Some parents are raising concerns about potential plans by the Lakewood City School District to repurpose at least one of its seven elementary schools.
The parents, who have formed a group called Preserve Lakewood Schools, said cutting the number of elementary schools will lead to problems with traffic and safety, harm the city’s vitality and lacks adequate data backing up the need for the changes.
Meanwhile, the district, which has seen its enrollment shrink by more than a third over the last two decades, says it needs to be more efficient and better plan for the future, while also providing space for a possible pre-kindergarten program and recreation center. More broadly, the situation echoes conversations school districts are having across the country about what the right size is for their building footprint, as birth rates continue to decline.
Jennifer Schlosser with Preserve Lakewood Schools said in an email Tuesday she believes the city and district will be harmed by closing school buildings.
“Closing even one of our neighborhood elementaries would have an irreversible negative impact on the neighborhood, and on Lakewood as a whole, from more traffic, accidents involving pedestrians, longer walks for students, longer commutes for everyone, to declines in home values,” she said. “For years and years, Lakewood voters have approved school levies to support the operation, renovation and building of Lakewood’s schools, including the seven neighborhood elementary schools. “
Several other concerned parents spoke during Monday's board of education meeting, asking the district to halt the planning process until more data can be collected, for example, on traffic impacts and the actual need for an expanded preschool or recreation center.
“I'm recommending that you halt this process until more data is available, we look at the real effects on our student population and we can utilize the creativity of everyone in Lakewood to solve the issues the district faces,” said Kelly Moyer, a parent of three Lakewood students.
Superintendent Maggie Niedzwiecki in an interview Thursday explained that Lakewood’s school buildings overall are at 66% capacity.
“It's not just Lakewood. It's national. It's birth rates,” she said. “…we've been working over the years to right-size our staff through attrition, so as teachers or staff members retired, we did not replace those positions.”
Niedzwiecki noted that the enrollment decline appears to be stabilizing now; parents have raised concerns about the district potentially hurting itself in the future if enrollment begins to rebound and it not having enough classroom space.
The superintendent also cautioned that no decisions have been made yet, nor is the district in a rush. The district convened a task force – made up of staff, parents, residents and some board members – in the fall, and expects the task force to issue a recommendation to the board in the summer. Niedzwiecki said the “earliest” anything would change would be the 2026-2027 school year.
Caity Solomon with Preserve Lakewood Schools expressed concern about the independence of the task force, however.
“The task force was assembled to review seven scenarios from an outside consulting firm, not generate their own solutions based on a set of data,” she said during Monday's board meeting. “The task force is stacked with district employees and also board members who will eventually be voting on the issue, which clouds the process.”
The task force, according to district documents, was presented with different scenarios, largely revolving around “repurposing” one or two schools – Grant, Lincoln or Roosevelt elementaries. There is a seventh option which instead asks the district to change boundary lines of schools to even out where students attend.
In general, all of the recommendations keep the maximum walk distance for students at less than 1.5 miles, a little less than 30 minutes of walking.
Niedzwiecki said the district, and the city, would benefit from repurposing buildings. The centralized childcare center would mean cost savings for the district – which offers early learning options at multiple buildings currently – but also expand services.
“Some of our families are sharing with us that they really need is that full day of preschool with wraparound services,” she said. “And that's called daycare. And so… that could be an opportunity for us.”
She said some community members have also expressed a desire for a “designated recreation building” for the school district and city residents. The city of Lakewood’s recreation department is run through the school district.
Niedzwiecki said the task force will continue to meet into the summer, and is continually being given updated information as it asks for it.
Jennifer Schlosser also said she was concerned with the district seeking a levy on the ballot in the coming years; she said parent discontent with facilities decisions could "jeopardize" the levy passing.
Treasurer Kent Zeman in a statement said the community will “most likely see an operating levy request” in 2026, although discussions on the state’s school funding formula and the recommendations from the task force will impact how much they might ask for.
