Families on Wednesday gave feedback on Liberty Memorial Central Middle School’s transition to a STEAM school and asked the district committee working on middle school boundaries to maintain students’ communities.
The first of two public input sessions hosted by the district’s Boundary Advisory Committee and consulting firm RSP & Associates was held Wednesday evening at Lawrence High School.
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 can choose to attend LMCMS or one of the other three middle schools, to be determined based on new boundaries that the BAC is currently creating.
Chief Operations Officer Larry Englebrick said Wednesday that he and his team have not collected data on the numbers or demographics of students interested in attending the STEAM school, nor have they started planning for that research. However, Englebrick said interest in the STEAM school will be evaluated down the line.
A main concern among families was ensuring students could stay in the school communities they’ve formed. One family mentioned they were still reeling from the Broken Arrow and Pinckney elementary school closures that went into effect this year.
Some parents said they lacked information about how the STEAM school would work in Lawrence and wanted more specifics. Teachers, staff and building administrators were also sprinkled in Wednesday’s attendance.
Englebrick said the committee will take verbal feedback and written notes collected during the session Wednesday, as well as future comments, into account moving forward.
Large maps were set up at five stations where RSP & Associates representatives and BAC members heard feedback and answered questions. The maps depicted current boundaries and options for altering those boundaries.
Earlier this month, the BAC selected two proposed boundary revisions to bring to public input sessions, previously called Concept 1 and 3 but now called Concept A and B.
Under Concept A, 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 A boundaries.
Ginna Wallace, a consultant with RSP, said the proposed Concept A boundary would balance enrollment in western Lawrence and make better use of Southwest.
Although enrollment is heavier at West and Southwest, there are currently no overcapacity issues at any of the schools, Wallace said Wednesday.
Concept B, 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.
That model would move the main boundaries the most, meaning that more students would shift schools and each of the four middle schools would be affected, as opposed to in Concept A. Enrollment projections from RSP showed that the enrollment at each school would change, most of them by around 50 students.
A second public input session is scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1 at Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive.
The public is also invited to respond to an online survey that’s open through Tuesday, Feb. 6. Fill out the survey on live.metroquestsurvey.com.
The BAC will hold its final meeting with RSP on Wednesday, Feb. 7 and then submit its recommendation to Superintendent Anthony Lewis. After Lewis approves, he will share the recommendation with Lawrence school board members for their tentative approval during their Monday, Feb. 26 meeting.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
