City, Schools Looking to Work Together

Lakewood City Schools and Lakewood City Hall are looking to cooperate a little more.

From support of the upcoming school levy to sharing some of the responsibility with the recreation department, officials are looking to see how they can share services and facilities.

For the first time in three years, the school board and city council officially got together for a joint meeting at Garfield Middle School on Monday.

Following several presentations made by each side, city and school officials discussed ways they could work together.

One of the topics covered was the school-district-run recreation department.

City council president Brian Powers pointed out that Lakewood is one of a handful of recreation departments in the state run by the school board.

“I think we ought to have a thoughtful discussion on recreation,” said Powers. “We should think about how we can work together. Are we going to fund recreation or cut a teacher? We don’t want the school in that situation.”

In addition to sharing equipment and services — such as the successful Help to Others program — the legislative entities will continue to work on school safety.

School board president Ed Favre proposed meeting more regularly to discuss ways to work together. 

“As we go forward, we can think of more ways where we can both work more efficiently,” he said. “I think we really have a responsibility to look for any shared benefits that we can.”