The Development of Lakewood Public Schools
1871-1929
Fifty-eight years ago the electors of Subdistricts Nos. 6, 8, and 10 of Rockport township, Ohio, received notifications that an election would be held on January 28, 1871, for the purpose of voting on the question of whether or not the three districts should be combined and organized into a separate school district. Those in favor of such separate school district were directed to vote “School,” those opposed should vote “No School.” The records show that twenty-seven ballots were cast, and on counting, all ballots were found to be for “School.” In 1871 there were in the district three one-room buildings, one called the East School, located on the present site of the Garfield school, one called the Middle School, located where the Board of Education now stands on Warren Road, and the third called the West School, on the site of the McKinley School. The school census of the district numbered 215.
It was on March 5, 1900, that the school district was first designated as Lakewood Hamlet Special School District. As late as 1909 there were but 68 teachers in the school system and the total school population numbered but 2,000. This number had grown to 5,582 in January, 1919. From these small beginnings has come Lakewood’s school system of today with a school population of 10,503.
Near the beginning of the present decade the Board of Education adopted a comprehensive school building program based upon the 6-3-3 type of organization. Sites for four junior high schools in the four quarters of the city were purchased and three modern, well-equipped junior high buildings have been erected housing the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. The fourth site will be utilized as soon as the school population in these grades necessitates another plant. The senior high school houses only the three upper grades.
The elementary school building program has kept pace with the growing community. Within the present decade three new elementary school sites have been purchased and commodious buildings erected, while annexes have been added to six other elementary buildings. Every child now enrolled has full-time school facilities furnished him in a modern, sanitary, fire-proof school building. No basement rooms or portable school buildings are in use. The fifteen school plants are surrounded by an aggregate of 65 acres of lawn areas and playfields.
The following statistical summary of the school system in February, 1929, indicates something of the change that has taken place since 1871:
| Buildings | No. of Class Rooms |
*Special Rooms | Grades | No. of Teachers |
Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High School | 29 | 46 | 10-12 | 82 | 1,935 |
| Emerson Junior | 17 | 15 | 7-9 | 33 | 712 |
| Harding Junior | 18 | 19 | 7-9 | 39 | 943 |
| Horace Mann Junior | 17 | 15 | 7-9 | 33 | 729 |
| Franklin | 12 | 5 | K. 1-6 | 13 | 390 |
| Garfield | 16 | 4 | K. 1-6 | 15 | 418 |
| Grant | 14 | 6 | K. 1-4 | 16 | 446 |
| Harrison | 25 | 11 | †K. 1-6 | 26 | 746 |
| Hayes | 22 | 7 | K. 1-6 | 22 | 686 |
| Lincoln | 29 | 8 | K. 1-6 | 26 | 747 |
| Madison | 18 | 6 | K. 1-6 | 20 | 559 |
| McKinley | 20 | 5 | K. 1-6 | 22 | 678 |
| Roosevelt | 24 | 7 | K. 1-6 | 25 | 843 |
| Taft | 12 | 6 | K. 1-6 | 13 | 395 |
| Wilson | 19 | 6 | †5-6 | 16 | 276 |
| Headquarters | -- | -- | -- | 10 | -- |
| ___ | ___ | ___ | ____ | ||
| 292 | 166 | 411 | 10,503 |
*Under special rooms are classed the following: Art Room, Auditorium, Cafeteria, Commercial Room, Geography Room, Gymnasium, Home Economics Room, Hospital, Library, Museum, Music Room, Play Room, P. T. A. Room, Science Room, Shop Room, Swimming Pool, Teachers’ Rest Room.
† Special and Industrial.
Keeping Pace With a Growing Community
1919-1929
In 1919 Lakewood was a city of approximately 40,000. In 1929 it ranks as the tenth city in Ohio with a population of approximately 70,000. The following bars represent this growth graphically:
____________
1919—40,000
_____________________
1929—70,000 75% increase
Taxable Wealth
The taxable wealth of Lakewood has grown faster than the population. In 1919 taxes were paid on approximately sixty-six million dollars worth of taxable value. In 1929 the taxable wealth exceeds one hundred and forty-eight million dollars. The graph shows the difference:
_____________
1919—$66,000,000.00
______________________________
1929—$148,000,000.00 125% increase
School Building Program
In 1919-1920 the Board of Education entered upon a school building program which contemplated giving to each child in the system a full-time seat in a sanitary, modern, fireproof, well-ventilated school building. This ideal has been accomplished and is reflected in the following graph illustrating the increase in the bonded indebtedness for school buildings:
__________________
1919—$1,800,000.00
_____________________________________________
1929—$4,500,000.00 150% increase
Salaries of Teachers
The growth of the community, and the success of the community in keeping pace with it, is reflected in the following graph illustrative of the payments for teachers’ salaries in 1919 and 1929:
__________
1919—$510,000.00
____________________
1929—$1,030,000.00 102% increase
Public School Enrollment
The above graph [ed. note: graph omitted in print version] includes all the children of school age, including those at work and those attending private and parochial schools. The following graph represents the public school enrollment in the years 1919 and 1929:
___________
1919—5,600
_____________________
1929—10,500 88% increase