A Lawrence school district committee will ask students and families for feedback on proposed changes to boundaries of all four middle schools during meetings this week.
Liberty Memorial Central Middle School is shifting to focus on STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math — in August. With that change, middle school students will have the option to attend LMCMS or one of the other three middle schools, to be determined based on new boundaries that are in the works.
The Boundary Advisory Committee earlier this month selected two proposed boundary revisions to bring to public input sessions, called Concept 1 and Concept 3.
Under Concept 1, students who live north of Sixth Street and west of Monterey Way and currently attend West Middle School would be moved to Southwest Middle School. The boundaries for LMCMS and Billy Mills would remain the same. According to enrollment projections from consulting firm RSP & Associates, around 100 students would move from West to Southwest under the Concept 1 boundaries.
Share your feedback
The Boundary Advisory Committee will hold two public input sessions:
• 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31 at Lawrence High School, 1901 Louisiana St.
• 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1 at Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive.
Ginna Wallace, a consultant with RSP, said the proposed Concept 1 boundary would balance enrollment in western Lawrence and make better use of Southwest.
Concept 3, the other map the committee chose to advance, would make several changes to the boundaries:
• Southwest’s boundary would expand east to Monterey Way and northwest to Peterson Road and Folks Road.
• Billy Mills’ boundary would expand northwest to 19th Street and Harper Street and move west to Crossgate Drive.
• West’s boundary would expand south to Second Street.
This model would move the main boundaries the most, meaning that more students would shift schools. Enrollment projections from RSP & Associates showed that the enrollment at each school would change, most of them by around 50 students.
Multiple committee members brought up other concerns related to the new boundaries such as busing and socioeconomic status but USD 497 Chief Operations Officer Larry Englebrick brought the discussion back to the boundaries and enrollment numbers, saying that other discussions were outside the purview of the committee.
The public input sessions are set for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31 at Lawrence High School, 1901 Louisiana St., and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1 at Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive.
Read more about the meeting and discussion in this article from Jan. 17. The presentation to the BAC from that meeting has since been uploaded to the district’s website and can be viewed at this link or below.
The committee will meet again on Feb. 7 before presenting its final recommendation to the school board on Feb. 26. The school board will make the final decision. BAC meetings are open to the public; more information can be found via the district’s website at this link.
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