Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado

Mill Levy Increase Despite Millions Lost on Emory Sale Raises Trust Issues

Jeffco Schools has determined that they need a mill levy increase and are looking for ways to market that decision to residents. However, the way the district closed and sold Emory Elementary demonstrates a decision-making process that doesn’t examine the root cause of problems. From the first, Jeffco schools showed a willingness to craft narratives using a select set of facts for a predetermined output. As shown by the twelve points below, select facts are not the full story. Withholding the full story and losing money makes residents question whether Jeffco Schools can be trusted with more money in a mill levy increase.

Jeffco Point #1: Emory was closed due to declining enrollment amidst a budget deficit.

SUNLIGHT: At the time of closure, Emory ranked #1741 out of 1748 Colorado schools. Declining enrollment coincided with a steep decrease in test scores. Alternative solutions include raising test scores, which Jeffco proved unable to do since 2015. Good schools are a driver for home sales. Without good schools, new families don’t move in or enroll in other choice schools. Ultimately, poor performance was the reason for closure, not the budget.

Jeffco Point #2: Enrollment will never bounce back and Emory will never be needed

SUNLIGHT: History shows population turns over. Education is one industry where smaller class size and more individualized attention could transform results. Jeffco knows that so they wrote a restriction into the Emory sale because they are worried another school will buy the building and provide competition. Why worry about another school if they were so certain Emory would not be needed? Some schools that had declining enrollment and were examined for closure, like Foothills Elementary, are now thriving because of population turnover.

Jeffco Point #3: Emory was sold through a special municipal process

SUNLIGHT: The end purchaser WAS NEVER a municipality. The school district made this special, loophole process just for Lakewood to broker the Action Center deal. This removed private competition.

Jeffco Point #4: Jeffco couldn’t get a better price

SUNLIGHT: They NEVER TRIED. Every other statement is conjecture and rationalization because all parties knew the end-purchaser from the beginning. A recent property listing for a Colorado Christian University building shows that higher price points are possible.

Jeffco Point #5: Making more money would not help the budget deficit

SUNLIGHT: This narrative is about putting the numbers to a specific account, even though the accounts are fluid. Jeffco board members claim that even if they sold Emory for more it wouldn’t help the deficit because profits go to the capital fund. However, more money in the capital fund means less money needs to be transferred out of the operating fund. That means it would help the deficit. Jeffco closed the school to save about $1 million annually, but lost more than that by selling to the Action Center. Meanwhile, Jeffco Schools SPENT $45 million in retrofitting existing schools to take existing students. Superintendent Dorland acknowledges that selling the school properties would help the budget.

Jeffco Point #6: Vacant land values show loss was reasonable

SUNLIGHT: Emory was NEVER A VACANT LAND sale, so these numbers are irrelevant and misleading. The “appraised vacant land value” was used to show the loss wasn’t too bad, especially as compared to the theoretical “vacant land as if rezoned value.” Thompson and Glennon Heights Elementary School were also sold to use the existing building.

Jeffco Point #7: Increasing land value requires rezoning

SUNLIGHT: Losing millions of dollars on this deal has been covered extensively in Lakewood Informer news. Jeffco District staff denies the potential profit by implying the numbers were wrong. They made up a reason based on zoning value, claiming rezoning was necessary to make the kind of money the public was expecting. However, this land didn’t need rezoned for development. It already was zoned for residential. Even though residential development didn’t require rezoning, the Action Center deal required a new zoning USE CODE that could be applied to this land. This also required zoning changes and a special hearing. Lakewood took care of these zoning changes as special considerations in the zoning overhaul, bypassing normal public processes. In the end, new zoning was required to LOSE money. The entire zoning discussion was misinformation.

Jeffco Point #8: School appraisal values

SUNLIGHT: Jeffco justified the sale using a segment of appraisal values. However, they WOULD NOT RELEASE the full appraisal even after sales were approved. That suggests cherry-picking the data. Other school appraisal values were released prior to the sale. Only for Emory did the school board hide the data, even though all the other sales were COMPETITIVE and so had reason to withhold appraisals. Emory sold for only 41% of the appraisal value, lowest of all recent sales, according to reporting by Suzie Glassman. (most recent CORA request still pending)

Jeffco Point #9: County assessments ignored

SUNLIGHT: County assessment values were a reliable indicator of sales prices. As shown below, the schools that have been sold received over the assessed actual values. Despite the assessment numbers being publicly available, it seemed that Board Member Michelle Applegate did not know these values when she said, “what we have seen in our existing sales is that we don’t even come close.”

Jeffco Fact #10: Potential retrofits lowered profits

SUNLIGHT: In this argument, theoretical renovations lowered value on a building. For example, if a developer buys the land with the intention of tearing down the school and putting up houses, the developer would need to pay for asbestos removal. However, Jeffco already lowered profits because only vacant land values were considered, not buildings. These arguments are mere speculation.

Jeffco Point #11: There is precedent for selling public land at a loss

SUNLIGHT: Not when facing a budget deficit

Jeffco Point #12: Selling schools was always the plan

SUNLIGHT: Of the 21 schools Jeffco closed, only six have been sold. The rest are sitting vacant, with maintenance costs and unrealized profit. Superintendent Dorland says they are working with partners, like other cities and organizations, to sell the other schools. Not an open process. Not a competitive money-making process. And not a FAST process.

Summary

The sale of Emory shows a pattern of partial truths designed to achieve buy-in for a predetermined goal. That goal changes from talking point to talking point. In the end, the district did not close Emory because it couldn’t afford the school or because the school wasn’t needed or to maximize profits. In the end, the district closed the school because they couldn’t provide a quality education and so couldn’t attract enrollment.

Today, the district has already decided that they need to raise the mill levy, even as they ask if there are data points to market that to the public. The facts are not driving the decisions. Facts are SOUGHT to justify the decision.