School board spares O’Connell after community outcry

Dunstan Middle School was removed from a recommended hit-list Friday.

JEFFERSON COUNTY – O’Connell Middle School will remain an active part of the east Lakewood community after the Jeffco School District Board of Education voted early Friday to spare it and three other schools on a list of suggested closures.

Only Russell Middle School in Arvada failed to stand muster and the district will shut and sell that school site to help relieve a $40 million budget crunch looming over the district in the next two years.

The only other significant proposed change for Lakewood students, a recommendation to move Devinny Elementary’s 6th grade pupils to the adjacent Dunstan Middle School, was eliminated from the list of changes approved by the board.

“This has been an incredibly difficult process for our community. There just weren’t any good choices. We still have to face the hard task of dealing with our capacity issues,” said school board president Dave Thomas.

The fight to save O’Connell marshaled an array of advocates ranging from Lakewood’s mayor, police chief, city manager and business leaders to current and former students who pleaded for the school’s survival during a marathon school board meeting that ended shortly after midnight.

Hundreds of community members attended the meeting, spilling out of the meeting room and into two overflow areas. More than five dozen of them addressed the board.

O’Connell, Pleasant View Middle School, Wheat Ridge Middle School and Russell were on a list of suggested closures compiled by a district-appointed Facilities Usage Committee.

The 30-member task force, comprised of community members and school district staff, used six criteria to evaluate the district’s buildings and other properties. The percentage of maximum capacity enrollment played a large role in the committee’s deliberations. They also considered each school’s academic achievement, the conditions of each building, the capacity use of each school, how many students are enrolled in each school as a “school of choice” and operating costs of each property.

Those standards, especially the use of enrollment by choice, took some criticism during the lengthy and emotional public comment presented by defenders of the neighborhood schools. Some speakers, including a school staff member and several community members, said the use of that gauge perpetuates declining enrollment and penalizes low-income families struggling to pay the bills by working multiple jobs. One parent urged elimination of the school of choice option.

The Lakewood contingent bargained for O’Connell’s future, calling it a vital part of the community and offering more than $100,000 of in-kind landscape and maintenance work to sweeten their argument.

City Manager Kathy Hodgson told the board the city has invested millions to incorporate O’Connell as the centerpiece of a community campus that includes the city’s Lakewood Link Recreation Center, ball fields and skateboard park.

Hodgson suggested the board keep O’Connell open, but put it on a “watch list” that would “allow the site to flourish and will build trust in the community.”

Police Chief Kevin Paletta said O’Connell’s relatively isolated location could present an invitation to vandals and shady activity.

“If abandoned, it is safe to assume O’Connell will become a safe haven for crime,” Paletta said.

If Hodgson’s pledge of city assistance sweetened the offer, Mayor Bob Murphy put a bit of spice into it, reminding school board members that the city has been the district’s “staunchest ally in many, many issues and battles.”

“I am here to ask you to truly listen, to listen to the voices of those who often don’t have a voice or a choice – a real choice – in schools,” Murphy said.

And District Attorney Scott Storey entered a plea for O’Connell, revealing that the Boys and Girls Club is poised to open a new center at O’Connell, and nearly $600,000 has been raised to fund the project.

The appeal to spare O’Connell was sandwiched between pleas on behalf of other schools, including a group of students who sought a reprieve for Wheat Ridge Middle School.

One by one, dozens of the school’s students walked to the microphone to say, “I choose Wheat Ridge Middle School,” in a display that impressed board members.

“We saw how much our community cares about their schools and that is a wonderful outcome from this long and very emotional dialogue,” Thomas said.

The board also get rid of temporary buildings at school that at or below 92 percent of capacity as well as approving the relocation of the Arvada West preschool to Fitzmorris Elementary and moving Swanson preschool to Secrest Elementary.

The school district estimates it will save about $1.27 million a year. The one-time cost to implement the changes will be up to $2.1 million. The district plans to sell Russell Elementary, but its real estate value is yet to be determined.

Board members say this isn’t the end of the facilities review work.

“We are committed to continuing this process that not only addresses the number of empty seats in the district, but also helps us in our ongoing budget crisis,” Thomas said.

The district expects to make an estimated $40 million in cuts over the next two years and will use its financial reserves, to cover the shortfall over the next two years.