Teacher Shuffles in Lakewood Schools
- Preserve Lakewood Schools
- Apr 30
- 3 min read
Updated: May 1
Over the last eight months, Lakewood's school board has been considering whether or not to close and repurpose one or even two of our neighborhood elementary schools - some of our community's most precious assets. (Grant, Lincoln, and Roosevelt are being considered.)
Closing one or even two elementary schools would cause a huge, irreversible change in our neighborhoods, school district, not to mention having a permanent negative impact on the lives of the hundreds of children and families who would be relocated to different schools, much further away in many cases.
One of the reasons given by school district leadership for making this drastic change in our community is to minimize the need to reassign teachers from building to building to meet the needs of our students from year to year. See their social media post from 4/30/25 below:
We at Preserve Lakewood Schools have nothing but the utmost respect for the amazing teachers who educate and care for our children day in and day out. Lakewood teachers are second to none.
However, we are extremely concerned that the school district hopes to prioritize the convenience of a small number of teachers over the short- and long-term needs of hundreds of Lakewood's youngest students and families who would be forced to start over at a new school. Furthermore, today's elementary students have already experienced significant disruption to their education already due to COVID, and forcing them to move schools could exacerbate issues and lead to negative outcomes for many students, such as increased anxiety or social isolation.
Studies have shown that students whose elementary school is closed have long-term negative impacts on students whose schools are closed (source: Education Week, "The Harm of School Closures Can Last a Lifetime")
The below chart is taken from an LCSD presentation. We have added our own mark-ups in green for clarity.
The above chart was shared with the Elementary Planning Task Force, as well as at the Community Conversation meetings held by the superintendent in Fall 2024 at each elementary school.
If the school district is only considering closing elementary schools, why, then, do these data show teacher movements for all grades, Pre-K to 12?
Furthermore, Preserve Lakewood Schools has made written requests to the school district to provide teacher movement data broken down by grades Pre-K to 5, 6-8, and 9-12:
Our group asked Treasurer Kent Zeman via email: "8/28/24 - Slide 17 'Excess and Capacity' shows teacher movement between and within buildings - I request the data in this chart, but broken down by Pre-K, K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Or, if it's simpler, a list of the individual teacher movements for each school year (2021-2025) between and within buildings (with or without names), that list each movement, the starting building and the ending building."
Mr. Zeman's response was: "The District does not have a record responsive to this item." and directed us to the Task Force webpage where no further data breakdown could be found.
We have confirmed that the Task Force was also not provided further breakdown of teacher moves.
Unfortunately, our questions for more information remain unanswered.
School board members have stated that students are resilient, and that "they will be fine." We argue that our respected teachers are just as resilient, and we urge the school board to prioritize the needs of our children and our community over inconveniencing a relatively small number of teachers.
And we urge the school board to complete a fair and unbiased process that prioritizes meaningful input from the broader community.
Our question remains: why are we still considering closing an elementary school?
