Residents press Lakewood board to preserve walkable neighborhood schools, criticize reconfiguration process

During the public comment period, residents urged the Lakewood City Schools board to preserve neighborhood schools and provide clearer, more transparent criteria if the district studies reconfiguration.

Cara Butlin Cohen, a transgender educator who said she recently moved to Lakewood, thanked the board for advocacy on student protections and urged careful consideration of policies affecting LGBTQ students. Elizabeth De Kroger said she was concerned the reconfiguration process felt "curated" and not fully transparent; she asked for clearer criteria and warned decisions about school buildings should not be made behind closed doors.

Claude, who identified himself as owner-operator of a Marathon gas station on Madison Avenue, described financial vulnerability after prior business difficulties and pleaded for relief from a proposed tax increase that he said would push his business toward bankruptcy.

Parents spoke repeatedly about walkability and class sizes. Britney Broker and Molly Faschetti said closing one or more elementary buildings would reduce walkability, increase class sizes (Faschetti warned that 23 students in kindergarten is already large), and could reduce parental use of programs such as on-site preschool. Broker asked the board to "protect our schools" and called for investments that keep neighborhood schools open. Monica Bridal (member, Preserve Lakewood Schools) said she supported redistricting scenario 7 — described in the meeting as grandfathering current students and allowing a more flexible open-enrollment policy — and urged the board to adhere to the task force timeline and community input.

Why it matters: Many speakers tied school‑building decisions to daily family life, neighborhood walkability, class-size impacts on younger children and trust in the district's decision-making process.