On Thursday, Jeffco’s school board will approve the bargain sale of a closed school to the City of Lakewood — a sweetheart deal available only to cities and the county, at a below-market price.

How sweet? The district will unload a property worth up to $12 million for $4 million, then watch Lakewood flip the building to the homeless and family services nonprofit Action Center — while Jeffco stares down a $65 million structural deficit.

That deficit is exacerbated by the district raiding classroom budgets to cover capital costs. School consolidation estimates have already ballooned from $29 million to $50 million, yet they’ll accept a fraction of fair market value for its real estate.

Emory won’t be the last. In Jeffco, taxpayers and the community come last.

In January 2024, Jeffco quietly created a “Municipal Interest” carve-out giving cities and the county first dibs on closed schools — no competitive bidding, no community input. Everyone else gets cut out.

In April, Lakewood’s council authorized City Manager Kathy Hodgson to negotiate the $4 million purchase. Last week — before Jeffco even approved the sale — the council voted to resell Emory to Action Center for $1 million. They also voted to buy the nonprofit’s current buildings for an additional $4 million — almost double the county’s $2.1 million assessment — and temporarily lease them back to Action Center.

Those votes followed a lawsuit by attorney and former councilwoman Anita Springsteen, who argued the council violated open meetings law with an improperly noticed September 2024 closed-door executive session. Ex-councilman Richard Olver testified he didn’t even know the topic.

Last week, Judge Meegan A. Miloud lifted a preliminary injunction delaying the votes. She called the violation a “harmless error.”

“Either the error was made or not,” Springsteen told me on KOA radio. She was stunned that Miloud disclosed only after the trial that she’s a neighbor of Action Center CEO Pam Brier and they’re in the same book club. Springsteen will appeal.

Ahead of Thursday’s board vote, questions keep swirling about the deal’s cost. Jeffco denied my appraisal request, citing the deal isn’t closed. In April, Hodgson bragged the “appraised price was much, much higher” than $4 million.

But in court last week, Springsteen pressed Lakewood’s planning director on how the council settled on $4 million. “Did you give them an appraisal?” she recalled asking.  “He said, ‘No.’”

The purchase contract up for Thursday’s vote lists “N/A” for the appraisal deadline — indicating, a realtor said, there is no appraisal. Why bother? A higher fair market value only makes the math harder to spin.

Leave it to Lakewood to spin anyway. On Nov. 5, Mayor Wendi Strom touted “fair and forward-looking” terms, then offered creative math: $3 million for 7 acres of open space, $1 million for the 10-acre school — neatly matching The Action Center’s price.

The contract lists the whole thing at $4 million. It doesn’t break it up, and the assessor pegs Emory’s market value near $12 million — $860,000 for the land, roughly $11 million for the building. But Lakewood insists the $1 million is “for the building” because… they said so.

It’s funny money all around. City spokesperson Stacey Oulton told me Lakewood would fund the purchase with $3 million in federal grants plus the Action Center’s $1 million — then admitted there’s “now uncertainty” about using a grant.

Let’s be real: Lakewood and Jeffco Schools are playing games with taxpayer dollars — and pretending it’s totally aboveboard.

The district even empaneled a community Property Disposition Advisory Committee to give the public a say in selling district properties. They repeatedly promised “competitive proposals” and “community input.” It looks like that was all for show.

In March, COO Jeff Gatlin assured the board the district wanted “all types of options” when it comes to property disposition. Board members again emphasized “community feedback.” Yet Gatlin is also the one who pitched the municipal interest carve-out in January 2024 — the very process that shuts out competitors and community involvement.

“We were told that we’d be able to represent parents in the community on all offers that came in, and that we would actually be reviewing the offers to help determine what was the best fit,” committee member Carrie Mumma told me. “They basically cut the committee out. I think we’ve voted on only one school.”

Former board member Susan Miller calls it a “dereliction of duty.”

“They didn’t bring the committee that they said they were going to use to evaluate offers. I don’t think it’s good governance or solid oversight,” she said.

As Jeffco’s school board prepares to approve Emory’s sale at bargain pricing, one question looms: How many other properties are they doing this with?

Public records list only two schools in the municipal interest process — Emory and Parr Elementary in Arvada. But the district also appears to be moving ahead with Evergreen’s Bergen Meadow Elementary, located in unincorporated Jeffco. It was closed last year and permitted for sale as “surplus” in March. District staff indicated they were pursuing the municipal interest process with the county, which reportedly plans to tear it down for a senior housing project.

If Emory is any guide, taxpayers won’t see fair market value there, either. And with the disposition committee sidelined and competitive bidding blocked, don’t count on real transparency.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.