Honorable members of the Lake Oswego School Board, 

The Rosewood Neighborhood Association joins the Lake Grove Neighborhood in opposing the shut down of the Lake Grove Elementary School that anchors the Lake Grove Neighborhood. 

LOSD argues that it can save operational costs by consolidating schools and offers no explanation for why the planned development (including library) cannot share the recently enlarged Lake Grove space with the current elementary school. The real reason behind this move is to free up space for commercial and retail development. 

Even if school consolidation saves operational costs (and there are many reasons to doubt LOSD’s analysis), it does so at the expense of both the Lake Grove neighborhood and the greater Lake Oswego community. 

In effect, the district seeks to shift (externalize) costs from itself to the students, families, neighborhoods and communities it purports to serve. Breaking the vital relationship between the neighborhood and the local school and transporting kids across town to mega-schools imposes the following costs: 

• Loss of social infrastructure (school) that anchors the neighborhood and grounds its residents, especially kids 
• Loss of access to local school playground equipment and playing fields ● Loss of access to neighborhood meeting and social function school space ● Loss of parent/family proximity and familiarity with the school’s administration and teachers, which is essential to student academic outcomes 
• Loss of student ability to walk and bike to school (loss of outdoor time)
• Increased student time in vehicles 
• Loss of valuable student time as students have to leave home earlier and arrive home later when using buses (as opposed to walking and biking)
• Loss of community and connection between fellow students who walk and bike to school together 
• Risk of increased physical health impairments including obesity and related health problems due to increased time in vehicles, decreased outdoor walk/bike time and decreased access to local playgrounds and playing fields 
• Increased parent vehicle time and miles that burden already overwhelmed parents
• Increased bus vehicle time and miles that burdens students, neighborhoods and parents
• Increased greenhouse gas emissions from increased parent and bus vehicle time and miles
• Decreased pedestrian safety and environmental air quality from increased parent and vehicle time and miles
• Risk of impaired school performance and increased mental health problems due to loss of school-neighborhood relationship, decreased outdoor activity time and increased time spent in vehicles 
• Risk of students becoming lost in a larger structure with a greater population (depersonalization of the student), particularly young elementary-aged students
• Increased inequity as privileged students are more likely to be transported in private vehicles
• Increased inequity as privileged students are more likely to be able to attend after school extracurricular events because they are more likely to be able to get rides home after school extracurricular events 

In sum, our local small schools not only provide essential social infrastructure for the neighborhoods that surround them, they also provide mental and physical health and academic support for students and their families. The District claims to save money but instead shifts these public and environmental health costs to students, their families and our neighborhoods. 

We note that the School District, the City Council and the Mayor have become increasingly unresponsive to the needs of the Lake Oswego community. Instead of acting in the public interest to strengthen the City’s livability, they continue to make decisions that degrade Lake Oswego quality of life and march in lockstep with developers–the group that stands to gain most from shutting down the Lake Grove school. 

Sincerely, 

Rosewood Neighborhood Association 

Grant Howell, Chair 

Casie Schmitz, Vice-Chair 

Jennifer Davies, Secretary