fees.  The bare minimum requirement of a consultant in this area should be to guide the Task Force process in a way that complies with legal requirements.  The Impact Group’s failure to do so seems like it should result in a refund of any fees paid + damages to cover the district’s legal fees.  The tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars paid to Impact Group could instead have gone toward students, staff and supplies.

Please confirm that funds paid to the Impact Group are being refunded. If not, please explain what steps you are taking to claw back the money paid.

Passing a Levy. Lakewood Schools received an $800k increase in funding under the final state budget and the cash balance cap was vetoed by Gov. DeWine, so we seem to be in a healthy fiscal position, but will need to pass a planned levy soon (regardless of school closure). 

Community trust and support are critical, but have eroded substantially during the Task Force process, even before the demand letter and alleged legal violations became public.

How can you expect to regain the community trust necessary to pass a levy by retreating behind closed doors to make this decision, rather than taking accountability for these mistakes and pursuing a proper lawful, strategic and community-informed process?

Regards,

Zach"

Thank you Zach, for speaking up as someone who has been in a front row seat to the shenanigans that the Elementary Planning Task Force has turned out to be.

The community members who served on the Task Force are dedicated individuals, whom the board and district admin put in the middle of a messy and allegedly illegal process. Lakewood residents - and our children - deserve better.

It is time for change in Lakewood: a new superintendent, and new school board to select the next one.

Look for more informational articles coming from Preserve Lakewood Schools that explain more about the claims in the legal demand letter.

For more Elementary Planning Task Force perspectives, see this article published in The Lakewood Observer, "Inside the Elementary Planning Task Force: One Member's Insights."

It's time to take action. Contact Lakewood's School Board members today, follow Preserve Lakewood Schools on Facebook, and sign up to receive our email updates and/or volunteer.