Sale of Colorado elementary school delayed due to pending lawsuit

Community members are sharing concerns about the sale of a Colorado elementary school after they claim officials did not share enough information with the public on the purchase.

The City of Lakewood will have to delay a vote on the sale of Emory Elementary School to the Action Center, which was set for the final council meeting on October 27th.

While the public hearing will still be held, a judge's order prohibits the council from voting amid a pending lawsuit alleging violations of Colorado's Open Meetings Laws.

The city revealed in April that it plans to pay Jefferson County Public Schools $4 million for the 17-acre property, which has been closed for years. However, residents and former city officials have questioned how the sale price was determined and whether the public was properly informed during the negotiation process.

"The appraised price was much, much higher," City Manager Kathy Hodgson said during the April council meeting when the purchase was authorized to move forward; neither she nor the school district would reveal the numbers.

Lakewood was given first dibs on the property as part of the district's municipal interest process, a sort of first right of refusal for local governments.

Neighbors at the same April meeting raised concerns that plans for the property's future were already underway, even as they were just learning of the plan to purchase and then resell the property.

"I'm deeply concerned this is the first we've heard about the plans," resident Derek Smith said during that meeting in April. "It feels like the lack of transparency is trying to circumvent public input and go behind our backs."

The city is not yet the official owner of the property, as it awaits JeffCo school board approval expected in November. It had planned to sell the site to The Action Center by the end of October. The nonprofit hopes to transform the former school into a community resource center offering healthcare, food assistance and family services.

The proposed transfer is essentially a land swap: The Action Center would receive the Emory property in exchange for its current building near West Colfax, which would go to the city. That plan now remains on hold pending the outcome of legal proceedings.

"Something doesn't jive with me that the school district is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars by giving this property to the city, knowing the city intends to act as a pass-through to give it away to a nongovernmental organization," said former council member and civil rights attorney Anita Springsteen.

Springsteen filed the lawsuit that led to the delay, alleging that early discussions about the Emory transaction took place behind closed doors without proper public notice, in violation of Colorado's Open Meeting Laws.

"I think they owe the public information," Springsteen said. "It's very clear that from the start, the private executive sessions they were having behind closed doors were establishing policies and positions that should be done in an open forum. The public should have the opportunity to weigh in and express concerns."

In a statement responding to questions about the process, a city of Lakewood spokesperson said: "We want to assure the community that we have taken every step to make our work clear and publicly available, and we have worked to inform the community about this process in numerous ways."

The city added that real estate negotiations are commonly conducted confidentially to reach tentative terms, and once that occurred, all required public notices were issued.

A judge will weigh in on the legal concerns before any decisions about the Emory property going to the action center can move forward.

Jeffco Public Schools declined an interview and did not answer questions about how the $4 million sale price was determined or what the property's appraised value is. A district spokesperson said that information would be released ahead of the school board's meeting next month.

The Action Center initially agreed to meet with CBS Colorado for an interview at the Emory site, but canceled due to an urgent matter.