The Observation Deck

From http://lakewoodcityschools.com/:

BOARD TO VOTE ON SCHOOL CLOSING AT FEB. 16 MEETING

The Board of Education is scheduled to vote on which elementary school to close as part of Phase III of the district's long-term construction program at its Feb. 16 meeting. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the East Cafeteria of Lakewood High.

Matthew,

Please let me know if it would be better procedure for me to ask questions like this to you by private mail or other written method if there is someone else I should contact for the following to help me understand what 6 schools will result in for student capacity of only 6 buildings (instead of original 7 in documentation I find on Phase 3 website).

Just as the new proposed 6 elementary district maps recently shed new light on how going down to 6 will effect the neighborhoods, has their been an updated table of the "Enrollments & Capacities" report/table? On the old report I'm looking at it has every Lakewood school's data for: OSFC Template, 2009 Enrollment, Lakewood Rebuilt Capacity.
Can you post the new table based on only 6 or tell me where I can pick it up?

Also, as online discussion boards are a new tool for communication can you tell me how many of the board members read the "Deck" regularly to serve as a valuable and efficient source of public comment? I've brought up some of my concerns here but not directly by phone, email, or post letter to admin or board. Can you advise?

Thank you, Mel

I have just returned home from walking a group of kids to school this morning. It was a cold and snowy walk.

I then walked from Horace Mann to the proposed boundary for Horace mann students if Lincoln is closed. I now know what is too far to ask students to walk in NE Ohio winter weather. I think every BOE member should walk these proposed distances for these new boundaries, before you vote on Feb. 16th. Anyone else that is debating the new school closing boundaries should also make the walk today. You need to have your head examined if you think these are acceptable distances for kids to walk in typical NE Ohio winter weather.

Today is the perfect day to experience it for yourself, I did and it is unacceptable to this parent of school age kids. I can not see how you can close Lincoln and ask the children in the northern half of Lakewood walk these distances.

Mike,

I agree that the maps that Matt posted need some altering. It doesn't make sense to have kids on northern Summit walk all the way to Horace Mann when they can walk to Grant.

I spoke with the board of education and was told these were not final maps. They can and will be altered depending on a lot of factors.

I don't think we should make a decision based on a rough draft of a map. There are a lot more important criteria to consider, like a rec center location...

Mel Page wrote:Matthew,

Please let me know if it would be better procedure for me to ask questions like this to you by private mail or other written method if there is someone else I should contact for the following to help me understand what 6 schools will result in for student capacity of only 6 buildings (instead of original 7 in documentation I find on Phase 3 website).

Just as the new proposed 6 elementary district maps recently shed new light on how going down to 6 will effect the neighborhoods, has their been an updated table of the "Enrollments & Capacities" report/table? On the old report I'm looking at it has every Lakewood school's data for: OSFC Template, 2009 Enrollment, Lakewood Rebuilt Capacity.
Can you post the new table based on only 6 or tell me where I can pick it up?

Also, as online discussion boards are a new tool for communication can you tell me how many of the board members read the "Deck" regularly to serve as a valuable and efficient source of public comment? I've brought up some of my concerns here but not directly by phone, email, or post letter to admin or board. Can you advise?

Thank you, Mel

Mel,

I believe that the Deck is a valuable and efficient source of public comment. I cannot speak for my fellow board members as to whether they actually read the Deck or find it to be valuable. See disclaimer below.

You may want to contact board members directly using the directory information found when you click on each board member's name at http://www.lakewoodcityschools.org/districtBoardEd.aspx.

As to any public records, I would contact Treasurer Richard Berdine directly as well. See http://www.lakewoodcityschools.org/administrativeDepartment.aspx?aid=2.

Matt

The agenda for the 2nd Regular Board Meeting which is being held on Tuesday, February 16, 2010, at Lakewood High School, East Cafeteria, is attached.

I will be unable to attend this meeting. Could someone post their thoughts on this meeting if you attend?
Thanks,
Rhonda

Thank for the reply Matt.

I keep looking at this table I have printed from the April Community Forum. (I like #s myself but) also thought it would be nice to share this data for 7 schools that was presented at the April 2009 Community Forum.

Enrollments & Capacities - presented at April 2009 Community Forum

School Name....OSFC Template....2008/2009 Enrollment .....Lkwd Rebuilt Capacity
Grant.........................436.........................355............................472
Lincoln.......................436.........................437............................472
Roosevelt...................436.........................263.............................472

Harrison.....................400.........................442.............................472
Hayes........................350.........................380.............................472
Horace Mann...............436.........................359.............................502
Emerson.....................436.........................374.............................502
..................Totals:....2,930.......................2,620..........................3,364

I believe I understand this correctly. Since the above Rebuilt Capacities are all larger than the OSFC Template that means we are already (or are prepared to) put more kids in one school over what OSFC guidelines recommend. I believe we must have applied for "variances" to do this from OSFC. Okay...stretch it some to get more for our buck

However, you have to do more than stretch a little to find room for the about 400 more kids after a school closing. I can't wait to see the new numbers based on 6 schools. Closing a school will require to build at least one of the new 2 schools bigger than proposed to OSFC for 7 and presented to the public. This will still cost us some higher rebuilding costs and OSFC guidelines to be met to receive funds. Either OSFC will grant us higher variances or they will not cover the additional amounts??? And of course, the other schools will be maxed out at capacity. And of course, 400 kids still require teachers to be paid in order to keep a quality student-teacher ratio.

I guess if the decision makers truly believe the projections that an inner ring suburb such as Lakewood would only continue to lose enrollment in the future, stuffing those 400 kids somewhere for now will start to correct itself over time. Ahhhhh, we're good for 50 years!

Hold on. We know 2009/2010 enrollment is up significantly and Superintendent Dr. Madak brushed this concern off as an "anomaly" because of new all-day Kindergarten at the joint BOE/Council meeting. However, Assistant Superintendent Soeder advised the board we need to consider building the new 2 schools larger based on enrollment increasing.

Enrollment increases could very well be a trend based on what I see going on in Lakewood. And I was just at my Roosevelt PTA meeting last night and principal said we have over 290 students enrolled today. That's 30 more than the number above from Spring last year. I'm curious if most other elementaries have seen similar increases?

Anyone have the current total K-5th enrollment? It will be interesting to see what the 2010 Census tells us, too.

Hi Mel,

Yeah it’s pretty crazy isn’t it? Lots of kids are already stuffed into classrooms all over Lakewood. We’re making valentines at my house and we made 29 for my daughter’s class. Students at Grant are attending class in rooms that used to be storage rooms. When I went to see my son’s “Inventor” oral report, the whole class went to a maintenance room right next to the boiler room, so kids would have enough room to actually stand in front of the class and present their visual aides.

Grant has a modular building that served it quite well until this year when it was unceremoniously closed, though the building is “on”, with power and lights, with no students in it. I haven’t seen this budget cut listed in the ones presented by the School Board, but they are already saving money on Grant.

Jan Soeder, Lakewood’s Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education, is very concerned about just the points you bring up. She said that there are a hundred new kids this year, mostly in kindergarten, which means that many of them will be around for the next five grades. The way she put it to us the night the new maps were presented was that there’d be no “wiggle room” with only six schools. If there are only going to be six schools, those schools need to be in the right places, or this city will not remain walkable. At least not for children from five to eleven years old, and their parents.

I talked about this in my article in the Lakewood Observer about the re-districted maps when I advocated keeping Grant (Yes! Again!) And not because I’m a crazy Grant mom but because Grant is right in the center (actually Kauffman Park is the very best location in the whole city for being directly in the center— and the green space! and room for flexibility! A beautiful sports field that the whole community could use after hours and on the weekends! Not Grant! Not Lincoln! A signature school for the center of our city to go with our signature library… No, our city’s population is better served by putting a Quaker State and Lube theme restaurant there—made to look like a 1950’s garage. So after residents go to the library, where they went to not buy books, and not buy movies and CDs, but to borrow them, and let their kids play for free in the cool children’s area, or attend movies or lectures without paying for them, because, you know--it’s a library-- they’re going to go get some eight dollar onion rings and a couple of Mai Tais. And if it’s bikini night, maybe some of their high school-aged daughters can participate. But I digress.)

Grant is right in the center— when another school is at capacity, “extra” students could get to Grant without having to cross the whole city, especially if Grant was rebuilt BIG, as you point out. There’s room to make it big, if that's what Lakewood's children need. Jan Soeder also pointed out that at least one of the rebuilt schools would have to be BIG. If it’s Lincoln, maybe it can be six floors. If it’s Grant, Lakewood remains walkable.

I asked Jan during the same conversation what would happen if there was a sudden increase in Lakewood’s student population because a private school, like Lakewood Catholic Academy, failed. Don’t we have an obligation to get all the kids that are residents into schools? She said we certainly do. At that point, we’d have to open one of our closed schools.

Unless they’d all been sold to developers to build malls. McKinley was going to be right in the middle of the West End Mall. How about Grant? It’s not really Downtown. Really it’s halfway down two completely residential streets full of families and children. And it’s not legal—the State of Ohio says that’s public property. You know OUR property, paid for with our tax dollars, the same way we pay the salaries of our elected public officials. But there are ways to get around that. Oh, time for school again.

Thanks for this discussion, Mel. I think it’s really important that we continue to talk about seven schools, and where they are. Your point about the next 50 years is very well taken. Jan Soeder has been taking care of the kids in this city for a long time; she knows what she’s talking about. If she is concerned, we all should be concerned.

Betsy Voinovich

Betsy,

Thanks for the Kauffman "shout out" but as you know that property belongs to the city not the school district and as we witnessed at the Joint Council/Board Meeting, these two groups barely seem comfortable in the same room together. A joint project on that scale would require a level of collaboration we don't seem to have here. I was pleased that they made some progress towards defining their cooperative relationship regarding recreation facilities.

As far as building bigger schools just to be ready for an enrollment increase, I think it might be enough to build them on larger sites so that they can bring in modulars (which I believe the district now owns) as needed or have the option of building permanent additions if/when data justifies the cost.

Meg

[quote="Betsy Voinovich"]
Unless they’d all been sold to developers to build malls. McKinley was going to be right in the middle of the West End Mall. How about Grant? It’s not really Downtown. Really it’s halfway down two completely residential streets full of families and children. And it’s not legal—the State of Ohio says that’s public property. You know OUR property, paid for with our tax dollars, the same way we pay the salaries of our elected public officials. But there are ways to get around that. Oh, time for school again./quote]

Betsy

Nice post, but McKinley would not have been right in the middle. The middle would have been
closer to Park Row had the dreams come true for those looking to turning the "Scenic Park
District" into a the strip mall known as the West End. McKinley would have been on the
eastern edge and would not have even been viable until, well now that I think about it,
not until about the same time McKinley closed. hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Well doesn't matter as history rarely repeats itself, not like any economic group is pushing
to close any other schools near developments in the center of Lakewood. That is just crazy
talk. Malls for schools!

Meg

Kaufman was a beautiful idea, and a nice dream, but we have other dreams too, like high
paying jobs for our daughters on Tuesday night at Quaker Steak and Lube! You know you
mothers always talking about the importance of schools and education over economic
development! How silly, I guess some better start doubling up those flyers kids bring home
in their back packs. Now there is good use for kids and schools, saving postage costs for
some. It would be nice if there was someway they could repay the schools for all that free
labor perhaps they could help with the levy.

Oh

er

Ohhhhhh

...

Mel,

In response to your question about current enrollment at schools:

Grant averaged about 350 students last year.

This school year, the number is about 320. The difference is the move of the CHAMPS students to their completed facilities at Horace Mann. There were about 25-30 kids in that program.

Grant's enrollment has remained the same; and as has been cited previously, could be on an uptick given the large kindergarten classes. I believe the two classes have around 25-27 kids in each.

Christina McCallum

Mike Davis wrote:I have just returned home from walking a group of kids to school this morning. It was a cold and snowy walk.

I then walked from Horace Mann to the proposed boundary for Horace mann students if Lincoln is closed. I now know what is too far to ask students to walk in NE Ohio winter weather. I think every BOE member should walk these proposed distances for these new boundaries, before you vote on Feb. 16th. Anyone else that is debating the new school closing boundaries should also make the walk today. You need to have your head examined if you think these are acceptable distances for kids to walk in typical NE Ohio winter weather.

Today is the perfect day to experience it for yourself, I did and it is unacceptable to this parent of school age kids. I can not see how you can close Lincoln and ask the children in the northern half of Lakewood walk these distances.

I live 1/4 mile from Franklin School, which was closed in 2007. In my opinion, that was the last year that my family had a school within walking distance. For me and my neighbors, there is no neighborhood school. My daughter now attends Grant, a distance of one mile. I would never allow her to walk there alone, and I would not even consider walking home with her down Franklin Blvd. due to the large numbers of high school students who basically rule the narrow sidewalks at the end of the school day. Add in some snow, and its not a safe walk at all. Our current "neighborhood" school is Emerson, which is 7/10 mile from our house in walking distance. I saw the circle map showing us within the 1/2 mile distance from school, but that only applies to crows. My street and many of the neighboring streets do not cross over the tracks to the north, causing all students in this area to jog to the east or west in order to make their way north to Emerson. Again, I would not allow my elementary school child to walk there alone, and I would need 40 minutes twice a day to make the walk myself.

I am not living on the fringes of Lakewood in any sense. I'm sure there are others who are no longer within a realistic walking distance of an elementary school.

I am not posting this to complain or demand that a school be put closer to my street. While Franklin was a wonderful school, it's time was past. 100 years is a good run for a school building. I have accepted that we no longer live close enough to walk to school. While walkability should be considered as a factor in school site choice, it should not be the predominant factor. When Lakewood decided to close some of its 10 elementary buildings, they effectively made the decision to eliminate the choice of walking to school on a daily basis for many students.

Chas. Geiger of Geigers Clothing and past school board member stops in at the Root, and tells Betsy V. what a nice couple of articles
she and Meg wrote in the latest Observer and wishes them luck in saving Grant School. Chas Geiger has always been a class act.

Meg's story - My Mind is Made Up; Don’t Confuse Me With the Facts A Summary of the Phase III Process
http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/6/3/my-mind-is-made-up-dont-confuse-me-with-the-factsa-summary-of-the-phase-iii-process

Betsy's story - R-E-S-P-E-C-T
http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/626/0/respect

.

Can anyone explain what affect closing Grant will have on existing programs such as “All Day Kindergarten”?