Challenges continue to arise for Lakewood City Schools as it considers plans to consolidate its elementary schools, including a new political action committee formed to back school board candidates opposed to consolidation.
Meanwhile, Superintendent Maggie Niedzwiecki has said a decision is still coming sometime in the 2025-2026 school year. The district is now only considering repurposing one of the district’s seven elementary schools, instead of two.
School districts across the country, including in neighboring Cleveland, are considering consolidation after years of enrollment declines as a way to cut expenses and focus more resources on schools that remain. Lakewood has been mulling what to do with its seven elementary schools for more than a year.
What does the district say?
Niedzwiecki previously told Ideastream Public Media the district’s buildings are about 66% full when it comes to students, hence the desire to right-size operations to fit current enrollment. Enrollment dropped steeply over the last two decades, about 2,500 students since 2003.
“It's not just Lakewood, it's national," she said in a February interview. "It's birth rates…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.”
Those trends led the district to convene a task force, made of staff, parents, residents and board members, in late summer 2024 to consider different scenarios around “repurposing” one or two elementary schools. In general, all of the recommendations kept the maximum walk distance for students at less than 1.5 miles, a little less than 30 minutes of walking.
Niedzwiecki has said the district, and the city, would benefit from repurposing elementary schools, potentially for a centralized childcare center or a new recreation center for the city and school district.
"Declining enrollment leads to other issues that negatively impact learning, such as increased teacher movement between grades and buildings and inefficient operation of our facilities," Niedzwiecki said in an Aug. 11 email. "The early learning center is just one idea of how we could maximize learning for our preschoolers while taking advantage of the excess capacity we have due to the lower enrollment we’ve seen in the last decade."
The district in a statement said it is now only considering repurposing one of its seven elementary schools, although it added another option is to simply redistrict, evening out enrollment at schools and keeping all buildings open. The district is only considering repurposing Grant, Lincoln or Roosevelt elementary schools.
Parents' concerns, and what they're doing about it
The advocacy group Preserve Lakewood Schools was formed by concerned parents and community residents earlier this year to voice opposition to school closures. The group recently formed a political action committee, said member Jennifer Schlosser in an early August interview. The aim is to boost candidates in the November school board election who oppose consolidation.
“One of our key assets of our community and one of the things that people love the most about our community, and the reason why people move here, is for the neighborhood elementary schools," Schlosser said, arguing closing schools will hurt the city's walkability and vibrancy. "We feel that making changes to the way that those are organized would be detrimental to our community, our neighborhoods and our children.”
She argued the district is not accounting for the fact that enrollment has stabilized after years of declines, with elementary school enrollment actually increasing slightly since the pandemic.
She alleged the district task force was largely just for show, formed to back up a decision leaders had already made to close schools. The task force was supposed to deliver a report to the school board earlier this year with recommendations on actions, but a legal threat from a separate group halted that.
"We're frustrated that Lakewood City Schools has decided to put off their decision on whether or not to close and repurpose elementary schools of Lakewood," Schlosser said. "We've been having this conversation for over a year and the school district does not have a clear plan and timeline and strategy for how they will make this decision."
What happened to the taskforce, and what's next?
A separate group of concerned citizens, Friends of Lakewood Schools, sent a “demand letter” to the school district in mid-May threatening litigation if the task force continued to meet.
The letter, sent by Akron-based attorney Ryan McNeil, argued the task force's meetings not being open to the public constituted a violation of Ohio’s public meetings laws. It also alleged the board of education had violated those laws, because the board had discussions about the consolidation plan via email, instead of in an open session.
"Friends of Lakewood Schools is seeking good governance and proper strategic planning from our elected school officials," the group said in an Aug. 7 statement. "Whether the school board is deciding to close a school or build new administrative offices, the subject matter is not the focus. It's the process. Poor governance and a lack of strategy and planning leads to poor outcomes.”
Niedzwiecki said the district followed the law in the way it approached the task force.
"On receiving the demand letter, our legal counsel advised us to pause the work of the task force," she said in an email. "The demand letter suggests that the Lakewood City Schools Board of Education violated the Ohio Open Meetings Act. Lakewood City Schools has complied and intends to continue to comply with Ohio Revised Code pertaining to Sunshine Laws and Board and District policy."
Niedzwiecki, in an Aug. 5 letter to families, said she will still move forward with a recommendation on what the district will do with its elementary schools, without the taskforce, "at some point throughout the year."
"While this (demand) letter has delayed us, I am pleased to report that we are pressing forward with our continued analysis of enrollment data and trends," she wrote. "After careful review and consideration of all necessary information by me and my administrative team, I as Superintendent will make a thoughtful recommendation to the Board of Education. The process we're taking going forward may look a little different, but the Lakewood City Schools will uphold its responsibility to make sensible suggestions to the Board that affirm students' best interests."
