Lakewood is k’h growing by leaps and bounds every single year with the arrival of more and more Yidden from outside moving to Lakewood each year. Thus, Lakewood needs more seats for school children every year. A side effect of this dynamic is that schools outside of Lakewood are shrinking as a result of young couples and families moving out to Lakewood.
People have a tendency to view, rightfully or otherwise, the more established and older schools as more successful than the newer ones. And a school moving into town from another town is viewed, where they moved, as a newer school to those unfamiliar with the school. It takes them some years to become established and better known locally.