On September 8, 2026, the Lakewood School Board will vote on a major, expensive decision about our elementary schools—and reverse what voters already chose and paid for. Before they do, they need to hear from the people this will impact—every Lakewood taxpayer.

In 2013, Lakewood voted by a 70% margin to invest $50 million to keep its neighborhood school model with all seven neighborhood elementary schools open. Lincoln, Grant, and Roosevelt were rebuilt to last 50 years. We're still paying for that decision today.

Now, without any demonstrated crisis, the Board wants to undo it—redrawing attendance boundaries across the entire city, closing Lincoln, centralizing preschool in one location, and moving gifted and special-needs programs. Every Lakewood taxpayer has a stake in this.

Here's what troubles us:

• There's no urgent problem this solves. By the district's own consultant analysis, elementary enrollment has stabilized and grown over five years, buildings are well-used, and finances were called healthy. Nothing is forcing this.
• The savings don't add up. Residents who obtained the district's own spreadsheet through a public-records request found the claimed savings didn't hold up—even with packing 30-plus children into some classrooms.
• We're paying twice. A $6 million preschool renovated at Taft in 2020 sits underused, while this plan proposes adding new preschool capacity elsewhere—and with no demonstrated market demand.
• More cars, more traffic, on streets we all share. Lakewood runs no school buses. Concentrating preschool in one end of the city and redrawing boundaries across every neighborhood forces new daily car trips and longer drop-off routes—more congestion and more cut-through traffic on residential streets, affecting every resident and commuter.

We are not asking the Board to rule out any change forever. We're asking them to prove there's a problem, and to show a real plan, real alternatives, and real evidence—including the true costs to traffic, safety, and our neighborhoods—before spending more of our money to reverse a decision the whole city already funded.

If you live in Lakewood, sign now and add your street. Officials pay attention when they see support coming from inside their own community. Then do two more things: show up to the school board meeting on September 8 at 7 p.m. at Taft Center for Innovation (NOTE: UPDATED LOCATION!) and forward this to five neighbors.

Sign to tell the Lakewood School Board and City Council: No vote on September 8 without a real plan.