With city officials and community leaders in its corner, the Lakewood Board of Education at its Feb. 1 meeting unanimously voted to send a request to the county to place a 6.9 mill operating levy on the May 4 ballot. It will be the first new operating levy on the Lakewood ballot since 2002. Heading up the campaign effort will be co-chairs Mayor Ed FitzGerald and City Councilman and former school Board member Michael Summers.
“Great cities have great schools, value them, invest in them, and benefit mightily from them. Our investment is paying huge dividends, we would make a serious mistake to go into reverse. We would undo all that we have accomplished,” said Summers.
The Mayor pledged to offer his support in any way that he can, noting that strong cities only exist with strong school systems. “There is no city in the country that is thriving that doesn’t have a thriving public school district,” Mayor FitzGerald said at a joint Board of Education/City Council meeting held Jan. 25.
The district has the City Council on its side as well. Council, also at its Feb. 1 meeting, unanimously passed a resolution in support of the Lakewood Schools’ levy noting that the district has been fiscally responsible while reducing costs and lauded the Excellent rating the district recently received as a payoff for the community’s prior investments.
Lakewood’s business and economic development community are solidly behind the levy also. LakewoodAlive, the city’s nonprofit economic development organization, and the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce offered letters of endorsement at the Feb. 1 meeting.
“Education is a critical component of a community’s economic health and schools indisputably influence property values. … With the recent ranking of “Excellent” by the State of Ohio and consistently prudent fiscal management, Lakewood City Schools has earned the community’s trust. LakewoodAlive believes that passage of this levy is essential to the community’s economic stability and growth” said LakewoodAlive Board of Trustees president Jennifer Baker in reading the group’s letter of endorsement.
In a letter from the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, executive director Patty Ryan pledged the Chamber’s support in “efforts to keep quality and value in Lakewood City Schools.” The Chamber commended the district and the Board for its fiscal leadership and stretching the 2002 levy well past the three years promised to voters.
These endorsements come on the heels of all of the district’s bargaining units plus the administrative team agreeing to zero percent base pay raises for the 2010-2011 contract year. The bargaining units represent the teachers, clerical and custodial employees.
The Board members did not mince words when it came to the importance of this levy to the success of the school district and maintaining the high quality the community expects.
“Passing this levy is a matter of survival,” said Board member Edward Favre. “If we don’t do this we fail our students.”